Friday, January 09, 2004

Ever Wonder It's So Hard To Organize?

Union activist Randy McSorely does us the service of reminding people why it's so hard to organize unions these days.
  • 25 percent of employers fire at least one worker for union activity during organizing campaigns. Fire one or two, the others will most likely quiet down.

  • 75 percent of employers hire consultants or union-busters to help them fight union organizing drives. Then they dare say that the union is an “outside influence.”

  • 78 percent of employers force employees to attend one-on-one meetings with their own supervisors against the union.

  • 92 percent of employers force employees to attend mandatory closed-door meetings against the union. None — 0 percent — are forced to attend pro-union meetings.

  • 52 percent of employers threaten to call the Immigration and Naturalization Service during organizing drives that include undocumented employees.

    Interesting that during times of no organizing, almost no employer calls Immigration.

  • 51 percent of all companies that threaten to close the plant if the union wins the election.

  • 1 percent of all companies actually close their plants after a successful union election. Meaning that the other 99 percent are liars.

  • 32 percent is the percent of elections in which workers vote to have a union, but still have no contract two years after the election. These companies need to learn the meaning of the words “good faith.”

  • 74 percent of the public says laws protecting the freedom to join unions are important. That’s a huge majority, considering the fact that it doesn’t even take 50 percent to get elected president.

  • Here’s an important number: 42 million nonunion workers say they want to join a union.
Hopefully, the democracy we're graciously bringing to Iraq will make it all the way to the shop floor. But I wouldn't put money on it.