As Labor Day approaches, many Americans are breathing a sigh of relief for the extra day off. On a day that celebrates unions and the eight-hour work day, plenty of people are feeling like their hard work isn’t exactly paying off the way it used to.

Many European companies that publicly embrace workers' rights under global labor standards nevertheless undermine workers' rights in their US operations, Human Rights Watch said in a report issued today.

Sept. 1, 2010

Contact:

Office of Public Affairs

202-273-1991

publicinfo@nlrb.gov

www.nlrb.gov

The National Labor Relations Board has ruled that a union violated its duty of fair representation in requiring nonmember dues objectors to restate their position every year, despite their express desire to have the objection continue from year to year.

Under federal labor law, unions and employers may enter into agreements requiring employees represented by a union to pay dues or fees as a condition of employment.  A 1988 Supreme Court ruling in Communications Workers of America v. Beck, held that unions may charge members and nonmembers fees relating to the union’s collective bargaining  and contract administration activities but cannot require nonmembers to pay fees unrelated to collective bargaining (i.e., fees related to the union’s political and other non-representational activities).  Nonmembers have the right to object to paying any portion of dues that is not used for collective bargaining purposes.  Unions must provide notice of this option, and calculate the share of dues money used for collective bargaining purposes.

In this case, an employee of Florida-based L-3 Communications Vertex Aerospace LLC, who was represented by the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, had objected to paying full dues. In 2003, he informed the union in writing that he wished his objection to continue indefinitely. The union responded that all dues objections had to be restated annually. When the employee failed to do so, he was charged the full monthly dues for 2004.

The question before the Board was whether the union’s requirement was a breach of the union’s duty of fair representation:  whether it was “arbitrary, discriminatory, or in bad faith.”  Chairman Wilma Liebman and Members Craig Becker, found that the annual renewal requirement was “arbitrary” but not discriminatory or in bad faith. In their separate opinion, Members Schaumber and Hayes agreed that the rule was arbitrary but they would also find it discriminatory.  They also disagreed that the duty of fair representation standard was the proper test.  In a dissent, Member Mark Pearce found that the union had presented reasonable justifications for its requirement.

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent federal agency vested with the power to safeguard employees’ rights to organize and to determine whether to have unions as their bargaining representative. The agency also acts to prevent and remedy unfair labor practices committed by private sector employers and unions.

###

The Steelworkers’ drive for decent wages, working conditions and back pay for 18,000 exploited workers in Los Angeles-area car washes — a drive that produced a federal ruling precisely a year ago — yielded a big victory in court on Aug. 13: The two owners of the most-notorious car wash were sentenced to a year in jail, four years’ probation, ordered to open their records to government probes and will pay tens of thousands of dollars for environmental and safety violations.

You have to be rich to be poor.

That's what some people who have never lived below the poverty line don't understand.

Put it another way: The poorer you are, the more things cost. More in money, time, hassle, exhaustion, menace. This is a fact of life that reality television and magazines don't often explain.

So we'll explain it here. Consider this a primer on the economics of poverty.

APWU members vowed to escalate the fight against the Postal Service’s plan to eliminate Saturday mail delivery on the fourth day of the union’s 20th Biennial National Convention, unanimously approving a resolution to engage in “rallies, marches, and pickets” in concert with other unions and public interest organizations.  The declaration also denounced the “forced relocation” of postal workers and other USPS attacks on employees.

By order of the Fuhrer you have been selected to work overtime

Although they work for a company that popularized the slogan “Have a Coke and a smile,” Coca-Cola workers are doing more frowning than ever these days.