There is no such thing as "collective bargaining" in most of the private sector...

[kentuck]

At last report, about 6% of employees in the private sector were unionized. They have been decimated by corporate threats and corporate thugs. The Republicans are lying hypocrites when they talk about public sector doing the same as the private sector. And they know it...

An employee that even hints at organizing a union will be summarily dismissed in right-to-work states and documentation will be inventively "created" everywhere else. It is almost impossible to "collecticely bargain" in most jobs left in this country.

Workers are intimidated and scared to even whisper the word. Many are one paycheck from the street and they have families to feed and bills to meet. This is the reality. Collective bargaining is only a fantasy to most American workers.

[Skip_In_Boulder]

1. Yep, the strength of the unions went out a long time ago. n/t

[LARED]

2. As someone that has worked in the private sector and supports unions

your hyberbole is noted.

Many people do not want to be a member of a union of their own free will. I have run union and non-union departments in right to work states and NEVER has anyone been dismissed or was there created documentation used to fire or intimidate them. (This does not mean it has not happened, but that it is not systematic or common)

[kentuck]

3. Isn't it true?

That in some right-to-work states, employees can be fired without cause.

[LARED]

6. Not to my knowledge.

Are you referring to "Employment at Will"?

[kentuck]

8. No. I'm talking about "fired at will".

and the 6% and shrinking speaks for itself.

[LARED]

9. I'm not sure there is much of a distinction between

Fired At Will, or Employed At Will.

[kentuck]

10. I'm sure people can see the distinction.

Between fired at will and employed at will.

[LARED]

12. I guess I'm not one of those people. . Oh well nt

[Brickbat]

16. Right to work =/= at-will employment.

At-will employment means you can be fired for any non-protected reason. Right to work means you don't have to join a union as part of employment with a certain employer.

[Atypical Liberal]

18. There's always a cause

Any employer can drum up a cause.

You using a company computer to post on DU? Ding! There's your cause. Reading private email on a company computer? Ding! There's your cause.

[Brickbat]

15. What industry do you work in?

I know several people who have been fired for trying to organize, and who got their jobs back after it was proven that's what they were fired for. I also know of many more people who had very secret meetings about organizing, knowing that management would bring its wrath down upon them.

[LooseWilly]

4. The cab company I worked for was granted union status by NLRB... appealed by bosses...

the case was, last I knew, still waiting on a decision by the US Supreme Court of whether or not it would be heard.

The union won District 9 court judgement, NLRB, NLRB appeal... CA Supreme Court judgement.... (Friendly Cab Co. of Oakland... FYI)... but was still being held up and rendered moot by an appeal to the US Supreme Court by the owners.

In the meantime... there was no collective bargaining. There were no sanctions for failure to even hear the union. There was... no union.

In the face of rising gas prices... rising cab-lease fees, and declining business in the wake of the imploding economy... there was only the option for drivers of working more hours for the same pay, or finding another job.

I left to find another job, despite being the secretary-treasurer of the union. I knew I could find another... and every fare I didn't drive meant a fare for someone else.

Besides... with the company knowing my name... whenever I went into the yard to pick up a cab, some part was always "mysteriously" missing... the dispatch radio was gone, the gps receiver for the dispatch computer was gone... whatever... even when I came in to watch while something was replaced, by the next day something else was gone.

Maybe it was just a coincidence. Maybe it was just a coincidence that another driver who was an outspoken union advocate, after leaving our company, suddenly found that the only other major company in the city (monopoly laws be damned) suddenly had no cabs to lease.

Workers need to have the courage to fight.

Ironically... I would argue that a few months practicing shoplifting for food can be very liberating...if totally illegal.

Once you can sleep on the streets and shoplift for food... there's nothing the bosses can do to you...

Just saying...

[CrispyQ]

13. "Once you can sleep on the streets and shoplift for food... there's nothing the bosses can do to you

Will the owner class stop their gorge before they take everything? Are they aware of the power the working class will have when we have nothing? Their greed/binge haze blinds them to reality. They'll get what they deserve, but they'll take everyone else down first.

Bastards.

[w8liftinglady]

5. as always, I simply offer Texas as the sign of things to come.

Even union members in Texas can not collectively bargain.

and we lead the nation in uninsured and minimum-wage employees

And... we are PROUD,I tell ya.

[kentuck]

7. And in Colorado..

state law requires 75% of employees must vote for the union before it can be formed, which makes it very, very difficult.

[CrispyQ]

14. There was a dispute with the grocery workers union a few years ago.

I asked a young clerk at King Soopers how the negotiations were going. "Oh, I would never join a union," she said with complete disgust. I gave her my pro-union speech - you have benefits, sick pay, vacation, overtime, safe working conditions, & on & on, thanks to unions. She gave me her 'you're just an old fart' look.

She still works there & looks more miserable than before. But hey, she would never join a union.

[Robb]

17. Yup. The remarkable side story to that...

...is that for smaller companies, it's easy enough to fend off that 75% by "promoting" enough people into "management" roles to get it close enough to survive a "should we drop the union" vote.

My old electric co-op did just that. Pissed me off to no end.

[old mark]

11. K&R- Before Reagan 36% of US workers were in unions. After W, 7%

and falling.

Our Democratic politicians should be supporting-more access to union membership.


mark