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Workers’ Struggle at Blue Diamond Shows Need for Employee Free Choice |
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Last year, workers sought a union at Blue Diamond, a nut processing company, hoping to redress unfair pay, unsafe conditions and mistreatment of sorters and packers. But in large part due to a vicious anti-union campaign by management, the workers lost their election and could not form a union.
A judge ruled an election under such circumstances is valid—and acknowledged that Blue Diamond took part in a broad array of unfair conduct against workers.
The fact that Blue Diamond’s wrongdoing went unpunished, denying workers a fair choice, is a sign that our labor laws are broken, says Kimberly Freeman, acting executive director of American Rights at Work, and is evidence America’s workers need the Employee Free Choice Act to prevent the unfair conduct by corporations that is all too common today.
In a letter to the Sacramento Bee, Freeman says the case shows the effects of unfair labor laws that allow corporations to intimidate employees seeking a voice on the job:
It’s no surprise that in the face of aggressive anti-union tactics, Blue Diamond’s employees lost in a system that was tilted to favor management from the beginning.
The National Labor Relations Board admits the company engaged in “objectionable conduct,” such as promising to resolve complaints if they voted against the union and not allowing union supporters free speech on its property. Moreover, Blue Diamond officials threatened to cut workers’ benefits, close the plant, and multiple employees were even fired simply because they supported the union.
Craig Merrilees of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), the union that Blue Diamond workers sought to join, agrees that the fact that Blue Diamond got away with abusive tactics against its workers is a sign the nation’s labor law needs reform:
The system is broken—employers are free to threaten, intimidate and blackmail workers who want to join a union.
The Employee Free Choice Act, Freeman says, will enable workers, not management, to decide whether they want a union:
The Employee Free Choice Act can help ensure corporations can’t get away with unfair elections and retaliating against workers. It will allow workers to choose an alternative method to form unions that will bypass the hurdles that so many face. Additionally, it will increase penalties so companies that break the law won’t get a mere slap on the wrist.
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Yesterday the Senate Finance Committee killed the public option plan. Now I see where the NLRB acknowledges wrong doing by the employer, yet does nothing to bring relief and justice to the workers!
Hell, dogs and cats have more rights than we do! Don’t get me wrong, I love animals and they should not be abused or neglected. But who in the hell is protecting the rights of human beings in the United States of America? Surely not our government or court system!
Right on Brother.
Amen!
When are the people getting fed up with these underhanded tactics of the anti-union crowd?
My father was a union carpenter. We had been discussing the assault of the ronnie raygun government on unions. He told me, before he died, it will get a lot worse before it gets better. Well, I believe that the time is close at hand. Jobs are being shipped out of country for profit. Multi-national US companies pay no tax yet expect corporate welfare. They live for exploitation of workers for the profit.
I may not live long enough to see it, but this younger generation better wake up or they will be living in poverty and dead-end poor wage jobs. Even college will be an expense too great for their children.
WAKE UP, PEOPLE.