UAW wins in gaming

In what is reported as the first successful union organization of dealers on the Las Vegas strip, the UAW scored a lopsided victory (233 to 70) organizing the dealers at the Flamingo Las Vegas/Margaritaville casinos.

UAW agenda

Will Canton Mississippi's Nissan plant be the next target in the UAW's drive to organize foreign automakers' plants in the U.S? This USA Today article suggests it will.

Bad Boss Monday

Working America, which is an affiliate of the AFL-CIO, recently sponsored a bad boss contest. Some of the winners are described here. Its enough to make you appreciate your own superior's eccentricities, well, maybe not. Its not surprising that a labor affiliate would sponsor this contest. The number one reason employees seek out union representation - mistreatment by their boss. Not wages, not benefits, not even oppressive working conditions drive employees to a union as much as bad treatment by the boss.

New union election procedures

The NLRB has issued its proposed changes to representation procedures that will dramatically affect the representation election process by shortening the time between petition and election, by creating administrative traps to prevent employers effectively to investigate issues before they are precluded and by creating union access to employees for communication. For example, the Excelsior list requirement is expanded to include known e-mail addresses of employees, and the information must be provided to the labor organization within 2 days of a direction or stipulation for an election. This together with the new persuader rules for attorneys and consultants finally provides substance to the claim the NLRB is changing the game to help unions organize. There is so much here to digest you can expect much disinformation and a lot of teeth gnashing. We will provide an objective analysis soon.

Shaw v SEIU

Randy Shaw takes on the SEIU and its strategy of non-workplace organizing.

Web 2.0 campaigning

The IBEW is publicizing its use of a blogger.com blog to communicate among workers interested in the unionization effort at an Anheuser–Busch InBev Metal Container Corporation facility that manufactures beer cans. The blog appears to have overcome two crucial issues. First, employees had accessibility to information and the ability to discuss and ask questions 24/7. Second, because the blog participation was anonymous, employees were less susceptible to pressure. This makes a lot of sense, and employers need to respond with a lot more than a static downward communication web site.

Union organizing in D.C.

Here is a pretty interesting long post about union organizing in the construction industry in and around Washington D.C.