We hear it again and again, big corporations like Walmart paying lobbyists a fortune and running campaigns about union thuggery on behalf of their fat corporate clients in an effort to defeat Employee Free Choice (EFCA). Because they care so very much about their workers.
If they’re worried about thuggery, maybe they ought to be looking in the mirror:
Compared to the 1990s, employers are more than twice as likely to use 10 or more tactics in their anti-union campaigns, with a greater focus on more coercive and punitive tactics designed to intensely monitor and punish union activity.
It has become standard practice for workers to be subjected by corporations to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation for supporting a union. An analysis of the 1999-2003 data on NLRB election campaigns finds that:
- 63%of employers interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union;
- 54% of employers threaten workers in such meetings;
- 57% of employers threaten to close the worksite;
- 47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits; and
- 34% of employers fire workers.
These private-sector campaigns differ markedly from public-sector campaigns. Survey data from the public sector describe an atmosphere in which workers organize relatively free from the kind of coercion, intimidation, and retaliation that so dominates in the private sector. Most of the states in the public-sector sample have laws allowing workers to choose a union through the majority sign-up process.
The heat is going to be on Arkansas, where Blanche Lincoln, who is up for re-election in 2010, is under intense pressure from Walmart not to vote for cloture. Good thing the Apline Group has former Lincoln staffer Charles Barnett and her 1992 campaign manager Greg Means lobbying against EFCA on behalf of Home Depot.
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dont shop at Walmart,havent for years
* 63%of employers interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union;
* 54% of employers threaten workers in such meetings;
* 57% of employers threaten to close the worksite;
* 47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits; and
* 34% of employers fire workers.
****************************
and this is not against the law?,where is Ghandi,to stage a sit in,when ya need him?
Years ago, I got fired from the UT Law School while attempting to organize clerical workers. Molly Ivins wrote a column about it, and I got to meet her, so there’s some consolation I guess. ;)
from wiki
Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi Hi-Mohandas_Karamchand_Gandhi_pronunciation.ogg listen (help·info) (Gujarati: મોહનદાસ કરમચંદ ગાંધી, IPA: [moɦən̪d̪äs kəɾəmtʂən̪d̪ ɡän̪d̪ʱi]) (2 October 1869 – 30 January 1948) was the pre-eminent political and spiritual leader of India and the Indian independence movement. He was the pioneer of satyagraha—resistance to tyranny through mass civil disobedience, firmly founded upon ahimsa or total non-violence—
The United State of WalMart again.
No one could have imagined…
good on ya!
we need massive nonviolent civil disobedience,im afraid
has anyone ever done the math on paying lobbyists vs. paying employees?
Mitt Romney’s Bain Capital owns Home Depot, they are not doing well in this economy.
I think we tell Wallmart that nobody who works full time can qualify for ANY kind government aid with a family of 4.
That would force Wallmart and not the tax payer to provide for their
workers. Sure it won’t pass into law but its a good talking point one the Tea Baggers would like.
I like thinking like they do and framing arguments to divide my enemies:)
What kind of “representative” government is this, when elected officials repeatedly legislate against the interests of those who vote them into office? How is that system sustainable?
blog whore tangentially on topic
http://oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/5367
A INS raid at all the Wallmarts running Social Security numbers would be good. Only instead of jailing the immigrants jail the bosses because they knew.
Plus I want the Tea Baggers to explain to their people why the bosses should go free.
Also INS should bill the Bosses for the money to send the workers and all their stuff plus a months pay (as punishment for the bosses ) home.
Is it implausible that Blanche will have a primary challenge?
Is it disloyal to the Democratic party to consider supporting a Green?
What annoys me the most is how complicit and compliant the traditional media is in pushing these attacks. I mean the whole “EFCA will kill the secret ballot” meme has been almost universally adopted by them. These days it doesn’t seem to matter how discredited you are or how ridiculous your arguments are or how indefensible your position is, the most important thing seems to be how conservative you are.
Even UT, huh? Texas is the most retrograde place on Earth. Disclaimer, I live in Austin, have on and off since 1964. If you ever need to some amusement read the Texas Republican Platform, it appears unchanged since about 1904.
Back to Blanche, she doesn’t need much urging, she can be counted upon to do the wrong thing. Just another Republican filling a Democrat’s seat.
Why do we listen to Home Depot/Mitt Romney he is not making money he’s selling his mansions.
Why do we listen to Wallmart they can only make money by paying slave wages is that the kind of economy and jobs we want.
Lets give Costco Wallmart and let them run Wallmarts stores!
Higher pay and benefits are the kind of jobs America needs we do not need Wallmart.
Adam Green has a good video of Scrapple over on Open Left. It’s all about the business benjamins. Big surprise.
Molly wrote at the time:
How is it sustainable? Easy! both parties have elements in their base that will vote for them no matter what, though the (R)’s sometimes cater to this element with actual policies the (D)’s have found that empty rhetoric usually suffices.
meanwhile, both parties hoover up cash bribes, er, donations from corporate interests who have no compunction whatsoever about witholding further support if they don’t get their way.
This should be no surprise to anyone. After all, they are (mostly) all Republicans, who are always doing this. Just watch them shriek about something: it is always something THEY do. I think it is called PROJECTION.
The Nancy Pelosi deal is a great example. Just look what they say about her. They did it, not her. It sure makes it easier to investigate, eh?
I found the article, Molly was in fine form! That is really a sad tale, too.
Money
Chamber of Commerce v. Unions. They take their pick of who to bed and wed.
Marcy is upstairs!
The CIA Won’t Give Abu Zubaydah His Own Diaries
You are right about that. Based on the poor press coverage, most people think the important part about the card check is that it is not secret, when the really important thing is that it avoids the mandatory brainwashing/terror campaign leading up to an election. A mail in card check would be much better than a mail in election, because it would eliminate the forced reeducation camps leading up to an election, and at the same time cut the heart out of the #1 GOP attack against employee free choice.
Intimidation coming from either side is good reason to reject the EFCA. Why throw away the federal oversight of the certification process? Seems like you’re all too pleased to grant a monopoly to the unions to engage in “thuggery” and have no one there to call them out for it.
Read.The.EFCA. For Pete’s sake, read it and then come back and try this argument.
Read it before you step in it again.
I am so sick of “cloture.” I don’t even know what that means, it’s a weasel word designed to get Senators out of their responsibilities.
MAKE THEM ACTUALLY DIAPER UP AND FILIBUSTER FOR GOD’S SAKE.
Spencer Ackerman, upstairs!
A New CIA Log Of Torture Communications
Anyone whose favorite politicians are Bobby Jindal, Ken Blackwell and Eric Cantor can’t be expected to be too terribly smart….
Republicans are guilty of “Psychological Projection” on just about every issue. Faux outrage means were the ones who are really guilty of this.
I belonged to a JayCees organization in a bedroom community some years ago. One of the guys who joined a few years later was from upstate New York and worked for a company in Boston. I don’t recall what his company did, but his job title and his actual responsibilities were two different things. He conducted surveillance on his co-workers, and I remember him telling me that in addition to monitoring workplace computers they had the place all miked up so that he could listen in on virtually any conversation between workers. Still what struck me most was his outraged attitude towards organized labor. He was dropping f-bombs and would go all red in the face as he went on and on about the need to detect and root out these fucking bastards. i talked to him at the local coffee shop about four times, and it was the same shit each time. So I had to go find a different coffee shop.
These anti-labor assholes are obsessive and they are paranoid and they reflect the attitude of the vast majority of corporate managers and stockholders in America. There is no honest balance between labor and management at present, and that;s the way managers would like it to remain. The Employee Free Choice Act is not a panacea, but it would restore some balance to a process that has been repeatedly bent out of shape to meet the desires of management and stockholders at the expense of labor.
Seconded.