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| Why is Pace University making it so hard for Chris Williams to get a union contract? |
This is a crosspost from The Bonddad Blog.
The U.S. House passed legislation last week that would level the playing field for employees trying to form a union—but judging by the reaction in the business community, you’d think the bill is the end of corporate freedom as we know it.
On March 1, the House voted 241–185 for the Employee Free Choice Act, which would establish stronger penalties for violation of employee rights when workers seek to form a union and during first-contract negotiations. It also would allow employees to form unions through a majority verification process, in which workers sign cards to indicate their support for a union.
In attacking the bill, Big Business has misleadingly insisted it would take away the secret ballot election process by which workers now form unions. But that argument is a red herring. First of all, Employee Free Choice Act doesn’t take away the secret ballot process. Workers will have a choice between the ballot process and majority verification.
Second, as currently run by the nation’s labor board, this management-controlled election process is anything but democratic. The long, drawn-out process gives management plenty of time to harass and intimidate workers—and let’s face it, how many people want to join a union if their employer threatens to fire them (which 25 percent of private-sector employers do, even though it is illegal)?
Former Labor Secretary Robert Reich puts it this way:
A secret ballot sounds democratic, but workplaces aren’t democracies because employers have the power to hire and fire. That’s where the potential for intimidation lies. And the only way around it is to go with a simple up-or-down vote.
There are many examples of how the so-called “election process” doesn’t work. Chris Williams, an adjunct physics professor at Pace University in New Jersey, shared his story with us at the AFL-CIO. In December 2003, Williams and a majority of his co-workers signed authorization cards saying they wanted to be represented by New York State United Teachers/AFT (NYSUT/AFT). Pace University’s administration then went to enormous lengths to block them from winning recognition and a contract. (A majority of workers can sign authorization cards now—but employers are not required to recognize the union. The Employee Free Choice Act would fix that.) Why would Williams, a well-educated professional, want to join a union? Says Williams:
I would starve to death if I had to rely on my wages from Pace. I’d be homeless. The average pay for an adjunct for a three-credit course is just $2,500 for a 15-week course.
While a tenured professor might earn $100,000 per year, an adjunct faculty member in the next classroom with the same qualifications would earn subsistence pay of only $15,000 for the equivalent of a full-time workload. (What was that again from the Bush administration about lack of education behind the nation’s low-wage economy? We’ll address that canard in a future post.)
The adjunct faculty then tried the election process route of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). First, the university tried to delay the election. Then, after the election was held in spring 2004 and the adjunct faculty voted overwhelmingly for the union, the university came up with a bizarre legal argument that hundreds of adjunct faculty members should be excluded from the bargaining unit. It actually refused to include them in negotiations with the union. The director of NLRB’s Region 2 found the disputed adjunct faculty members were part of the bargaining unit, and the five-member NLRB in Washington, D.C., rejected a request by the university to have the region’s decision overturned. But even now, Pace is appealing the decision to the federal appeals court. That postpones the adjunct faculty’s rights even longer. So a staggering two-and-a-half years of negotiations have passed and the adjunct faculty still has no contract.
That’s why Williams, who sees firsthand the flaws in the current system, supports the Employee Free Choice Act, which provides for mediation and then arbitration if managements and unions can’t work out a contract in 90 days.
So, given that most businesses are not interested in running their workplaces like a democracy (“How many people want a four-week vacation? Raise your hands”), we thinketh they doth protest too much that the bill would take away this nonexistent freedom.
Business interests also say workers would be “coerced” into joining a union through the majority verification process. That presumes most workers don’t want to join a union. That presumption is wrong. In fact, some 60 million U.S. workers say they would join a union if they could, based on research conducted by Peter D. Hart Research Associates in December 2006.
Commenting on the American Chronicle, Stephen Crockett, co-host of Democratic Talk Radio, points out how employer cries of intimidation are directed in the wrong direction.
The intimidation is almost entirely on the side of the companies. Companies are in a position of power over workers. Co-workers are simply not in a similar power situation. Only the company is really in the kind of power position to intimidate workers.
Most critically, the bill is about economic justice: Full-time workers in unions had median weekly earnings of $833 in 2006, compared with $642 for their nonunion counterparts, and are far more likely to have good health and retirement security. In March 2006, 80 percent of union workers in the private sector had jobs with employer-provided health insurance, compared with only 49 percent of nonunion workers. Union workers also are more likely to have retirement and short-term disability benefits.
And its here—in the dollars and cents—we find the real reason for employer opposition to the Employee Free Choice Act. The past two decades have seen an unprecedented growth in compensation only for top executives and a dramatic increase in the ratio between the compensation of executives and their employees. The average CEO made 411 times the salary of the average worker in 2005. That’s up from 42 times in 1980—a tenfold increase. Meanwhile, average worker’s pay increased to about $43,000 in 2004 from about $36,000 in 1980, an 0.8 percent a year increase—about 19 percent total increase—in inflation-adjusted terms. (And let’s not forget workers who make the minimum wage, which hasn’t been raised in 10 years.)
The average CEO of a Standard & Poor’s 500 company made $13.51 million in total compensation in 2005, according to an analysis by The Corporate Library. And that’s just the annual take. Seems like what CEOs really fear about the Employee Free Choice Act is that by granting their workers family-supporting wages and health care and retirement security, they might have to forgo that second yacht.
Again, Robert Reich:
America’s rising economic tide has been lifting executive yachts, but leaving most working people in leaky boats. Workers need more bargaining power. They should be allowed to form a union when a majority of them wants one. As simple as that.
6 Comments
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The “Free Choice Act” obviously doesn’t pass the “what’s best for the rich” test. We have to remember that all Cheney/Bush and Conservative Republican policies, while cleverly disguised, have been structured to benefit the very rich on the backs of the masses. Take the Walter Reed issue, sure it’s ok to use and exploit GI’s in battle, but don’t take care of them when they come home; most GI’s aren’t very rich, but Halliburton and other war contractors are. Look at healthcare, “Big Pharma” and the insurance companies are rolling in it, while drugs and hospital costs have gone through the roof. What about their energy policy; record oil profits, record prices at the pump to us consumers. Free trade; corporate advantages while depressing labor salaries and benefits. Then there’s immigration and Katrina; both policies reflect blatant disregard for and use of the poor. No child left behind is just a slogan, when the facts are this administration’s education policies have made it more difficult for most to get a college degree.
Over the next two years we’ll have to see if the Democrats are also subservient to the very rich. If they legislate for American Families and working people, they’ll be in power for the next 30 years. If not, they’ll be out in 2008!
Albert Colone
Oneonta, NY 13820
607/432-4057
On 1-31-55 I became a Fire Fighter in Lansing Michigan. Lansing is the Capitol of Michigan. At that time Fire Fighters , Police Officers & Garbage collectors were all paid the SAME AMOUNT OF MONEY. Fire Fighters were working a 63 hour per week work shift. Police Officers were working a 40 hour work week. Garbqge collectors were working, to the best of my knowledge a 40 hour work week. Fire Fighters & Police Officers as everyone knows work NIGHTS, HOLIDAYS, SUNDAYS and are always on call. Garbage collectors did NOT WORK NIGHTS, HOLIDAYS, SUNDAYS, AND WERE NOT ALWAYS ON CALL.,,,,,,,,,The Fire Fighters & Police Officers put their heads together to get more $$$$$$$$$$and better working conditions. Then the city retatilated in more than one way. The city changed the time of the day that we were to go to work. ,,,Every fireman in every station had to line up for inspection at shift change,,,,,,,,Just visualize for a moment a single company station with THREE men on each shift,,,,a TOTAL OF SIX MEN, TWO of which were officers,,,,,,,one Officer from each shift ,,,,,standing in a line to see if we were approprately dressed in our uniforms. What a laugh. One of the city councilmen even suggested a time study be done on the FireFighters,,,,,,another laugh,,,this did not happen. The city fathers told our Fire chief that every FireFighter WOULD have to submit a letter to the Fire Chief to request permission to work on our DAY OFF,,,,,,,”MOONLIGHTING” The majority of Fire Fighters submitted letters,,,,,,,less than TEN WERE APPROVED. Myself being a hardnose never wrote a letter. The flag that i hung on the flag pole at many different Fire stations was the American flag,,,,,,not the COMMUNIST FLAG or some other flag. Our UNION lOCAL 421 went on strike at one time, because of our many fights with the city fathers. The strike lasted less than a day if i remember correctly,,,,,,the Governor ordered us back to work. I retired at age 51 after 25+ years as a Fire Fighter. If there had been NO UNION,,,,,i have no idea at what age i might have retired. The present administration controlling the government,,,,the Bush bunch would like to see the country revert back to the GOOD OLD DAYS,,,,,,,,,NO UNIONS. Thank God for UNIONS,,,,,,,,THEY MADE AMERICA……Al Mellen
Employees ….quote…. majority verification process, in which workers sign cards to indicate their support for a union….unquote, is a non secret way for the union to determine who wants to join and who does not. Thus the non-union people can be retaliated against . . . . and you know it. This kind of crap is why labor unions no longer have the appeal they once had.
Sawyer2008
Knowitall doesn’t seem to KnowAnything! We have been trying to organize at my workplace for over a year…this time around. The last time we tried, we had an NLRB “secret ballot election” after going through the process already set up. At the start, there was an overwhelming support for a Union but, after the intimidation and coercion by the company, we couldn’t get the Union in. I was one of those employees who was intimidated and changed my vote at the last minute (young and stupid then). Now, this time around, I have seen how the company reacts when threatened with a Union! I have first-hand experience what a company will do (and are doing) to keep the workplace union-free. Friends have been fired, families destroyed, co-workers pitted against one another, etc. The words “Union” and “American” are synonymous. America was built on the concept…Under God! Why does it feel like all the ideals that our country stands for are slowly being erased? So, if a majority sign cards, let’s have BOTH sides talk to the people. The “Ayes” have it! The “Nays” can decide later if they were right or wrong. If it turns out that the “Nays” were right all along, we start the process again…isn’t this democracy?
Perhaps Knowitalldoes not know the organizing laws today. The Union is the one who collects the cards and keeps them until filed with the National Labor Relations Board. That would not change. I would hope Knowitall hasn’t had any experience with what he claims. It would be ill advised for a Union to try and intimidate anyone who wasn’t a Union supporter for 2 reasons. One is that the same laws that apply to the employer apply to Unions when it comes to coersion. The second is if you win the election, all voters, both for and against become members.
I have been working Union for more than 34 years and couldn’t imagine working any other way.
Great article. I reposted it on the Democratic Talk Radio Blog.
My column Employee Free Choice Act and Republican Disinformation discusses in detail the reasons that the bill needs to be passed. It documents the unfair and often illegal tactics used by companies to blog unionization drives.
The power to intimidate workers is entirely on the side of the companies. The claims that pro-union co-workers are doing so is frankly silly and dishonest!