Miners at the Peabody Energy Corporation want to join a union without going through the NLRB and without holding representation elections at individual mines. The United Mine Workers of America apparently has no faith in the NLRB. Only 35% of the Peabody’s workforce is unionized, yet 85% of Peabody’s production is from non-union mines. Obviously, miners feel they can be more productive without a union in place, which must frustrate organizers. In a recent vote, in fact, miners at Peabody rejected union representation.
The AFL-CIO is supporting the tactics of the UMWA because it believes that by excluding the NLRB from the process, it will succeed in finally unionizing all the miners at Peabody.
Corporate America needs to be alert to tactics that undermine the National Labor Relations Act as those tactics are being used by ever more desperate unions who find themselves out of the mainstream.
