Stephen, J. Cabot blog

In Florida, the Wal-Mart Workers Association (WWA) has decided to take on all aspects of a formal union, yet they have not obtained NLRB permission to be a union. The group, with a minority of Wal-Mart employees, is leading petition drives, demanding the restoration of lost hours, protesting the firing of workers, and making other demands that are typical of the actions of an aggressive union.

The WWA has only 300 current and former Wal-Mart employees from just over 40 stores. It has received seed money from other unions.

This organization could cause severe damage to Wal-Mart, disrupting operations and damaging its reputation.

If Wal-Mart does not institute a creative and pro-active labor relations action plan, it will find itself mired in terrible labor conflicts. The WWA, which if permitted to grow, is a movement that could infect the health of many corporations, and it must be dealt with effectively and decisively, now!

There was a time when teaching was thought of as a dedicated and noble calling, where one devoted oneself to the education of others. On the college level, if one spent years teaching, earning the appropriate graduate degrees, and publishing noteworthy articles in prestigious academic journals, then one was awarded tenure, which is a life time appointment. Other than colleges, universities, the New York Transit System, and, of course, the U.S. Supreme Court, there are few organizations that will grant lifetime employment, along with all the valuable benefits that accrue to the tenured.

Now the labor movement, unable to protect automobile workers, who are being rapidly terminated, has decided to organize college instructors and professors of all grades. In fact, the United Automobile Workers unable to get a passing grade from the Big 3 in Detroit, has decided that college faculties are easy pickings. In New York City, for example, the union has been organizing the faculty of The New School University, which is now curtailing its non-credit continuing education offerings. The faculty of New York University has been successfully organized, and George Washington University is in the high caliber sights of union organizers.

The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has, in most instances, found no fault with the college and university organizing campaigns, so that some colleges and universities are now appealing NLRB decisions to courts of appeal.

Unionization of faculties, both full and part-time, will lead to negotiations about class sizes, scheduling of classes, and the number of classes that one can teach. And if faculties are unhappy with the positions taken by college administrators, then the faculties will go on strike and higher education in the US will sink to a new low.

Workers at Starbucks have lodged a claim with the National Labor Relations Board that management has indulged in union busting. The workers are represented by The Industrial Workers of the World which has filed a series of complaints. Among the charges are that the company has spied on workers, paid bribes, and unlawfully discharged two union members.

If a company is going to remain union free, it must have an action plan in place that does not give an aggressive union, like the IWW, the opportunity to bring potentially damaging claims to the NLRB.

The term, “union busting,” is right out of the 1930s. It is an inaccurate description of the successful plans that govern how Corporate America deals with union negotiations in today’s competitive environment.

The Maryland House of Delegates and Senate voted to force Wal-Mart to spend 8% of its payroll on employee health care. In fact, any Maryland company that employees 10,000 or more workers will have to follow the same prescription or pay into a state low-income health insurance fund.

This could be the beginning of a state-by-state epidemic that could force afflicted companies to lower wages, to hire temporary workers, to subcontract labor forces, and ultimately to drive up the cost of doing business. None of this is good for management, labor, and consumers. It’s no wonder that Wal-Mart’s stock dropped nearly 2% on the news!

Now Wal-Mart is considering whether to scrap plans to build a large distribution center on Maryland’s eastern shore. If the company were to go ahead with such a plan, it would provide nearly 1,000 new jobs.

If the companies of Corporate America do not learn from the Maryland experience and so intelligently negotiate with unions, they may find themselves bearing the burden of onerous legislation in states with predominantly Democratic legislatures.

I have negotiated on behalf of many large corporations, and I have found common ground where management and labor can come together and where (as I wrote in my book) Everybody Wins! It’s time for Corporate America to become pro-active.

Governor Mitch Daniels of Indiana has eliminated the right to collective bargaining for his state workers, including state troopers. They will no longer be able e to bargain for wages, benefits, and working conditions.

Since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the federal government has also eliminated typical union rights for many federal workers. And the recent Transit Workers strike in New York City has further convinced political leaders that the country can ill afford having essential services put on hold by militant unions. This all began with President Reagan’s firing of the air traffic controls who went on strike more than twenty years ago.

With the country at war and under the threat of terrorist attacks, it can ill afford the disruption of essential services caused by powerful unions that will not put the public’s interest above their own.

Governor Daniels has taken the correct action, and I believe that other governors, particularly in states that voted Republican, will take similar action.

Life is full of paradoxes: Employees of the National Labor Relations Board in Buffalo, New York are upset that they will not have privacy locks installed on their new office doors.

The employees are represented by The National Labor Relations Board Union, Local 3, which had sought privacy locks for employees’ office doors in the Board’s new building. Office doors in an older building contained privacy locks.

The union claims that the locks increase productivity by not permitting untoward interruptions of employees’ work. In addition, the locks help to prevent thefts. And because Buffalo has some of the most severe winters in the US, the employees may want to change out of burdensomely heavy winter clothing into lighter office wear. The locks, according to their union, provide the necessary privacy for those who choose to undress and dress, undress and dress.

In such circumstances, cabanas, rather than locks, might be more appropriate.

The new building provides office space for other governmental agencies and so has extensive security. As a result, the NLRB claims the locks unnecessary.

I agree with The Board that employees do not have an inherent right to privacy in offices. They are, after all, working for their employers who have a right to learn how employees are spending their time. In addition, if the Board were to install locks, it could be a precedent for installing locks in all Board offices throughout the US, which would cost many hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The Federal Service Impasses Panel has agreed with me that the employees will not have locks on their doors, and they further stated that the NLRB provides sufficient security so that the locks are, indeed, unnecessary.

The UPS pilots want to be released from federal mediation, but the National Mediation Board will not clear them for take-off. The pilots’ union had threatened a strike within 30 days, if they the NMB had granted their request.

The Federal Railway Labor Act prohibits pilots from striking, if they are involved in federal mediation. The federal mediator has now called for an indefinite recess and, as a result, the union said that it sees itself edging closer to a strike.

The union’s argument is that, unlike commercial passenger carriers, UPS is highly profitable and so should increase the wages of its pilots. While UPS said it plans to increase the wages of its nearly 2,500 pilots, the company has other issues that need to be settled.

In my more than 30 years of my experience as a labor relations attorney, I have frequently heard the argument that the company is “highly profitable,” therefore it can pay workers higher wages, increase medical benefits, and add generously to pensions. It is not so simple. Management works with complicated formulas to determine how every dime of a company is spent and invested. It also must anticipate how it will remain competitive, especially when, as in the case of UPS, competitive airlines are using non-union pilots. UPS has been extremely generous to its employees, and unions cannot always put out their hands, demanding more. Sometimes more is not only more than enough, it’s excessive