We had previously written about the RICO suits filed by Wackenhut Corporation and Smithfield Foods against unions that resorted to tactics that hurt those companies’ bottom lines and injured the interests of their investors and employees.
It’s no wonder that UNITE HERE was ordered to pay $17-million by a court after it was found guilty of “fraud, malice, and oppression.” The award came as a result of a UNITE HERE noxious campaign against those in the medical field. Similarly, the Service Employees International Union got its comrades in arms to flood hospital emergency rooms in order to get hospitals to capitulate to union demands.
Such tactics are entirely egregious and dangerously damaging to the fabric of American society. It’s time for Corporate America to learn a lesson from Wackenhut and Smithfield Foods and fight back. If not, organized labor will be on a relentless march to achieving a string of destructive victories. And with a Democratic administration promising to pass the Employee Free Choice Act, Corporate America will be the big bull’s-eye in organized labor’s crosshairs. The time to act is now!
