TY - RPRT T1 - No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing (Economic Policy Institute Briefing Paper #235) Y1 - 2009 AB -

[Excerpt] This study is a comprehensive analysis of employer behavior in representation elections supervised by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The data for this study originate from a thorough review of primary NLRB documents for a random sample of 1,004 NLRB certification elections that took place between January 1, 1999 and December 31, 2003 and from an in-depth survey of 562 campaigns conducted with that same sample. Employer behavior data from prior studies conducted over the last 20 years are used for purposes of comparison. The representativeness of the sample combined with the high response rate for both the survey (56%) and NLRB unfair labor practice (ULP) charge documents (98%) ensure that the findings provide unique and highly credible information. In combination, the results provide a detailed and well-documented portrait of the legal and illegal tactics used by employers in NLRB representational elections and of the ineffectiveness of current labor law policy to protect and enforce workers rights in the election process.

PB - Economic Policy Institute CY - Washington, DC L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/reports/38/ ER - TY - NEWS T1 - A War Against Organizing T2 - The Washington Post Y1 - 2009 AB -

[Excerpt] Unless Congress passes serious labor law reform with real penalties, only a small fraction of the workers who seek union representation will succeed. If recent trends continue, there will no longer be a functioning legal mechanism to effectively protect the right of private-sector workers to organize and collectively bargain. Our country cannot afford to make workers defer their rights and aspirations for union representation any longer.

JA - The Washington Post L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/563/ ER - TY - CHAP T1 - The U.S. Experience of Organising in the Context of the Global Economy T2 - The State of the Unions: Challenges Facing Organized Labour in Ireland Y1 - 2008 AB -

[Excerpt] There is no question that some unions, such as the UAW in auto-transplants and auto-parts, CWA/IUE in high tech and electronics, USWA in metal production and fabrication or the UFCW in food processing, face much greater challenges organising in their primary jurisdictions because they are confronted with more mobile, more global, and more powerful and effective employer opposition, and, in some cases, a workforce less predisposed to unionisation. Yet, as we have seen, even in the most adverse organising environments, union organising success can dramatically improve when unions utilise a comprehensive campaign strategy. Given these differences, what is perhaps most striking about our findings is how few unions are actually running comprehensive campaigns, or even consistently using any of the ten elements of our comprehensive campaign model. Most significant of all, only a smattering of unions today see themselves as global unions taking on global employers. They are not doing the strategic corporate research necessary to develop the kind of critique of the company needed to launch a truly multifaceted comprehensive campaign. They are not developing lasting labour and community networks, locally, nationally and internationally to help them build and leverage their power in the company and the industry. And they are not getting out in front on the issues that resonate with workers and the public ranging from universal health care, to the war in Iraq, global outsourcing, to affordable higher education.

JA - The State of the Unions: Challenges Facing Organized Labour in Ireland PB - The Liffey Press CY - Dublin, Ireland L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/247/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Global Unions: Challenging Transnational Capital Through Cross-Border Campaigns Y1 - 2007 AB -

To meet the challenges of globalization, unions must improve their understanding of the changing nature of corporate ownership structures and practices, and they must develop alliances and strategies appropriate to the new environment. Global Unions includes original research from scholars around the world on the range of innovative strategies that unions use to adapt to different circumstances, industries, countries, and corporations in taking on the challenge of mounting cross-border campaigns against global firms.

This collection emerges from a landmark conference where unionists, academics, and representatives of nongovernmental organizations from the Global South and the Global North met to devise strategies for labor to use when confronting the most powerful corporations such as Wal-Mart and Exxon Mobil. The workplaces discussed here include agriculture (bananas), maritime labor (dock workers), manufacturing (apparel, automobiles, medical supplies), food processing, and services (school bus drivers).

Kate Bronfenbrenner's introduction sets the stage, followed by contributions describing specific examples from Asia, Latin America, and Europe. Bronfenbrenner's conclusion focuses on the key lessons for strengthening union power in relation to global capital.

Contributors: Terry Boswell, Emory University; Kate Bronfenbrenner, Cornell University; Henry Frundt, Ramapo College; Samanthi Gunawardana, University of Melbourne; Tom Juravich, University of Massachusetts, Amherst; Kevin Kolben, Rutgers Business School; Valeria Pulignano, Catholic University of Leuven, Belgium; Darryn Snell, Monash University; Dimitris Stevis, Colorado State University; Ashwini Sukthankar, International Commission for Labor Rights; Amanda Tattersall, University of Sydney; Peter Turnbull, Cardiff University; Peter Wad, Copenhagen Business School. (publisher's statement)

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/books/33/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Race, Gender and the Rebirth of Trade Unionism JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2007 AB -

[Excerpt] Diversity is not the enemy of solidarity. We contend that solidarity can, and must, be built among an ever-diversifying labor movement, nation, and world. The labor movement's very survival depends on it.

VL - 16 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/829/ CP - 3 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - Comprehensive Strategy: The Key to Successful Organizing (The State of the Union Report for the Ohio Education Association) Y1 - 2006 AB -

[Excerpt] For the last two decades, organizing has continued to be the central focus of the U.S. labor movement. In the past year, the effectiveness of organizing has been influenced by the split in the AFL-CIO, by discussions of labor’s political leverage and strategy in the fall 2006 elections, and by the debate over which groups of workers should be targeted for organizing.

Nearly every top union leader talks about “changing to organize” – committing more resources to organizing and running campaigns more strategically. For the majority of unions, unfortunately, this talk has yet to turn into action. Indeed, most unions are continuing to organize much as they did twenty years ago (Bronfenbrenner and Hickey, 2004). In this article, we’ll look at what’s been happening to union organizing – in education and generally, in Ohio and nationally – and the reasons why these trends continue.

This article will also spotlight research that provides some answers for those looking for a model of successful union organizing.

It is now becoming clear that a new comprehensive model of union organizing is emerging – a model that can be adapted by the OEA and its locals to build membership and influence.

PB - Ohio Education Association CY - Columbus, OH L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/828/ ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Significant Victories: An Analysis of Union First Contracts T2 - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States Y1 - 2006 AB -

[Excerpt] After two decades of massive employment losses in heavily unionized sectors of the economy and exponential growth of the largely unorganized service sector, the U.S. labor movement is struggling to remain relevant. Despite new organizing initiatives and practices, union organizing today remains a tremendously arduous endeavor, particularly in the private sector, as workers and their unions are routinely confronted with an arsenal of aggressive legal and illegal antiunion employer tactics. This vigorous opposition to unions in the private sector does not stop once an election is won, but continues throughout bargaining for an initial union agreement, all too often turning organizing victories into devastating first-contract defeats.

Despite these overwhelming obstacles, workers still organize and win—through certification elections and voluntary recognition campaigns in both the private and public sectors. And each year unions successfully negotiate thousands of first contracts in the United States, providing union representation for the first time to hundreds of thousands of new workers. This research takes an in-depth look at what unions achieve in these initial union contracts. Why, when confronted with such powerful opposition, do unorganized workers continue to want to belong to unions and newly organized workers want to stay union? What do these first contracts provide that makes the struggle worthwhile?

To explore these questions, we analyze and evaluate union first contracts along four primary dimensions. First, we inventory the basic workers’ rights provided by these contracts, which go beyond the very limited rights provided by federal and state labor law under the “employment at will” system. Second, we evaluate how first contracts provide workers and their unions with the institutional power to shape work and the labor process on a day-to-day basis. Third, we explore how first contracts codify the presence and power of unions in daily work life, and we evaluate which institutional arrangements provide a meaningful role for workers and their unions in their workplaces. Fourth, we examine the kinds of workplace benefits that are codified and supplemented in first contracts, gaining important insights into the types of human resource practices that exist in newly unionized workplaces. Finally, by examining the interactions among these four dimensions, we explore the limitations of what first contracts have been able to achieve in the current organizing environment, and what it would take for unions to improve the quality of first contracts.

JA - Justice on the Job: Perspectives on the Erosion of Collective Bargaining in the United States PB - W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research CY - Kalamazoo, MI L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/248/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - What is Labor’s True Purpose? The Implications of SEIU’s Unite to Win Proposals for Organizing JF - New Labor Forum Y1 - 2005 AB -

[Excerpt] That labor is in a crisis cannot be questioned. While there may be some labor leaders who are content to keep ministering to an ever less powerful, shrinking base, there were few in the room that day that would disagree with the words expressed by SEIU International Executive Vice President Gerry Hudson on the opening panel, that the U.S. "labor movement is becoming dangerously close to being too small to matter."

For the first time in decades, both organizing activity and union membership numbers have dropped precipitously. Where in past years unions had to organize 500,000 new workers just to keep union density stable, this year unions may have to organize as many as 800,000 new workers just to stand still. And they will not even come close. In fact, after a year when unions shifted enormous resources away from organizing towards electoral politics, it is likely that we will see the lowest organizing gains we have seen in more than two decades, possibly fewer than 200,000 new workers overall. Worse yet, this has occurred at a time when we are faced with the most labor unfriendly political and legal climate that we have seen in nearly a century. As Bill Fletcher noted in his opening remarks at the conference, this is indeed "the winter of our discontent."

VL - 14 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/246/ CP - 2 ER - TY - RPRT T1 - The Changing Nature of Corporate Global Restructuring: The Impact of Production Shifts on Jobs in the US, China, and Around the Globe Y1 - 2004 AB -

Despite the increasing amount of trade between China and the US, and the increase in foreign direct investment from the US into China, there is no government body that collects information detailing the incidence of production shifts out of the US to China or any other country. In the fall of 2000, the predecessor to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) commissioned Cornell and the University of Massachusetts Amherst to study the extent and nature of production shifts out of the US and into China from October 2000 through April 2001. In order to conduct this research we developed a methodology that involves a combination of online media tracking and corporate research and the creation of a database including information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media during that period. In July 2004 the USCC asked us to update that research, starting with an initial period of January 1 through March 31, 2004. (authors' statement)

PB - US-China Economic and Security Review Commission CY - Washington, DC L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cbpubs/16/ ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Offshoring: The Evolving Profile of Corporate Global Restructuring JF - Multinational Monitor Y1 - 2004 AB -

For all of the increase in international trade and rising concern about shifting of manufacturing and service jobs away from the United States, there is remarkably little detailed data on the scope of outsourcing. In part that reflects corporation's reluctance to announce plans to shift production or office work overseas. Even more, it is a consequence of the U.S. government's failure to collect data on the phenomenon.

This article reports on the results of a study intended to fill this information gap. Our research involves a combination of online media tracking and corporate research and the creation of a database including information on all production shifts announced or confirmed in the media during a specified period. The study examines production shifts from January 1 through March 31, 2004. (authors' statement)

VL - 25 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/cbpubs/18/ CP - 12 ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Locked Out But Holding Together in Ravenswood JF - WorkingUSA Y1 - 1999 AB -

The first in a two-part series that details the Steelworkers' victory at Ravenswood Aluminum - one of labor's biggest wins in the '90s.

VL - 3 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/824/ CP - 1 ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Ravenswood: The Steelworkers’ Victory and the Revival of American Labor Y1 - 1999 AB -

[Excerpt] When the Ravenswood Aluminum Company locked out seventeen hundred workers on October 31, 1990, it hardly looked like a big opportunity for labor. In what had become standard operating procedure for employers during the 1980s, management broke off bargaining with the United Steelworkers of America, and then brought hundreds of replacement workers into a heavily fortified plant surrounded by barbed wire and security cameras. Injunctions prevented union members from doing little more than symbolic picketing, and the wheels of justice, as they had done for more than a decade, creaked ever so slowly. All the pieces were in place for another long, drawn-out defeat for labor.

This book chronicles the twenty-month battle between the Steelworkers and the Ravenswood Aluminum Company (RAC). It is the story of an international union already reeling from heavy losses in the steel industry and desperately needing some solid ground. It is the story of a tough and determined union membership, most of whom had spent their entire working lives at the local aluminum plant.

PB - Cornell University Press/ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/549/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Ravenswood: The steelworkers' victory and the revival of American labor Y1 - 1999 PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng ER - TY - JOUR T1 - Steelworkers' Victory at Ravenswood: Picket Line Around the World JF - WorkingUSA Y1 - 1999 AB -

The second in a two-part series details the sophisticated international campaign and grass-roots activism that gave labor one of its biggest wins in the '90s.

VL - 3 L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/823/ CP - 2 ER - TY - CHAP T1 - Construction Organizing: A Case Study of Success T2 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 AB -

[Excerpt] This chapter examines how IBEW Local 611, based in Albuquerque, New Mexico, reversed its decline and between 1988 and 1994 reemerged as a dominant force in its jurisdiction. What the local did, how it did it, and what other building trade unions can learn from 611's success are the central points of the discussion.

JA - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies PB - ILR Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/294/ ER - TY - CHAP T1 - New York State AFL-CIO Organizing Education Program T2 - Working Together to Revitalize Labor in Our Communities: Case Studies of Labor Education-Central Labor Body Collaboration Y1 - 1998 AB -

New York State has long been hailed by the labor movement for its high union density and strong and active local labor unions. Yet, like their counterparts in other states, unions in New York State have watched their numbers and their power shrink precipitously in the last few decades under the onslaught of corporate "downsizing," plant closings, decertifications, broken strikes, and concession bargaining. At the same time, an increasingly hostile political climate, combined with rabidly anti-union employers and weak and poorly enforced labor laws, have made it more and more difficult for New York State unions to expand their membership through new organizing. In 1995, the New York State AFL-CIO began working with me, in my capacity as the Director of Labor Education Research at the Cornell School of Industrial and Labor Relations, to design an education program for affiliated unions to turn around the membership trend. (author's statement)

JA - Working Together to Revitalize Labor in Our Communities: Case Studies of Labor Education-Central Labor Body Collaboration PB - UCLEA/University of Maine CY - Orono, ME L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/562/ ER - TY - BOOK T1 - Organizing to Win: New Research on Union Strategies Y1 - 1998 AB -

[Excerpt] The American labor movement is at a watershed. For the first time since the early years of industrial unionism sixty years ago, there is near-universal agreement among union leaders that the future of the movement depends on massive new organizing. In October 1995, John Sweeney, Richard Trumka, and Linda Chavez-Thompson were swept into the top offices of the AFL-CIO, following a campaign that promised organizing "at an unprecedented pace and scale." Since taking office, the new AFL-CIO leadership team has created a separate organizing department and has committed $20 million to support coordinated large-scale industry-based organizing drives. In addition, in the summer of 1996, the AFL-CIO launched the "Union Summer" program, which placed more than a thousand college students and young workers in organizing campaigns across the country.

PB - Cornell University Press CY - Ithaca, NY L2 - eng UR - http://digitalcommons.ilr.cornell.edu/articles/188/ ER -