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There could be two very
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There could be two very
Submitted by DakotaLegal on
There could be two very different ways to answer your question, based on whether or not you wanted to unionize or if you want to go along with the unionization. Of the two possibilities, I’m going to spend most of the time here on what to do if you’re against unionization. But first, what if you support the union and want to help make sure it gets off on the best foot? Because there may be more hostility after an election, the National Labor Relations Board should be told about violations of specific union rights, and conduct, of anyone involved…union or non-union workers, the new Union, or the employer. To see a list of the legal (and illegal) actions that can get the NLRB involved: https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-obligations.
You’re Union…now what? Not all union shops have an affiliation with a major union. This can have the result of leading people to wonder, “We’re union…now what do we do?” The first two sets of actions have to do with organizing leadership (through elections) and planning for financial stability (through disclosing costs and development of financial accounting procedures). Both of these steps are laid out by a special section of the US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). A brochure describing these two steps is available online: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/localelec/localelec.htm.
For anyone who wants to keep unfair criticism of Union practices to a minimum, it’s essential to know and follow the disclosure and operating rules of The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) and the National Labor Relations Board’s role. Here’s a place to obtain compliance information for following LMRDA: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-lmrda.htm.
After becoming a union, it’s also become common for an employer or unwilling employees to challenge the validity of the union. Here is a case where an employer had five arguments against a daycare center, which had voted to go union. The employer’s complaints included unfair usage of "racism," bias, misrepresentation of facts, illegal use of non-employees in the workplace, and failing to have filed all required NLRB forms. The employer lost on every count and the union withstood the challenges. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1311912.html.
The State Of The Union. Just because a workplace has “gone union” doesn’t mean everyone is going to want to participate in the union. As noted, the two big areas of common concern to those who may oppose a union involve finances and leadership. Employees have also argued recently that they can withhold paying union dues for political activity “with which they disagree.” http://unionrefund.org/about.asp.
Sometimes, a vote to go union may be challenged, in a process to try and decertify the Union. Here’s a case from California, with important things to learn about how many people must ask for decertification, and the differences between public and private companies. In this case, the Union tried to raise the per cent of decertification required on a petition to 50%. The employer successfully won an argument to keep the decertification petition rate to 30% to force a decertification vote…http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1464628.html. So it is important, as to what state the union has been formed in (and the state’s union laws), and what kind of employees are covered.
Other Issues. States that have built their economics on “right to work” rules allow unionization, but also make it easier (a) for an employee not to be forced to join the union and (b) are more likely to allow easier decertification of a union. A study by the University of Utah indicates there’s a slight lowering of Union membership (maybe 5%) in these Right to Work States. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=econ_facpubs This 5% can be an important factor in structuring and successfully operating a union.
Whether “pro or con” about going Union, either side can benefit by knowing the most common ways a Union vote fails. The following report describes how most unions (excepting the SEIU) had lost membership in the last three decades. http://www.thompson.com/images/thompson/reports/hr052007_union.pdf. In 2011, however, once a union effort got to a vote (supervised by the NLRB), there’s generally a 60% approval vote.
There could be two very different ways to answer your question, based on whether or not you wanted to unionize or if you want to go along with the unionization. Of the two possibilities, I’m going to spend most of the time here on what to do if you’re against unionization. But first, what if you support the union and want to help make sure it gets off on the best foot? Because there may be more hostility after an election, the National Labor Relations Board should be told about violations of specific union rights, and conduct, of anyone involved…union or non-union workers, the new Union, or the employer. To see a list of the legal (and illegal) actions that can get the NLRB involved: https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rights-obligations.
You’re Union…now what? Not all union shops have an affiliation with a major union. This can have the result of leading people to wonder, “We’re union…now what do we do?” The first two sets of actions have to do with organizing leadership (through elections) and planning for financial stability (through disclosing costs and development of financial accounting procedures). Both of these steps are laid out by a special section of the US Department of Labor, Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS). A brochure describing these two steps is available online: http://www.dol.gov/olms/regs/compliance/localelec/localelec.htm.
For anyone who wants to keep unfair criticism of Union practices to a minimum, it’s essential to know and follow the disclosure and operating rules of The Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) and the National Labor Relations Board’s role. Here’s a place to obtain compliance information for following LMRDA: http://www.dol.gov/compliance/laws/comp-lmrda.htm.
After becoming a union, it’s also become common for an employer or unwilling employees to challenge the validity of the union. Here is a case where an employer had five arguments against a daycare center, which had voted to go union. The employer’s complaints included unfair usage of "racism," bias, misrepresentation of facts, illegal use of non-employees in the workplace, and failing to have filed all required NLRB forms. The employer lost on every count and the union withstood the challenges. http://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-dc-circuit/1311912.html.
The State Of The Union. Just because a workplace has “gone union” doesn’t mean everyone is going to want to participate in the union. As noted, the two big areas of common concern to those who may oppose a union involve finances and leadership. Employees have also argued recently that they can withhold paying union dues for political activity “with which they disagree.” http://unionrefund.org/about.asp.
Sometimes, a vote to go union may be challenged, in a process to try and decertify the Union. Here’s a case from California, with important things to learn about how many people must ask for decertification, and the differences between public and private companies. In this case, the Union tried to raise the per cent of decertification required on a petition to 50%. The employer successfully won an argument to keep the decertification petition rate to 30% to force a decertification vote…http://caselaw.findlaw.com/ca-court-of-appeal/1464628.html. So it is important, as to what state the union has been formed in (and the state’s union laws), and what kind of employees are covered.
Other Issues. States that have built their economics on “right to work” rules allow unionization, but also make it easier (a) for an employee not to be forced to join the union and (b) are more likely to allow easier decertification of a union. A study by the University of Utah indicates there’s a slight lowering of Union membership (maybe 5%) in these Right to Work States. http://digitalcommons.usu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1000&context=econ_facpubs This 5% can be an important factor in structuring and successfully operating a union.
Whether “pro or con” about going Union, either side can benefit by knowing the most common ways a Union vote fails. The following report describes how most unions (excepting the SEIU) had lost membership in the last three decades. http://www.thompson.com/images/thompson/reports/hr052007_union.pdf. In 2011, however, once a union effort got to a vote (supervised by the NLRB), there’s generally a 60% approval vote.