'Union avoidance is an industry in the United States'

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/322-06062007-1358444.html

'Union avoidance is an industry in the United States'

By LEW DOPSON

In 1935, through passage of the National Labor Relations Act, Congress declared the policy of the United States was to encourage the practice of collective bargaining and full freedom of worker self-organization. The right to self-organization in order to bargain collectively over wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment is, in too many instances, circumvented by employers who consistently use a wide array of illegal tactics to suppress the right to self-organization.

According to the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of Labor Statistics, the share of U.S. wage and salary workers who were members of a labor union fell to 12 percent in 2006, down from 12.5 percent in 2005. Except for 2005, when the proportion of workers who belonged to unions remained steady, the decline in 2006 continued a trend that has spanned more than 20 years. In 1983, the first year for which comparable data is available, union membership was at 20.1 percent. Yet a recent study found nearly 60 million workers say they would vote for a union if they had the opportunity. In a poll released January 24 by Peter D. Hart Research Associates, 53 percent of nonunion, nonmanagerial workers said they would vote for union representation if given the opportunity. Moreover, data suggests that workers who belong to unions earn 30 percent more than nonunion workers, are 62 percent more likely to have employer provided health care coverage and four times more likely to have pensions.

Given this union wage/benefit advantage and demonstrated interest in unionization, what then accounts for the tremendous gap between the 12 percent of workers who have a union and the 53 percent of unrepresented workers who, if given the opportunity, want a union? A significant percentage of this gap in union membership reflects efforts by employers to squelch workers' free speech rights, practice various forms of economic coercion, and use ineffective labor law to indefinitely delay recognition through drawn-out appeals. Recent studies found that workers in NLRB elections are twice as likely (46 percent vs. 23 percent) as those in majority sign-up campaigns to report that management coerced them to oppose organization efforts. According to University of Oregon political scientist Gordon Lafer, the presence of secret ballots can't overcome the corrupt nature of NLRB elections.

FULL article at link.