Organized Thoughts

As Congress gets set to re-open debate on a bill that will streamline the process by which employees unionize — a measure opposed by many businesses but supported by elected leaders in this time of economic turmoil — there is new discussion about organized labor and the role it will play in the years to come.

Later this year, a bill to be voted on in Congress will have a significant effect upon the American workforce.

The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) was originally introduced in February 2007 and gained momentum, but a Republican filibuster kept the bill effectively squashed. In March of this year, Sen. Edward Kennedy and Rep. George Miller of California re-introduced the provision to the 111th Congress.

EFCA’s role in the workplace is to streamline the process by which employees unionize their workplace. Key proponents of the bill see this as necessary for workers in a time of financial turmoil. However, businesses from Home Depot to FedEx have reacted strongly against the pending legislation.

While supporters lobby to get some form of the bill passed through Congress, larger questions arise. With such powerful federal assistance to organized labor in America, is it time to re-evaluate the role unions play in the contemporary workforce?

“Basically union membership has been declining overall for the past 10 to 15 years,” said Meredith Wise, president of the Employers Assoc. of the NorthEast, a membership organization that strives to improve employer-employee relations. “One of the reasons why the unions have declined is because their agenda has been legislated.”

But Tom Juravich, a professor of Labor Studies at UMass Amherst and former director of the school’s Labor Center, disagrees with that basic premise. “I think it’s important to draw the distinction between how unions operate, and the role unions play in this country, with the workforce of Western Europe,” he explained.

In contrast with that workforce, which is largely granted much of its benefits and social stability through citizenship, said Juravich, “in many ways, the only opportunity an American worker has is through a union card.”

With historic change possibly on the docket in Congress, BusinessWest opens a dialogue on what role unions have for the nation’s workforce, what EFCA will mean, and what the future might hold for organized labor.

The Times They Are a-Changing

Wise said that with all the attention placed on EFCA these days, “companies, as well as unions, are focusing more on what role unions play in the workplace and whether they’re going to grow or continue to diminish in membership.”

What seems to be happening, she said, is that both companies and unions are in a holding pattern, basically seeing how the legislation fares. “The sense had been that, until the EFCA passed or was totally shot down, that the unions wouldn’t get active. They wouldn’t do more than they typically do, as far as outreach or trying to unionize workplaces, and a lot of employers I think kind of put the urgency to look at their employee relations on the back burner.

“The economy being what it is,” she continued, “business might be saying, ‘my plate’s full; I just can’t worry about the possibility of unionization unless something happens with EFCA. Unions can’t come after me anyway, because there’s just no money to give increases, people are being laid off … unions don’t have a platform.’”

However, quite the opposite of that logic is what appears to be underway. Wise said that over the past several weeks, she sees unions in Western Mass. and Northern Conn. not pulling back, but getting much more active in reaching out to workers. “They don’t appear to be saying, ‘the economy’s not good; we shouldn’t push,’” she said.

Rather, unions are reaching out to increasing numbers of workers, but aren’t filing petition cards with the National Labor Relations Board, said Wise, adding that she is left with questions concerning their intent. “Part of what we as an employers association, and what businesses are wondering, is whether the unions are getting active to gather signature cards, and then sit on them for a while with the thought that EFCA is going to pass, or some version of it passes, and then they can present these cards and be recognized? Or are they gathering them and they just haven’t gotten to enough of a point yet to get an election?”

While speculation swirls about EFCA and its fate, there is broader discussion about just how much power unions still possess and what it can or should do with that influence.

While manufacturing has been the traditional base for organized labor, Wise noted that unions have branched out into many different sectors. The public sector, from the federal government on down to town municipalities, represents fully one-third of the organized workforce in the nation, she noted, adding that growth is significant in both human services such as health care and also finance.

The big difference for unions these days, she told BusinessWest, is that goals have changed with the times. “I think that one of the main reasons is that, 10 to 15 years ago, unions did a really great job of pushing their agenda into the political arena,” said Wise. “So there had been a lot of laws and regulations that used to be part of union contracts, but now they are regulated.

“These include things like family and medical leave,” she continued. “At one point in time, something that would have been a big part of the union platform is that you can go out on leave and have your job protected. Well, now that is federally legislated. That’s going to happen regardless if you are union or not.”

The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 is another example of union success for the workplace at large. “I think that the unions have done a pretty good job over time of getting their agendas politicized and put across for all employers to have to do without being unionized.”

Juravich agreed that union’s message has successfully become part of the American worker’s rights, union or not. However, he noted that there is still work for unions to do. “I still think that what we’re given by law is minimal when contrasted with other industrial societies,” he explained. “For example, there is no federally or state mandated right to a lunch hour. So I think that unions still can provide a lot.”

EFCA Marks the Spot

Votes for unionization currently take place when 30% of the workers for a given employer agree to sign authorization cards. Those cards are then filed with the NLRB, which then organizes an election for them.

Generally within 60 to 90 days there is a secret-ballot election, where the employees that have been identified as a unit have an opportunity to vote ‘yes’ or ‘no.’ Those who originally signed those authorization cards may stick with their original vote of pro-union, or they can decide against it.

If EFCA passes as currently written, there would be no secret-ballot election. If the union voices could get 50% plus one of the workforce originally, the potential bargaining unit that gathered these election cards would present them to both the employer and the NLRB and then they’re in — no further election.

EFCA, essentially, seeks to safeguard the jobs of employees seeking to organize their workplace. Juravich explained some of the clear and present dangers with the current process and why the legislation has been filed.

“The problem is that, during the days leading up to the election process, what we know is that they are not very democratic,” he explained. “Employers can do a variety of things to impede the elections. For example, they can bring workers in and meet with them individually for five minutes to three hours to try to dissuade them from voting positively in the election.

“There is a statistic that in one out of every three union elections, workers are fired illegally for trying to organize,” he continued. “That has an incredibly chilling impact, even though those employees might later be hired back.”

The possibility for compromise with the EFCA as currently written seems likely, said Wise and Juravich. One of the key revisions already discussed is that the secret-ballot election wouldn’t be abolished; it would just take place with an expedited timeline. Instead of the current waiting period of 60 to 90 days, balloting would have to happen within 10 days. Or, if the election were to take place within 10 to 15 days, there are certain things management can or cannot do regarding campaigning against the union.

Labor Daze

While helping employers understand EFCA and potential ramifications, Wise also has some advice for business owners about organized labor in general: Don’t underestimate it.

She said the card unions are playing today involves respect, or, more to the point, the lack of it being shown to workers during this economic downturn.

“Businesses are very involved right now in keeping themselves afloat, making it through another payday, making it through the year, and they are neglecting to a large extent those employee-relations pieces,” she continued. “It’s an important thing not to say to an employee, ‘you’re lucky to have a job,’ or, ‘no I don’t have time to listen to your complaint today, and remember, you have a paycheck. You’re not like the other 10% of the workforce that is unemployed.’”

Wise noted that unions are a business, and are utilizing sound business models these days. “Over the last five to 10 years, the unions have been working so hard at restructuring themselves and re-educating themselves because the workforce that they were accustomed to organizing is no longer the workforce that’s out there,” she said.

“Now, unions are poised to kind of come back,” she continued, “because they have more technology. They’ve worked really hard at rebuilding their Web sites, updating their methods of communication, and frankly probably done a better job of that than their employers as far as recognizing how tech-savvy a lot of the younger people are, and working that into their campaigns and their outreach.”

For Juravich, his contrast with the industrialized societies of Western Europe highlights the discrepancies between the two workforces. “As part of the rights one receives there with citizenship, one has the right to earn a living wage, to have health care and pension benefits. Those are their citizenship rights.

“In this country,” he continued, “the laws provide us with minimum wage, no access to health care, no access to pension programs, with the exception of Social Security. Unions are in many ways for American workers to be a part of a society, to have what workers around the world are offered by law.”

Speculation on Capitol Hill is that health care is presently on the front burner of Congressional voting, and that EFCA cannot realistically be addressed until at least later this month. Passage of the bill would prove to be a significant victory for organized labor in the U.S., and Wise wants employers to understand the consequences of current actions.

“My message is that companies need to open their eyes,” she said, “and if they don’t want that union intervention, they need to stop and look at what their employee relations are.

“That’s what’s going to help them achieve their corporate goals and expectations,” she continued. “Unions have played a role in the economy and environment, but I think that businesses can do a better job of achieving their goals of working with their employees without third-party intervention.”

Juravich thinks this is a pivotal time for unions. “This is without a doubt the most difficult time that workers will face in over three generations, because of the economy. But also this is the most challenging time for unions to be facing in that same time period.

“In the industrial sector,” he continued, “unions have not been able to hold onto their workers. In the auto industry, they are struggling and saying to themselves, ‘how can we still make a difference?’ Unions have always been about wages, pensions, and health care. But they have also always been about more than just that. In these difficult times it’s important to remember that unions are also preserving the larger issues of justice and dignity in the workplace.”