Findings from renowned labor expert and Cornell University professor Dr. Kate Brofenbrenner reveal that employer tactics against workers’ efforts to form unions have increased and become more punitive than in the past.

A new report, “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing,” released this week by the Economic Policy Institute and American Rights at Work exposes the ugly truth about corporate abuse of workers trying to form unions and bargain for a better life.

An in-depth examination of National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election campaigns, interviews with workers and investigations of unfair labor practice filings gives a clear picture of what the process of forming a union really looks like. Workers are regularly subjected to threats, interrogation, harassment, surveillance and retaliation for supporting a union.

Some of the findings:

• 63% of employers interrogate workers in one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about support for the union
• 57% of employers threaten to close the worksite
• 47% of employers threaten to cut wages and benefits
• 34% of employers fire workers

For more, read the full report and fact sheet.

This entry by AFSCME President Gerald McEntee is cross-posted from The Huffington Post and Oxdown Gazette.

America’s top CEOs — the clueless millionaires whose greed, ignorance and arrogance drove our economy off a cliff — have declared their top legislative priority for 2009. It isn’t the president’s budget. It’s not promoting jobs or health care for their workers. And it’s certainly not limits on CEO pay.

Instead, they’ve launched an all out campaign to scuttle bi-partisan legislation that would restore workers’ freedom to form unions and bargain for a better life. The legislation, the Employee Free Choice Act, fixes a broken system and would restore the promise of the American Dream for working Americans. It must be a key component of our efforts to rebuild the middle class, promote economic growth and create an economy that works for all Americans.

America’s CEOs have made the defeat of this bill their biggest goal in 2009. To spearhead their campaign, they’ve hired Rick Berman, a shadowy P.R. man who has spent his career attacking nonprofits, like Mothers Against Drunk Driving, through phony front groups and misleading advertisements. Berman made a name for himself by winning huge fees working for clients including the tobacco and alcohol industries, mounting campaigns to defeat or weaken drunk driving laws, quieting concerns about cigarettes, and blocking increases in the minimum wage.

Berman specializes in Big Lie campaigns. That’s why the CEOs have hired him. The Chamber of Commerce, The National Association of Manufacturers and other front organizations for the CEOs have decided that they can’t oppose the Employee Free Choice Act on the merits, so they’ll create a Big Lie to raise concerns about the bill. The lie they’re promoting is that the bill would eliminate secret ballots for workers forming a union.

The claim is simply not true. The bill gives workers, not their employer, the choice in how they choose to form unions: either after a majority of workers sign a card in support of the union or through a secret ballot election. Workers could choose elections, but the opponents of the Employee Free Choice Act don’t care about the truth. They’ve already begun spending $200 million to spread the lie that the bill eliminates secret ballots, hoping that enough people will believe it to kill the bill. That’s why we need to call them on their lie.

The real reason CEOs oppose the bill is because they know that giving workers a better chance at forming a union will undercut corporations’ ability to keep the rewards only to themselves. Wal-Mart CEO Lee Scott - who made about $23 million in 2007 - is one of the few CEOs to tell the truth about his motives. He admits that the secret ballot canard isn’t the real reason he’s fighting to kill the bill. “We like driving the car,” he said, “and we’re not going to give the steering wheel to anybody but us.”

Playing fast and loose with the truth is not going to defeat this important legislation in Congress. In the last Congress, the Employee Free Choice Act passed the House of Representatives by a wide margin, and in the Senate, Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.) has helped to build a solid majority of Democrats to support the bill. Thanks to Senator Reid, we now have a senate majority that supports giving workers a ticket to the middle class. But Republican senators have threatened a filibuster. Too many Republicans appear to be frightened that if they stand up to the Big Lie about secret ballots, they will upset the leaders of the their party. They know from experience that those leaders - anti-worker talking heads like Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity - will make it difficult for them to stand with America’s workers.

That’s why it’s important to keep the facts in front of the GOP senators. They need to be reminded that union members earn 30 percent more than workers who don’t have one. Union members are 63 percent more likely to have health care through their employers. That’s why workers want to join unions. CEOs don’t want to pay more so that workers can live better.

Americans want an economy that works for everyone, not just CEOs and right wing radio and TV talk show hosts. The Employee Free Choice Act will help rebuild the middle class and jumpstart our economy, by giving every worker a chance to bargain for decent wages, benefits and safe working conditions. A union job is not only a ticket for workers into the middle class, it’s the best way to jumpstart our economy.

As American workers face the worst economic conditions since the Great Depression, support is growing for the Employee Free Choice Act. Americans understand now more than ever that the Employee Free Choice Act must be a component of any long-term recovery for our economy, because it will give workers more freedom to organize and bargain collectively.

Recently, Pride at Work, the AFL-CIO’s LGBT constituency group, announced that a broad coalition of national lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender organizations have announced their support for the Employee Free Choice Act. Among the groups supporting the bill are the Human Rights Campaign (HRC), the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force (NGLTF), the National Center for Transgender Equality (NCTE), National Stonewall Democrats and the National Youth Advocacy Coalition.

Jeremy Bishop, Executive Director of Pride at Work notes that:

“America’s workers, who are already suffering badly from growing income inequality and declining benefits, badly need legislation that will ensure their right to organize by protecting them from bullying and intimidation by unscrupulous employers. Passage of the Employee Free Choice Act is vital if we are to rebuild middle-class living standards for working people in this country, and LGBT labor is committed to making that happen.”

Jon Hoadley, Executive Director of Stonewall Democrats, makes the point that working men and women and their unions have made a real difference in the lives of lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender Americans:

“Because of the efforts of unions, millions of Americans enjoy non-discrimination policies and equitable same-sex benefits at work. Even when our federal and state governments have been slow to act, workers organized through unions have proactively secured equal workplace protections through negotiating efforts.”

A series of new fact sheets from the Center for American Progress Action Fund argues that unions are good for state economies – and that more unionized workers would be even better.

From the report:

Unions paved the way to the middle class for millions of workers and pioneered benefits such as paid health care and pensions along the way. Even today, union workers earn significantly more on average than their non-union counterparts and union employers are more likely to provide benefits. And non-union workers – particularly in highly unionized industries – receive financial benefits from employers who increase wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.

If belonging to a union is good for workers, the opposite is also true: as unionization rates decline, workers are less likely to receive good wages and benefits. One way to level the playing field is to pass the Employee Free Choice Act and help improve the economic standing and workplace conditions for millions of American workers.

The factsheets look at how unions help workers in five key states: California, Louisiana, Maine, Pennsylvania and Virginia. Read more and download the factsheets at the CAPAF website.

American Rights at Work has launched a new television ad promoting the Employee Free Choice Act just in time to greet members of Congress returning to D.C. after a hard-fought campaign season.

Voters made it clear they want action taken to strengthen the middle class, and the Employee Free Choice Act is a critical part of the economic recovery we need. By restoring the freedom to form unions, this bill will help America’s workers get better health care, job security, and benefits.

Over 60 percent of the public as well as a majority of the incoming Congress support the measure, and it was cosponsored by both President-elect Obama and Vice President-elect Biden. Talking Points Memo reports that the ad, part of a broad effort to gain support for the Employee Free Choice Act and get it passed, started airing on Sunday and will run nationally on CNN, MSNBC and CNN Headline for three weeks.

Visit FreeChoiceAct.org/AFSCME for more information on the Employee Free Choice Act and to join the fight to pass this important piece of legislation.

This guest post was written by Michael Honey, Haley Professor of the Humanities at the University of Washington, Tacoma, and a former holder of the Harry Bridges labor studies chair at the University of Washington. His recent book, “Going Down Jericho Road: The Memphis Strike, Martin Luther King’s Last Campaign,” recently won the Robert F. Kennedy Book Award. He is President of the national Labor and Working-Class History Association.

Labor Day 2008 marks a moment of crisis for middle and working-class Americans. Housing, health care, transportation, education and job needs are growing acute in an economy that has been run into a ditch. If you have been paying any attention at all for the last eight years, you know what I’m talking about. Yet 2008 also may be a time of significant change. People are fed up and many are demanding a new direction.

However, really changing the American economy is a long-term project and it revolves around improving the conditions of American workers. Furthermore, whether things get better and incomes go up in the months to come depends a great deal on whether workers are able to organize unions. In a recent opinion survey by Peter D. Hart Associates, 65 percent supported unions while only 25 percent did not. That is no surprise: by one research estimate, unionized workers earn 30% higher wages, are 59% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 400% more likely to have pensions than their non-union counterparts. Unionized workers have more rights than those without unions, and a union still remains the best anti-poverty program for a wage earner, as Martin Luther King once said.

In Washington State, New York and a few other places, nearly 20 percent of workers belong to unions. But nationally, less than 12 percent do and in the South and parts of the west the percentages are much lower. If statistics show that workers want unions and that unions improve their conditions, why do so many not have them?

In many work places, employees simply do not have the freedom to choose. Employers blatantly disregard their First Amendment rights to speak, associate, and organize. The National Labor Relations Board, stacked against unions by the Bush administration, admits that at least a fifth of those who try to join a union get fired instead. The actual percentage is much higher. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch designate the land of the brave and the home of the free as one of the greatest violators of workers rights. American workers are not free.

This summer, federal agents in Smithfield, North Carolina, slowed a campaign to organize a union of African-American, Anglo and Latino packinghouse workers with deportation raids. Across the land, deportations turned into felony proceedings, imprisoning workers and smashing union organizing in the process.

Many of us have seen the full-page ads employer groups place in newspapers falsely blaming unions for America’s huge job losses (half a million in the last six months). They even mail anti-union literature into the homes of workers when they try to organize, while employers curse and run union representatives off job sites. Employers systematically break federal labor laws to put unions out of business.

This summer, Wal-Mart held captive audience meetings warning its employees against voting for Democrats. They said Democrats will support the Employee Free Choice Act (which they will), and claimed EFCA will force them to join a union (which it will not). This is blatantly illegal and underlines the simple fact that we need to strengthen labor laws and their enforcement to stop corporate bullying of employees.

Last year, EFCA passed in the House of Representatives but Republicans prevented a vote in the Senate. It allows workers to form unions through majority sign-up rather than through elections procedures that take years and have become a travesty as employers hold captive audience meetings to pressure workers into voting against unions. EFCA shields workers from such practices. It increases penalties for illegal employer actions, and creates mechanisms for binding arbitration for first collective bargaining contracts when employers refuse to bargain in good faith or the parties can’t reach an agreement.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce has made defeat of EFCA in the next Congress a top legislative priority. In contrast, union supporters are signing millions of post cards and circulating a national petition to support EFCA in the next Congress. Senator Barack Obama co-sponsored EFCA while Senator John McCain voted against it, so as they battle it out for President, employee freedom of choice hangs in the balance.

Employee free choice and union growth offer the most direct path to reduce the monstrous economic disparities between the great majority of wage and salary earners and the top 1 percent of the population, which owns more wealth than 90 percent of Americans combined. Unions are also important if we are to rejuvenate progressive politics in America. As Stewart Acuff and Sheldon Friedman recently wrote in the Huffington Post, “Social security, civil rights, women’s rights, progressive taxation, high-quality public education and health care for all are but a small sample of the national policies that cannot be defended or implemented without a strong labor movement.”

This Labor Day 2008 is a critical time that holds the possibility for sweeping political and economic change. Vote like the future of working-class and middle-class America depends upon it, because it does.

Day 3 of AFSCME’s 38th International Convention: Organizing was in the spotlight yesterday as delegates heard inspiring stories of successful campaigns and contract fights, bruising battles against anti-union bosses and exciting accounts by volunteer member organizers (VMOs) who are helping workers win a voice on the job.

Led by Brian Blackledge, a corrections officer and member of Ohio Civil Service Employees Association (OCSEA)/Local 11, the special program featured testimonials from eight members who described how joining the union changes lives. Child care providers from Wisconsin and Michigan, a registered nurse from California and a utilities worker from Oklahoma all talked about doing what many said was impossible.

AFSCME members who work for school bus operator First Student Inc. spoke about the threats they faced while trying to organize and the thrill of victory when they won. The international company – the largest school bus contractor worldwide – is notorious for threatening and intimidating workers and union organizers.

As a VMO, Blackledge helped workers fight for bargaining rights in Kentucky. He urged delegates to get involved and become VMOs themselves.

Watch these inspiring members below:

Day 1 of AFSCME’s 38th International Convention: President Gerald W. McEntee got delegates jumping to their feet when he asked them to, “stand up if you’re ready to make a better America happen!”

In his keynote address, McEntee told the crowd of nearly 6,000 that, “Together we will build an even more powerful union! Together we will reach out and organize the unorganized! We will negotiate contracts that make our families strong! Together we will fight for a new America!” Watch an excerpt below:

Reposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog.

Employees at the University of New Hampshire (UNH) are seeking a voice on the job through a historic coordinated effort by two unions – AFSCME and UAW.

Kelly Hinton, an eight-year financial support specialist, says:

This is great news for all UNH employees. We feel that the two unions working together will be a good fit for the University alongside of the faculty union. Working together with AFSCME and the UAW means we are united and stronger.

Says Lonn Sattler, a veterans coordinator who has worked at UNH for 26 years:

This is a terrific opportunity for us to have a real, effective voice on the job. With two great unions working together, we can make UNH a better place to work.

Last year, the state Legislature passed legislation allowing state employees, including those at UNH, to form unions and bargain with their employers when a majority of workers sign union authorization cards.

AFSCME and UAW agreed to coordinate organizing efforts and support the negotiating teams of all UNH workers who are successful in forming their own local unions and bargaining units. Under the agreement, clerical, technical, skilled trades and administrative employees and certain supervisory employees will be eligible to join AFSCME. Service and professional staff, adjunct faculty members and some supervisors will be eligible to become part of the UAW.

Both unions say the partnership will help the workers. Says Bob Madore, director of UAW Region 9A:

Our goal is to help workers who want to form their own unions. By combining resources so we can work with AFSCME, we can be even more effective.

Alva Arellano, AFSCME’s director of organizing in New England, adds:

This is the right approach for UNH workers and for our two unions. We’re going to help UNH workers join together so they can have a voice in the decisions that affect their lives and improve the important public services they provide.

The 800 office-technical and administrative-technical employees in Tulsa, Okla., now have a voice on the job after joining AFSCME Local 1180.

Says Laureen Gilroy, who works in the city’s Public Works Department:

Forming a union is our legal and democratic right, and we decided to exercise that right. Having a union means that we can work to improve conditions on the job and give employees a voice at work.

A majority of the employees submitted union interest ballots to the state’s Public Employees Relations Board this month. State law allows municipal employees in Oklahoma cities with populations of more than 35,000 to form unions.

Local 1180 President Mark Stodghill said he is proud to have the employees join the union.

They have gone much too long without a strong, organized voice in the workplace. Now it’s time that the union members of this new unit all roll up their sleeves and get their first contract to cement their rights as employees represented by a union.

The new union members join the city’s 911 operators, airport police and municipal labor and trades employees as members of Local 1180.

(crossposted from the AFL-CIO Now Blog)