About
Union Hypocrisy
Union Hypocrisy |
Union Hypocrisy looks at multiple facets of Unions
in today’s world. It explores how
unions’ react to their own staff trying to form a union in Book One. In Book Two the book looks at a variety of circumstances
where different unions go against what would be best for their membership. Books Three and Four touch on the unions’
history and their interaction with the political parties as well as what
happened to bring the unions from the day of George Meaney, the avid
anti-communist AFL-CIO leader of the fifties to Richard Trumka, the current
president, whose selection was praised by the Communist Party of the United
States. It also introduces those who
promote themselves in public as working class defenders, but lacks such
commitment behind closed doors.
About
Rebecca Smith
Rebecca Smith had been a member of the Teamsters
Union for 16 years. Her final three
years with the Teamsters was as the Director of their Training Program in
Nevada. She has always had a love for books
and a desire to be a writer. After
attempting to write several fiction books that never would see the light of
day, she finally decided to write about what she knows best – labor unions.
Her next book will be based on the true events that
occurred when Chicago met head on with what some would say is the most
dysfunctional Teamster Local in the country.
UNION HYPOCRISY will be available on Amazon.com as
an e-book or can be ordered in hardcopy.
About the Book
- It has some sarcastic humor to make it more entertaining to read
- It includes documents from inside the union
- It has some surprising facts about politics and their relationship to unions
- It introduces the reader to the fact that the AFL-CIO worked with the CIA
- It rips off the façade of the one of the celebrities that claims to represent the working class
- Once I started writing it, I was obsessed until it was finished
- I learned some new things during the research
- The book allows the reader to glimpse at what happens to members of a union when things go wrong
- Whether you are interested in unions or not, this is an interesting read and easy to understand
- The book quite simply shows an evolving entity trying to survive
- The group that brought you the weekend has been replaced by the group that is more concerned with a social movement than workers’ wages
- This book is anything but boring
- It shows the timeline where unions have traded their members concerns for political clout
13 things About the Union
- Most members have never read their own Union’s constitution.
- Unions are set up like corporations, and operate like them
- Unions are just as adverse to their employees organizing as companies are
- Unions have in house political wars that make Washington DC look tame in comparison
- The IRB (Internal Review Board) is an arm of the Department of Justice put in place to oversee the Teamsters union in the 1989 consent decree
- The IRB has the power to ban people from the union for life and forbid union members from talking to a banned union member or face expulsion themselves.
- Trade unions have the most comprehensive and quality driven apprenticeship programs in the US
- Many apprenticeship programs even offer college credits for their trade training classes
- Although unions state that the members decide whether to accept a contract, most unions reserve the right to accept a contract without membership approval
- Only 6.9% of the private sector is unionized which is why unions have focused on the public, or government sector.
- The AFL-CIO used to be 2 separate entities – the AF of L and the CIO.
- When Communist members were banned from AFL-CIO membership in the 1950’s, some unions actually broke away from the AFL-CIO rather than give up their communist party ties and are still not affiliated with them to this day.
- Jimmy Hoffa Jr. spent more time in the White House during the first term of George W Bush than he did during the whole time Clinton was in office.
Fun Facts About Me
1. Some of my closest friends are in the union
2. I
still have my Class A CDL
3. I
want to live the rest of my life in Paula Dean’s kitchen
4. I
love to write and hope to continue writing
5. I
think the best way to face life is with an endless sense of humor
6. I
have a 120 lbs German Shepard who is totally awesome
7. I
am lucky to be in love with my best friend, who happens to be my husband
too (which is great it worked out that
way otherwise it could get tricky)
8. My
Mom and Dad once changed their phone number and didn’t tell me. (and they wonder why I have issues)
9. I
am addicted to HGTV
10. I
am addicted to football
Book
Excerpt
If the UNIONs are NOBLE
in their Campaign Cause and unionization really is the best choice, what
possibly could I or anyone else do to override their proclaimed status?
—Anonymous
Prologue
April
2008
The corporation
distributed the following documents to its employees in their sales division
offices across the United States. These documents were given to employees
regardless of their seniority or sales experience. Without the benefit of
negotiations or a contractual bargaining agreement, they were being informed
for the first time that they could be terminated at will. The salespeople were
now to be considered temporary field employees.
The forms that came out
closely resembled the following:
1. Affirmation
Page. "By my signature below, I acknowledge that I have read the
Corporation's Code of Conduct ("Code"), and that I understand my
responsibilities written within the Code. I understand that the Code has been
issued for informational purposes only and that it is not intended to create,
nor does it represent, a contract of employment for any definite period of
time." Note: Failure to read and/or sign this Affirmation will in no way
relieve you of your responsibilities under the Code.
2. Candidate Release
Authorization. This authorization gives the corporation written permission to
obtain virtually all the salesperson's personal records, including, but not
limited to, Workers Compensation Claims, statements about personal character,
mode of living, court records, education, consumer credit history, driving
record, past employment references, past employment reasons for termination,
and much more.
3. Temporary Field
Employee Handbook Acknowledgment Form. "I acknowledge that I have
received, read, and understand the policies outlined in the Corporation's
Temporary Field Employee Handbook, which is intended as a guide to policies and
procedures. I understand that the Corporation has the right to change the
Handbook without notice. It is understood that future changes in the policies
and procedures will supersede or eliminate those found in the book, and that
employees will be notified of such changes through normal communication
channels. The Handbook was prepared to acquaint all temporary employees of the
Corporation with its core employment policies and ethical standards of conduct.
"I also understand
and agree that the information contained in these materials does not constitute
an employment contract between the Corporation and me, and that either the
Corporation or I may terminate our employment relationship at any time, with or
without cause. I understand that no manager or representative of the
Corporation, other than the CEO, the CFO, or their designees, has any authority
to enter into any agreement for employment for any specified period of time, or
to make any agreement contrary to the foregoing."
4. A Letter from the
Director of the Human Resources Department of the Corporation. In the letter
the HR director instructs the salespeople that the corporation has developed a
new employment handbook setting out the employment policies and procedures that
cover the corporation's salespeople. The employees are also informed that, in
the future, they will be referred to as "Temporary Field Employees."
Some instructions similar to the following are included in the letter:
• Employees are instructed that they will be
required to "remain in compliance with its requirements."
• Employees will be required to divulge
personal information, including the Social Security numbers of spouses and
children.
All of this
information, the letter reassures the reader, is for informational purposes
only. (What else would it be for?)
5. Medical Information
Form. This form requires the employee to provide the corporation with the name,
address, Social Security number, gender, and marital status of their spouse and
children. The following note is at the bottom of the page: "This
information is requested for informational purposes only and will not be used
to make decisions with respect to your temporary employment status.
6. Memorandum.
TO: Sales Campaign
Coordinators
FROM: Operations
Manager
DATE: September 17,
2008
RE: Employment Paper
Work
This memorandum
instructs the field employees to return all the required forms as a "part
of the conditions of employment." The operations manager also acknowledges
that many have not yet returned the forms, despite the department making
follow-up calls and mailing letters to them in attempts to get them to sign.
7. Release Form for Consumer
Reports Temporary Field Employees. This form gives the corporation permission
to search additional sources for personal information about their employees in
the sale department.
This corporation
provided its employees with a stark example of corporate invasion of privacy.
The vast majority of the employees in the sales department did not sign the
forms. Instead, they discussed and rallied toward organizing into a recognized
bargaining unit. A union.
As the employees talked
among themselves and other employees, they found that they were not the only
department affected by this new handbook it also applied to staff working in
the political relations department. The corporation had brought in outside
consultants and concocted these new employee standards, which made unilateral
changes to the terms of employment for just about all corporate staffers.
Corporate counsel and his wrecking crew would make more changes without
bothering to negotiate them with employees. Some of the employees saw the
warning signs of bad things to come when the corporate counsel fired the head
of HR and replaced her with someone coming from outside the corporation—not
in-house, as had been the tradition for over a hundred years. Maybe he could
not find a qualified in-house applicant to fill the position. Some felt that
their closely knit "family" was being corporatized. However, maybe
they just never realized that had been a corporation for many years now.
Out of all the staff
affected, it was the brash and bold members of the sales department who really
created a scene—because most of the salespeople were passionate about their
jobs, which is what made them good. Originally, the department had two types of
salespeople: those who were considered permanent full-time employees and those
who were hired to work on a particular project—hence the term project
salesperson. The project salespeople were hired for six months, which could be
extended at six-month intervals. Over time, that became three-month terms with
three-month extensions.
With the new handbook,
it was down to thirty days, with the option of a thirty-day extension.
This corporation was
quite wily when it came to reducing their exposure to employing permanent
employees, thus limiting their exposure to unionization and allowing them
reprieve from many of those annoying National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
rules. To further limit the potential for unionizing, project sales people were
actually hired by subsidiaries and then "lent" to the Corporation.
The Corporation would then reimburse the subsidiary for the cost of their
wages. However, the health and welfare benefits would be covered by the
subsidiary.
Now, with the mailing
of handbooks to all project sale people, they will be classified as
"temporary field employees" who are AT-WILL, giving the Corporation a
means to terminate those employees without cause.
The staff sales people
are official sales personnel of the Corporation because they receive their
payroll check directly from the Corporation and fall under Medical & Pension
Plans that the Corporation has in at its corporate headquarters.
Project sales people
receive all work assignments from the Corporation. They are accountable to the
Corporation and the Corporation pays for all expenses while the project
salespeople are on the ground working. Expense reports get turned in to the
Corporation. Monthly activity reports are turned in to the Corporation. A daily
debrief sheet and weekly reports went to the corporation. The corporation
provided the cell phones.
All salespeople,
whether project or staff, performed the same work out in the field on any given
day, in any targeted industry, anywhere in the USA, in both public and private
sectors.
It seemed that the
corporation had a complete grasp of the legal definition of subcontracting.
Since the employees came from a multitude of subsidiaries from around the
country, the corporation could, of course, claim that they did not employ them;
after all, they never cut a payroll check to any of the project salespeople.
These people all worked for separate, subordinate bodies.
Out of anger and rage
against this abuse of their employment, salespeople could be heard voicing
sentiments such as the "employee handbook"—as they called it—"is
a piece of s**t!"
Ever since I started
working for this b.s. corporation, I realized I had walked into a monument to
corporate greed! I was tired of the empty promises, and sick of all the smoke
being blown up my ass! My dream job was nothing but a horrible nightmare: no
money, no respect, and no appreciation. To top it off, the people in charge had
never worked in this industry! Are you kidding me? I was just a little upset
with these conditions, as you can tell. We needed a contract! I refused to be
considered an "at-will employee." I had never dreamed this would
happen. I was ready to stand with my coworkers to form a union! Join me and
others that know we need this. Stand up and be heard!
The corporation was
another Wal-Mart.
“Temporary field
employees" were "at-will" employees. Approximately 71 percent of
the salespeople refused to sign their rights away. Therefore, the corporation
began calling the project salespeople in attempts to coerce them into signing
their rights away. That did not work. So then they asked the site lead
salespeople to ask the people working on their team to sign the paperwork. When
that did not work, sales campaign coordinators, who are management, were asked
to get them to sign the paperwork. One-on-one meetings took place, and
management made it clear: sign the paperwork or face termination.
On November 6, 2008,
the corporation started firing.
Corporate greed and
abuse was alive and well, finding loopholes in labor law. They were abusing
their employees and giving them no voice at all in the terms of employment.
Anti-union corporate America.
Which corporation
"stuck it" to their employees? Which corporation insisted on at-will
employment for their employees? Surely, this is an example of why employees
need union representation. A union would insist on just cause; a union would
force the corporation to respect its workers and give them job security. Was it
Federal Express or maybe Wal-Mart? No. A corporation more anti-union than that
perhaps?
Go back and replace the
words corporation with International Brotherhood of Teamsters, subsidiary with
union local, and salesperson with organizer.
What is good for
corporate America is obviously not good for the international unions. And there
are other unions just as guilty, such as the Service Employees International
Union (SEIU).
In 2008, the Teamsters
had been able to stamp down this dangerous union talk among its employees, but
as of 2012, it was back again. On February 9, 2012, thirty-nine staff
organizers filed a petition with the NLRB in Chicago, 8-RC-73341, for
recognition under Teamsters Local 964. On March 19, 2012, the Federation for
Agents and International Representatives (FAIR) filed a petition to also
represent the same organizers.
In many ways, the
unions have become hypocrites about their own mantra, and we will explore many
cases in this book. Trade unionism (unions consisting of those who work in a
trade or craft such as pipefitters or masons) has given way to political
ideologue, and unions are just as guilty, if not more so, of making a buck on
the backs of the working class. After all, corporate America has never hidden
its agenda of being in it for the money, whereas unions promote the cause while
marching to a different tune behind closed doors. There is no better example of
how an organization can remain union-free than the unions themselves. The
ultimate hypocrisy.
1 comment:
humor is cool to be included in the union.
Post a Comment