Last year, union membership grew to 15.7 million members, a one year increase of 311,000. Those who were organized were primarily employees in construction and health care. Not since 1983 has the labor movement enjoyed such a resurgence of new members.
Union membership, across the country, now stands at 12.1 percent. While that is not near the figure of 20.1 percent recorded in 1983, it portends a new trend that threatens the growth of Corporate America. It is particularly ominous at this time when the economy needs every injection of economic good news as possible.
Union membership is growing because unions have launched vigorous and aggressive organizing campaigns and Corporate America has been slow to deal with the threat. The time for proactive, pro-management strategies is now.
There are some strikes that could only take place in Alice’s Wonderland. That nearly happened in Great Britain. There, thousands of prison guards, members of the Prison Officers Association (POA), voted to strike. Government official, Jack Straw MP, wisely told the guards that such a strike would be illegal.
Rather than understanding the absurdity of their position, the guards accused Mr. Straw of betraying them!
If they had gone on strike, would the guards have unlocked the cells of prisoners so that they could freely mingle amongst themselves, sticking shivs into their enemies and having a food fights in the cafeteria?
Last August, a 12-hour strike took place, and at one prison for teenagers, there was an orgy of wanton destruction the cost hundreds of thousands of pounds, according to Mr. Straw.
We have seen some ridiculous strikes in the U.S., but nothing quite rivals the one proposed by British prison guards. It sounds like a great idea for a movie comedy, but would cause only destructive chaos in real life.
The Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia has ruled that companies cannot refuse to negotiate with unions that are founded and/or composed largely of illegal immigrants.
This goes against the intent of the 1986 Immigration Reform and Control Act that specified that any company that knowingly employed undocumented workers would be committing an illegal act. The law further states that any company that discovers it has hired illegal immigrants must fire those workers.
It is illogical then that one must deal with a union comprising illegal immigrants who have been fired from their jobs precisely because they are illegal immigrants. If workers are in the United State illegally and have been fired form their jobs, it is absurd that they should be able to negotiate as representatives of a union!
This is another example of the courts making laws that fly in the face of logic and which will have a negative effect on countless companies throughout the country.
While casino dealers at Foxwoods Resort Casino in Connecticut voted to be represented by the United Auto Workers, housekeepers at the Soaring Eagle Casino & Resort in Michigan, which is owned by the Saginaw Chippewa tribe, voted overwhelmingly against being organized by the Teamsters Union.
While organized labor has looked upon Indian casinos as fertile ground for growing the rolls of unions, the employees at Soaring Eagle believe that they can work cooperatively with their employers to find mutually beneficial solutions to their labor relations issues.
After a year of trying to organize workers at Soaring Eagle, the Teamsters did not get the message that going on the warpath against management was not an effective tactic. Organizers had pulled the wrong arrows from their quivers.
While the union failed to convert Soaring Eagle employees into union members, organized labor still has its big guns aimed at the entire tribal gaming industry, which has nearly 700,000 employees and revenues of nearly $26-billion. Native Americans may be outnumbered, but their independence may prove to be an insurmountable obstacle for union organizers.