Teamsters turnkeys leave door open for criticism in prison row
The Buffalo News reported today on….wow….how prison guards in Teamster-officiated areas just walked away from their posts, leaving prisoners unattended. Take a look: State inspectors in a recent report describe the Erie County penitentiary as a management-challenged prison where deputies abandon their posts, legitimate inmate grievances go nowhere, and would-be reforms move slowly. Commission of Correction [more...]

Posted Fri, 20 Nov 2009 .

New York Times to Unite Here: You are nasty, brutish, and short
In an article entitled “Some Organizers Protest Their Union’s Tactics,”Steven Greenhouse looks at a disgusting organizing practice known as “pink sheeting.” The title would be perfect but for the “Some” caveat that the paper feels is necessary to include. Don’t worry, New York Times, we get the fact its not EVERY labor organizer. Just more of [more...]

Posted Thu, 19 Nov 2009 .

Poor Elections Record

Freedom of choice is a matter at the very center of our national labor relations policy, and a secret election is the preferred method of gauging choice.

— Avecor v. NLRB, D.C. Circuit, 1991

Bruce Raynor, president of the union UNITE HERE, explains: "There's no reason to subject the workers to an election." One SEIU local leader has flatly admitted to the Wall Street Journal, "We don't do elections." And no wonder. Even though unions have ultimate control over if and when certification elections are held, they still lose four in ten elections they call. And employees have chosen no representation at all in more than 2,000 certification and decertification elections over a two-year period.

According to the National Labor Relations Board 's annual report figures for cases closed in 2003 and 2004 (covering all NLRB-overseen certification and decertification elections):

All Representation Elections	2004	2005
Overall Union win (%)	53.2 %	56.8 %
AFL-CIO Win (%)	50.8 %	53.8 %
Elections in which no union was chosen	1,272	1,145

In the first half of the government's Fiscal Year 2005:

Unions organized about 24 percent fewer workers through elections than in the same period in the previous year.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) organized half as many workers through elections as it did in the first half of 2004.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) won only 43 percent of the elections it held.

Source: Bureau of National Affairs, Dec. 9, 2005