One man was forced to seek an arrest warrant for a union organizer who showed up at his house eight times. Another reported being videotaped by union representatives. A third described threats of deportation. Welcome to the new world of union organizing, where union officials, desperate to stave off declining membership numbers, are increasingly turning to undemocratic “card check campaigns” to organize and collect dues from employees. The following are just a few examples of card check horror stories. And, we even provide sworn testimony from a former Unite-HERE organizer about her first-hand experience making “housecalls” to  union members and doing whatever it takes to get union cards signed.

1. The Offshore Mariners United (OMU) tried for three years to unionize vessel personnel working for Trico Marine Services in the Gulf of Mexico. Testifying about the campaign before the House of Representatives, labor lawyer Clyde H. Jacob stated:

Some employees, when solicited at their homes by union representatives, said, “No,” to signing a card; yet, they reported repeated, frequent home visits by union representatives continuing to try to secure their signatures, and they complained to the company of this harassment. After 8 visits, one vessel officer in southern Louisiana had an arrest warrant issued against a union organizer. One employee reported that the union representatives exited their vehicle and approached his home with a video camera recording him, which he believed made him a marked man. A vessel captain reported that while he was stationed in Brazil, union representatives visited his home, knocked on his door, and when his wife, who was home, did not answer, proceeded to circle the home for an extended time looking into and knocking on the windows … Untrue statements were made by union representatives to persuade Trico employees to sign authorization cards. In an ironic twist, a representation was made to employees to go ahead and sign cards, and if they later changed their minds, they could vote differently in the election.
[read Clyde Jacob's complete statement]

2. Mike Ivey is a materials handler at the Freightliner Custom Chassis Corporation (FCCC) in Gaffney, SC. FCCC is owned by Daimler-Chrysler Corporation, which entered into a “neutrality” agreement with the United Auto Workers (UAW). Here's what Ivey had to say about union representatives' misleading statements about “card checks”:

In this process of obtaining the needed signatures, there are a lot of untruths told. Employees are told at off site meetings that these cards only represent their attendance at these meetings. What they are not told is that these cards are a legally binding document, which states that the employee is pro union – Temporary contracted employees are told they will be hired if they sign this card. The union has nothing to do with the hiring of these employees.
[read Ivey’s complete statement, including a UAW threat to sue Daimler-Chrysler for offering a wage increase]

3. In 1997 the Las Vegas Review-Journal described a lawsuit to invalidate the card check campaign that had unionized the MGM hotel:

Smith has submitted affidavits from a number of MGM workers who say they were harassed and tricked into signing the cards. 'A lady … told me that if I did not sign for the union that my wife who works at Caesars Palace will be fired,' one affidavit reads. 'That is why I signed.' In another sworn statement, an MGM employee said that a union recruiter told people a vote would follow the card signings. A different employee reported being told that if MGM management discovered she was gay, she would be fired, and that the union was her only protection. 'Other employees were threatened with deportation,' Smith said. 'Some were followed. People who wore nonunion buttons had them ripped from their clothes. It was all done with the idea of forcing people to sign the union cards.

In 2002, Bruce G. Esgar, an employee of MGM in Las Vegas, told a House of Representatives sub-committee:

The Culinary Union also targeted three of us that worked on the casino floor and had union members from other properties come and threaten us on our stations. Subsequently two ladies were detained by MGM security and they admitted to the fact that they had been sent by organizers from the Culinary Union.

Esgar also stated, “Some of these promises, statements and actions union representative made were:

• Have supervisors fired
• Lose your job if you were not union or had not signed the card when they [the union] got in
• Lose your health benefits if you did not sign the card
• Lose your 401k if you did not sign the card
• Give them a turkey if they signed a “union yes” card
• Signing the card was calling for a vote
• “Hound” them in the privacy of the employee dressing room to sign a card, while they were dressing for work
• Keep “hounding” them to sign a card once they were told that they did not want to sign the card.
• The signing of the card only meant that you would be sent information about the union
• Invade the privacy of your home when you did not give them your address and/or telephone number [and keep coming back time after time after being told “NO”]
• Count a card that they had signed at another property in the past
• Stop the MGM from deporting one by signing the card
• They tore the “NO UNION” buttons off our uniforms
• If you sign the card we [the union] will help you get your “green card”
  [read Bruce Esgar’s complete statement]

4. Richard Hermanson, a transportation security screener at San Francisco International Airport, told a House of Representatives Subcommittee in 2004 about his experience when the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) tried to form a union:

SEIU 790 has been giving away a lot of food during the campaign. Pizza, chocolate, chicken and burritos are among the items given out. Our organizers on more than one occasion observed screeners ask SEIU organizers for a bite to eat, and saw them directed to a representation petition as a prerequisite to receiving the food. On one occasion, an organizer dangling a lunch cooler in front of me to capture my attention approached me. One coworker of mine has relayed that SEIU organizers showed up at his house unannounced, and that he had difficulty getting them to leave after he let them in the house. The organizers finally left after he threatened to call the police. Organizers have been known to call the same person four times late one evening in the hope that they would give in and commit to support SEIU. Sometimes these tactics work. We've had coworkers tell us that they just signed to get the organizer or coworker off their back, that they were made uncomfortable by the peer pressure to sign a card, that they signed a fake name to get a free lunch cooler, or even that they believed signing was for the meal.
[read Richard Hermanson’s complete statement]

5. Jen Jason, an AFL-CIO-trained former Unite-HERE organizer, testified on February 8, 2007 before the House Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor and Pensions. “At the time, I personally took great pride in the fact that I could always get the worker to sign the card if I could get inside their home,” Jason told committee members before she opened her eyes to how she was being used by union leaders to get cards signed by any means necessary:

A “card check” campaign begins with union organizers going to the homes of workers over a weekend, a tactic called “housecalling,” with the sole intent of having those workers sign authorization cards. Called a “blitz” by the unions, it entails teams of two or more organizers going directly to the homes of workers. The workers’ personal information and home addresses used during the blitz was obtained from license plates and other sources that were used to create a master list.

In most cases, the workers have no idea that there is a union campaign underway. Organizers are taught to play upon this element of surprise to get “into the door.” They are trained to perform a five part house call strategy that includes: Introductions, Listening, Agitation, Union Solution, and Commitment. The goal of the organizer is to quickly establish a trust relationship with the worker, move from talking about what their job entails to what they would like to change about their job, agitate them by insisting that management won’t fix their workplace problems without a union and finally convincing the worker to sign a card.

…From my experience, the number of cards signed appear to have little relationship to the ultimate vote count. During a private election campaign, even though a union still sends organizers out to workers’ homes on frequent canvassing in attempts to gain support, the worker has a better chance to get perspective on the questions at hand.
[Read Jen Jason’s complete testimony]