http://axisoflogic.com/artman/publish/Article_55953.shtmlBy News Bulletin
UE Union News
Saturday, Jun 6, 2009
A new five-year study released last week reveals that private sector employer opposition to the efforts of American workers to form unions has intensified and become more punitive in recent years.
Conducted by highly-regarded labor expert and Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner, the study concludes that employers are using much more aggressive tactics – including threats of firing, actual firings, interrogation and plant- closing threats – in their campaigns to thwart workers’ organizing efforts. The anti-union tactics used today, compared to those of 20 years ago, include more coercive and punitive tactics designed to intensely monitor and punish union activity.
A 2007 study by Richard B. Freeman of Harvard University, cited by Bronfenbrenner, found that if all workers who wanted a union were given the opportunity to have union representation, the percentage of union-represented workers in the U.S. would be 58 percent. Instead, only 12.4 percent are represented by unions. Bronfenbrenner’s study illuminates the reasons why, including the heavy-handed employer anti-unionism and the failures of current labor law, and a largely toothless National Labor Relations Board, to protect workers’ rights to democratically choose unionism.
STUDY AVAILABLE ONLINE
No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing, is published by the American Rights at Work Education Fund and the Economic Policy Institute, and available for free download online. Bronfenbrenner’s 26-page report provides one of the most compelling arguments for Congress to immediately pass the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) and begin the process of restoring workers’ rights in the U.S. Besides the full report, you can read and download a two-page summary and a press release describing the study here.
The report also compares employer behavior data during the study’s time period (1999-2003) to previous studies conducted by Bronfenbrenner’s research teams over the last 20 years.
THUGGISH ATTITUDES COMMON
According to Bronfenbrenner, it is standard practice – in union organizing campaigns – for workers to be subjected by corporations to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance, and retaliation for union activity. From the 1999-2003 data, the study found the prevalence of the following actions by employers:
* 63 percent interrogate workers in one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union.
* 54 percent threaten workers in such meetings.
* 57 percent threaten to close the worksite.
* 47 percent threaten to cut wages and benefits.
* 34 percent fire workers.
FULL story at link.
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