A discussion on Americans’ freedom to form unions—and the lack thereof in today’s economy—got a rare airing in the mainstream media yesterday through a Steven Pearlstein column in the Washington Post.
Pearlstein recounts Wal-Mart’s long campaign to stop its employees from forming unions and blasts the Bush administration for installing do-nothing regulators at the National Labor Relations Board:
[Bush appointee] Arthur F. Rosenfeld is a former management lawyer and Republican aide on Capitol Hill of no particular distinction other than his management sympathies. Rosenfeld gives no interviews, posts no speeches on his agency's Web site and sends out civil servants to answer written questions about Wal-Mart, explaining there simply isn't enough evidence of a "pattern of unlawful conduct at multiple locations" to justify an investigation of Wal-Mart's corporate-wide labor practices.
I don't know if most Wal-Mart "associates" would -- or even should -- vote in a union. What I do know is that with gutless regulators like Rosenfeld in charge, they won't even get a chance to decide. What the Wal-Mart case signals to every employer and worker in America is that the right to form a union is now a cruel joke and an empty promise.
Pearlstein followed up the column with an
online chat about the issue. One participant remembered his or her experience of trying to form a union:
Pittsburgh, Pa.: I was involved in a union election under the NLRB where, going in, the union had over 90% of the workers signed up. In the two months before the scheduled election, the company hired a consultant who held group meetings with the employees each and every day talking against the union. The anti-union tone was ratcheted up as each day passed. During one such meeting, the workers were shown a video of graphic violence depicting striking union members in what looked like a riot situation. The video ended with a full-screen picture of Jimmy Hoffa and blood dripping down from the top to the bottom until the whole screen was blood red. It was horrific. This continued up until the day before the election, when each and every employee was individually cornered by some member of management and asked to vote against the union. The atmosphere was absolutely hostile and intimidating, but I am given to understand that it was all perfectly legal under the National Labor Relations Act. One the day of the election, the union lost the vote by three to one. In the face of the intimidation, those workers who voted in favor of union representation were, in my opinion, heroes.
This is fairly typical for a union election these days. The NLRB rules are so slanted in favor of an employer that its perfectly okay for businesses to do this. The problem is that most Americans have no idea that our freedom at work is so limited. News coverage like this might help change that perception (Pearlstein himself notes that Wal-Mart’s anti-union interference has gotten virtually no media coverage.)
Of course, not every reader wants to restore the freedom to form unions:
Potomac, Md.: Mr. Pearlstein (or is it Krugman?), you write the BUSINESS column in The Washington Post. I don't read the BUSINESS column to hear about poor people or about union flunkies. I read about how I can get richer in my business. Should I invest in energy stocks now? Who should I see to get U.S. contracts in captive foreign markets? Which legislator or administration official is the point person on deregulation proposals that will enrich me? That's what BUSINESS is about. People who work at Wal-Mart made their bed when their parents couldn't get real jobs in this world. If they don't want to fight in our military to make a contribution to me, then they better go work at Wal-Mart because I'm surely not paying them welfare checks. Get off your Krugman horse and do your job!
And:
Scarsdale, N.Y.: I read your column today, and I have two words: so what? Unions take untalented people and let them sit on their duffs. That creates to our lazy nation. That's what's so great about Iraq; we've taken people who would otherwise sit around with nothing to do and we've sent them to secure our energy sources for the next century. That's why we should have a marketplace draft. You can make a contribution to buy your way out, or you can go in and serve as payback for the welfare you'll inevitably be collecting. Let the talented people do the work to build the American economy, and let the others make some sort of real contribution as a condition for the privilege of living as a working-class person in the U.S. rather than in someplace like El Salvador.
To really geek out on the origin and limitations the legal system governing union organizing elections, check out this
new article by labor historian David Brody.