Workers Fight for Their Freedom to Form Unions in Nationwide Week of Actions

by James Parks, Jul 10, 2006

Nurses, construction workers, miners and thousands of other workers nationwide are taking part in a week of actions beginning July 10 to demand the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) do its job and protect workers’ freedom to join a union.

Today in Seattle, one of more than 19 cities where major actions will take place, union members and their allies will join with nurses for a rally at the Virginia Mason Medical Center to protest an attempt by management to silence registered nurses’ voices, preventing them from speaking up for quality patient care. Thursday, AFL-CIO Executive Vice President Linda Chavez-Thompson will join with Washington, D.C.-area union members and community and religious leaders July 13 to rally at NLRB headquarters.

The NLRB is set to rule on a set of cases that could take away bargaining rights from hundreds of thousands of employees by altering the definition of “supervisor” to include skilled and experienced workers who give instructions to other workers. Unlike other employees, supervisors are not allowed to join unions, and employers often try to classify workers as supervisors to deny them the right to union representation and collective bargaining.

By broadening the legal definition of “supervisor,” these cases, collectively known as “Kentucky River,” could significantly take away contract protections for workers represented by unions and deny even more their right to organize, reversing decades of worker protections.

Says AFL-CIO Organizing Director Stewart Acuff:

At a time when America isn’t working the way it should for working people, the implications of losing union protections run deep for them. If workers lose their protections as “employees” under federal law, they may be fired or otherwise disciplined for union activity. They’ll lose the freedom to choose to join or remain a member of a union. And they will lose their ability to have a voice on the job.

More than 55 percent of South Jersey Healthcare’s 800 nurses, whose employer recently shot an anti-union video to try to persuade nurses at three facilities to reject membership with AFT Healthcare, have signed a petition to hold an election July 26 to decide their representation with AFT Healthcare.

Jeanne Oterson, AFT’s public policy director, says the workers are being asked to view the film during work time:

If you’re for the union and you want to have a meeting and a discussion on your own time, then that’s fine. These are forced meetings. They take nurses away from their patients during work time. These are hard-earned monies of our patients that are being used to convince nurses not to make up their own minds.

In fact, 92 percent of private-sector employers, when faced with employees who want to join together in a union, force employees to attend closed-door meetings to hear anti-union propaganda. Some workers are fired for trying to form unions, which is against the law.

Under the upcoming NLRB ruling, nurses, building trades workers, newspaper and television employees, port workers and many others could be prohibited from forming unions. Even foremen on construction jobs who work with a team of workers could lose their union rights under a broad definition of “supervisor.” That means thousands of painters, welders, sheet metal workers, plumbers, electricians and others could lose their right to be in a union.

The NLRB, which is supposed to protect workers’ freedom to join unions, has refused to hear oral arguments on the cases—and has heard no oral arguments since the Bush administration took office. In fact, the NLRB denied union requests to hear oral arguments in these cases.

You can act now and contact your members of Congress to tell Bush’s labor board to reverse its decision and allow oral arguments in the “Kentucky River” cases.

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