MOVING ON...

Yours truly, The Union-Free Employer's Blogger-in-Chief is moving on to new environs. Effective June 1, 2008, labor attorney Seth Borden has joined law firm Kilpatrick Stockton of efcaupdates and Workplace Horizons blog fame.

As a result, after eighteen incredible months, The Union-Free Employer is taking its final bow. To keep updated on all the latest developments in traditional labor law, union organizing, management rights, the Employee Free Choice Act, organized labor's 2008 electoral agenda, and other labor and employment law issues, please subscribe to efcaupdates and/or Workplace Horizons, where the spirit of this blog -- and the fingers of its blogger -- will live on.

EMPLOYEES VOTE AGAINST SECOND UNION AT FOXWOODS; TRIBAL SOVEREIGNTY STILL AT ISSUE

The union organizing efforts continue apace at Foxwoods Casino, operated by the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe. The latest round went to the employer, however. Last Thursday, 215 engineering department employees voted against union representation by the International Union of Operating Engineers, while 67 voted in favor.

Late last year, the United Auto Workers won an election regarding the Foxwoods table dealers. As regular readers of this blog might remember, the Tribe has maintained the position throughout that tribal sovereignty exempts it from the National Lbor Relations Act's coverage.

Today, at the Connecticut Employment Law Blog, blogger Daniel A. Schwartz, Esq. raises the issue of tribal sovereignty and highlights a piece by Tom Meiklejohn, Esq. -- the attorney representing the U.A.W. in connection with the Foxwoods organizing. As Mr. Schwartz notes:

Meiklejohn argues that it is a fairly settled issue in Connecticut and the Second Circuit that the NLRB has jurisdiction over tribal casinos. I've indicated in prior arguments a bit of Foxwoods' response to this as well.

Of course, since Foxwoods has planned to appeal the election results to the Second Circuit and beyond, if necessary, we'll soon see how "settled" this law really is.

MAY DAY PORT STRIKE AND A NEW DEFINITION OF "SOLIDARITY"

On May 1, the International Longshore and Warehouse Union violated its contract with the Pacific Maritime Association by staging a brief work-stoppage. The prohibited job action was purportedly in protest of the war in Iraq, but comes -- coincidentally? -- while the parties are attempting to negotiate a successor agreement to the expiring collective-bargaining agreement. One must wonder whether management should take the ILWU's negotiations terribly seriously, since the union showed how it feels about the sanctity of its current agreement, as interpreted by a third-party neutral arbitrator.

In a recent Counterpunch piece, writer David Macaray gushes over the ILWU's admittedly ineffectual work stoppage. Mr. Macaray provides us with yet another gem for consideration the next time card-check proponents explain that employees need no protection from union intimidation and harassment; that only management harasses employees regarding unions:

Nobody crosses an ILWU picket line, not unless he wants to pick his teeth up off the floor or find his car on fire. Admittedly, some will call this “intimidation”; the Longshoremen prefer to think of it as “solidarity.” And, unlike other unions, when there’s a strike or a lockout, you don’t see management bringing in replacement workers. That doesn’t happen on the docks. The PMA simply won’t take on that kind of trouble.

Got it? When the boss explains to a worker that he doesn't believe union representation is in his best interest, that's "intimidation." When the longshoreman kicks the worker in the mouth and torches his car, that's "solidarity" at work. Now that the semantics are clear, perhaps we can advance the debate....

U.A.W. STRIKERS UNCLEAR OF REASON FOR STRIKE

From today's Detroit News:

"None of us know why we're here," said striking GM worker Michael Schrubbe, as he walked a picket line in Delta Township, where workers have been off the job since April 17 at the factory that builds GM's popular crossovers.

The automaker avoided two walkouts on Friday, at a Grand Rapids stamping plant and a Kansas City, Kan., factory that builds the hot-selling Chevrolet Malibu. A stamping plant in Mansfield, Ohio, is threatening to strike today, and negotiations have continued through a strike deadline that passed April 18 at a Warren transmission factory. But two lines at the Warren plant that build 6-speed transmissions will go down today because of the strike in Delta Township.

GM believes the UAW threats, all against factories that either make critical models for the automaker or supply the parts to build them, are a tactic being used to draw the company into the strike against American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings Inc., according to several sources familiar with negotiations. Labor law prohibits the union from striking because of a dispute elsewhere; many think the union is using local negotiations to apply indirect pressure.

Hat tip: EmployerReport.com

S.E.I.U. AND CALIFORNIA NURSES KEEPING THEIR LAWYERS BUSY

The battles between the S.E.I.U. and the California Nurses Association rage on -- thankfully now in court, as opposed to the actual riot which broke out last month. The Center for Union Facts links to a recent New York Times piece on the latest legal developments, and includes a PDF link to the various papers filed by both sides.

U.S. HOUSE "GENUFLECTING" TO UNIONS

Senator Bob Corker (R-TN) recently spoke with a group of bloggers regarding the recent House leadership decision to prevent a vote on the U.S.-Colombia Free Trade Agreement. NAM's ShopFloor.org has portions of Senator Corker's remarks, including this excerpt:

Let me just say bottom line, I’ve never seen anything that’s just so brazenly a genuflect, if you will, by House leadership to unions. Card check, to me, it’s hard for me to believe that people really believe in this country that card check is a good thing, where basically union leaders go out and one on one should pick people off to bring a union into existence in companies. I’ve experienced first hand some of those types of tactics. Years ago, as a young man, I was a card-carrying union member. And again, it’s hard for me to see…it’s hard for me understand the tremendous tilt that this leadership has toward the unions. But this Colombia free trade agreement is absolutely inflicting pain on the very people that are being represented.

Today, per the Andean free trade preference agreement, Colombia can ship goods into our country tariff-free, for the most part. Very few things have tariffs on them. This agreement would allow us, our employees, our companies, our workers here in America to ship goods to Colombia tariff-free.

This is solely, solely bowing to union pressure. To me it’s an embarrassment to our country. This president [Uribe] has been our friend; Colombia as a country has been our friend in a part of the world where we need friends, where we need people who care about democracy, who care about freedom, who care about commerce, who want to be stable contributors, if you will, to the world. He has done that, and here we are, holding him hostage, holding their country hostage, holding our workers in this country hostage to the fact that the AFL-CIO and other unions are trying to lever this to some other end. I really mean it. I have never seen anything so blatant, so blatant of nothing, if you will, of kowtowing to union officials in our country.

NAM has more, including an MP3 of the conference, here.

WSJ ON PRESIDENT OBAMA'S LURCH LEFT ON LABOR

In today's Wall Street Journal, Pete duPont speculates about an Obama White House with a broader congressional majority. In his estimation, the result is "a broad-reaching, socialist-leaning, greatly expanded American government."

Specifically on the state of labor law under those circumstances:

Then will come dramatic public policy changes in the areas of labor law, free speech, election laws and national energy policy.

Significant labor law changes will likely start with the elimination of secret ballots for union organizing elections, so that unions can verbally "ask" workers if they would like to join (read: intimidate them into saying yes). Then may come repeal of the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act provision that allows states to enact "right to work" laws – 22 of them have done so – that allow workers to take jobs even if they decide not to join a union.

Will a President Obama really attempt to radically tilt American labor law to repay the special interests bankrolling his campaign? "Yes. He. Will!"