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 .

Report: Union Math, Union Myths

Read the Full Report (.pdf, 88k)

Since its peak in the 1950s, union membership in the private sector has steadily dropped. To explain the decline, labor leaders have scapegoated businesses for intimidating employees during organizing campaigns. To justify the claim, they cite statistics from union-affiliated researchers which suggest that a significant number of employees are fired in the organizing process. But data from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) do not—in any way—substantiate the notion that tens of thousands of employees are wrongly fired each year.

By logically linking organizing campaigns with Unfair Labor Practices, we determined that only 2.7 percent of union organizing campaigns feature an employee illegally fired (and offered reinstatement, typically with back pay). Furthermore, we demonstrate that other research on the subject relies on outdated assumptions that do not represent current NLRB data on the issue.