Employees share rises

The average cost of family health insurance coverage rose 3% to $13,770 in 2010, while at the same time the employee's share of the cost of employer sponsored healthcare plans jumped 14% ($482).

Tax cuts for business

President Obama has signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act which, among other things, will allow all businesses to write-off 50 percent of the cost of depreciable property purchased and placed in service anytime during 2010.

FMLA claim costly for employer

MSNBC focuses on the plight of a retail store manager who claims she was coerced into returning to work too soon after surgery. Using this anecdotal incident the author claims the economy is creating widespread fear of job loss in those who are entitled to take sick leave. However there is little additional information supporting the premise. After being fired the manager successfully sued winning an eye-popping $8.1 Million jury verdict for FMLA violations.

Avondale closing

Labor joins effort to save Avondale jobs.

Yikes!

According to a recent survey, more than half of unemployed workers receiving a job offer received one involving at least a 25% reduction from their former compensation.

More GM jobs created

Only the political crazies still complain about saving our domestic auto companies being a bad idea. GM is creating jobs again, and that is indisputably a good thing.

75 years of labor law

Here is an overview of labor law for the last 75 years (pro-labor).

Tenth Circuit ADEA pro-employee opinion

Jones v. Oklahoma City Public Schools, a Tenth Circuit opinion, is an important read for practitioners handling ADEA claims. The plaintiff had been employed since 1969 and had risen in the system to an executive position. In 20007 a new superintendent eliminated the position plaintiff held, but renamed it and filled it with a younger worker. More after the jump

Non-majority unions

Here is a pretty good review (pro-labor) of the case for permitting minority unionization which would circumvent any need to prove a union's majority status.

Dana Corp misrepresented

My students and readers of this blog know my support for Dana Corp's approach to ensure that employees' right to select union representation by a majority vote is protected against abuse when a union seeks to establish majority support by card check which would support voluntary recognition of the union by an employer. This poster gets the import of the case correct. However, the representation that undoing Dana Corp is a novel way to impose EFCA-esque card check recognition is at best erroneous, and perhaps pure political posturing, as is other political comentary in the post. Undoing Dana Corp would return the law of voluntary recognition to its decades long, stable procedures which existed before the Bush majority NLRB decided Dana Corp in 2007. We do not see this as positive change because it diminishes a protection for workers (much as we believe card check recognition in EFCA would do), but it is not a radical departure form pre-2007 Board law. More background on Dana Corp's effect here.

More decertification votes

Redskins, Colts and Philadelphia unanimously vote to authorize decertification of the NFLPA. And for more background on NFL labor issues click here.

Union song contest posted

The AFL-CIO blog has posted 45 songs in the union song contest. Enjoy.

More teams vote to decertify

The Cowboys and Eagles are reported to have joined the Saints in unanimously voting to decertify the National Football League Players Association (NFLPA).

12 Million new jobs?

OK, its Andy Stern, but at least he's thinking big about jobs. The job sharing idea is real intriguing, it appears to have worked in Germany earlier this year, and it has support from the left and the right.

Dana Corp and EFCA

The 2007 NLRB decision in Dana Corp. probably irritated labor as much as any decision of the Bush Board. Essentially it gave employees an opportunity to contest the validity of a showing of a union's majority status by card check. Before a card check campaign could result in certification of a union, employees must be notified and provided a 45 day window to rally against card check and present evidence sufficient for the NLRB to conduct a secret ballot election. In reality this approach created a rationale safety valve to prevent coercive card check tactics. We have argued before unions should have embraced this model and should have adopted it as their reform proposal. It would have liberated the labor reform movement from the valid accusation it was attempting to eliminate secret ballot elections. Under Dana, the unions have seen few card check majorities successfully challenged. Thus, unions could have likely attained a new election process model which would have allowed majority status to be established by card check, subject only to employees havinv=g a brief window in which to challenge the validity of the card check majority. This article does a pretty good job of reviewing the issues. Unfortunately it looks like the new NLRB will revert to the old law under which a union can obtain voluntary recognition from an employer based upon card check alone. Frankly, this incentivizes collusion between an employer and a labor organization to accept a card majority which may not reflect the informed choice of a majority of the employees at any given time. There were a lot of questionable decisions by the Bush Board overturning years of Board precedent, but Dana Corp was not one of them. It properly protected the employees interest in having their collective will more likely determined in a fair manner.

NFL lockout 2011

More on the issues between the NFL and the NFLPA, and the possible 2011 lockout. Former Saint Rickey Jackson makes a poignant assessment.

President: Chance of passing EFCA "not real high."

The Hill notes that President Obama conceded yesterday that the chances of passing EFCA are "not real high" although the legislation retains the administration's support. But passing a law is not the only path to change. The President also noted that many of the changes to the rules of union organizing sought by labor could be enacted administratively without need for congressional action.

Mott's strike ends

After 114 days the strike by workers against Mott's will end next week as workers return to work on day 120. The latest proposal does not contain wage cuts, but there are no wage increases during the three years of the contract. Pensions are retained for current workers, but new hires may not participate in the pension plan, although new hires will receive  higher 401(k) contributions. The returning employees will also receive a $1,000 signing bonus.

NFL labor issues

The NFLPA is passing out cards to players setting the stage to request a vote on decertifying the union as the collective bargaining representative of the players. Rumor has it the Saints have unanimously voted for decertification. It is most unusual for a labor organization to seek to destroy its right to bargain for a group of employees it represents. But in this case NFLPA seems to think decertification is a defense against a potential lockout by owners when the current collective bargaining agreement expires in March. More after the jump.

Debating a dead horse

More EFCA debate here.

Oopsie

Sometimes employers can make critical mistakes that create serious problems on their own. It appears this supermarket employer has done so. In collective bargaining, an employer creates a huge, unnecessary problem for itself when it claims it cannot afford to meet a union's economic demands. When the employer does rely upon economic justifications to reject union economic demands, the union is entitled to examine the employers books and other financial data in order to bargain effectively. When the company refuses to provide the financials, the NLRB will issue a complaint, and in the linked article, it appears the NLRB has sought immediate federal court injunctive relief. Had the employer rejected the union's demands, and maintained that the demands were not in the best interests of the company (as opposed to claiming it could not afford the economic demands), it would not have exposed its financial data to union scrutiny.

More on Mott's strike

The AFL-CIO has more on the Mott's strike. The blog article itself doesn't add much, but check out the links. Again its nice to have the issues surrounding the strike reported across the opinion spectrum. It helps to place the strike in context and allows an economic analysis of the issues.

Reducing unemployment

The Director of Economic Policy at the American Enterprise Institute, Kevin Hassett, says reducing the minimum wage to $5.85 an hour (about a 25% decrease) and concession bargaining by unions would have a major impact on unemployment. Of course this would not address the actual causes of the Great Recession, only impose its effects even more harshly upon employees. If thats not enough, the Economic Policy Institute says corporate profits are 5.7% higher than in the 4th quarter of 2007, while the number of jobs is 5.9% lower. This L.A. Times opinion piece excoriates Hassett's idea too.

Safety is concern one

The National Opinion Research Center at the University of Chicago has released a new metadata study concluding that workplace safety is the most important workplace issue for 85% of workers. The press release is here. The full study is available here.

Wealth redistribution

This Washington Post op-ed writer suggests unions are necessary for fairer distribution of wealth.

Scabby the Rat

This popular picket line rat, Scabby, is some expensive. And its made by non-union labor.

Ash v. Tyson

Anyone who thinks proving employment discrimination is easy has not read a lot of appellate opinions from the federal fourth circuit. In Ash v. Tyson Foods, after a jury verdict for plaintiffs, the Fourth Circuit affirmed the trial court's grant of a motion for judgement as a matter of law. Seems the court did not think that the term "boy" directed by a white supervisor to a black subordinate evidenced racial animus. A unanimous Supreme Court rejected the Fourth Circuit's rationale and remanded. In a lengthy, but unpublished opinion, the Fourth Circuit has rejected a second jury verdict in favor of plaintiffs. Essentially the court again found that the evidence proffered by plaintiffs was insufficient to support a jury verdict, despite 2 juries concluding otherwise. According to this newspaper report, the first jury was predominantly white and the second jury had only one black juror.

The Company strikes back

It may be only a press release, but it was picked up as news and it conveys a powerful rebuttal to the union's posturing in the Mott's strike (as well as to Secretary of Labor Solis who suggested the parties need to come back to the bargaining table).

Jobs report a little BTE

The August unemployment situation (9.6%) is little changed from the previous month (9.5%), but the expectations game was for the figures to be worse. The Bureau of Labor Statistics released its August unemployment report today. It shows a net loss of 54,000 jobs, the loss resulting from the discontinuation of 114,000 temporary census jobs which offset stronger than expected private sector increases (67,000).

Obama NLRB agenda

Here is a short read on what the Obama NLRB could do. While rethinking the Bush NLRB decisions is likely, using its inherent rule making authority probably is not.

Ruh roh, pensions hurting

Its not just union pension funds that are in trouble. The problem is systemic and more related to the global recession than corruption or mis-management.

Pot and kettle, both black

When a company outsources work to non-union employees in a third world country, conservatives blame high labor costs caused by unions. Few tears are shed over the job loss. When a union outsources picketing about union sub-standard wages, those same conservatives scream "hypocrisy" if the union hires the non-union, minimum wage/no benefits paid picketers. Seems there may be enough hypocrisy to cover both sides on this one.

Teh unions are good

The Nation's Katrina vaden Heuvel states the case for beleaguered unions and their positive role in today's workplace as well as her view that unions have been on the correct side of many big issues of national import.

Reconsideration of voluntary recognition and Dana Corp.

The NLRB has invited amicus briefs in cases involving voluntary recognition and a request to reconsider Dana Corp.