Labor union officials enjoy many extraordinary powers and immunities that were created by legislatures and the courts. Union officials claim to rely on the support of rank-and-file workers. Yet, they clamor in the political arena to secure and expand their government-granted powers, including the powers to shake down workers for financial support and even to wage campaigns of violent retaliation against non-union employees.
The following list of special privileges reveals the extent to which union bosses have rigged our nation’s labor laws in their favor.
Privilege #1: Exemption from prosecution for union violence.
The most egregious example of organized labor’s special privileges and immunities is the 1973 United States v. Enmons decision. In it, the United States Supreme Court held that union violence is exempted from the Hobbs Act, which makes it a federal crime to obstruct interstate commerce by robbery or extortion. As a result, thousands of incidents of violent assaults (directed mostly against workers) by union militants have gone unpunished. Meanwhile, many states also restrict the authority of law enforcement to enforce laws during strikes.
Privilege #2: Exemption from anti-monopoly laws.
The Clayton Act of 1914 exempts unions from anti-monopoly laws, enabling union officials to forcibly drive out independent or alternative employee bargaining groups.
Privilege #3: Power to force employees to accept unwanted union representation.
Monopoly bargaining, or “exclusive representation,” which is embedded in most of the country’s labor relations statutes, enables union officials to act as the exclusive bargaining agents of all employees at a unionized workplace, thereby depriving employees of the right to make their own employment contracts. For example, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935, the Federal Labor Relations Act (FLRA) of 1978, and the Railway Labor Act (RLA) of 1926 prohibit employees from negotiating their own contracts with their employers or choosing their own workplace representatives.
Privilege #4: Power to collect forced union dues.
Unlike other private organizations, unions can compel individuals to support them financially. In 26 states under the NLRA (those that have not passed Right to Work laws), all states under the RLA, on “exclusive federal enclaves,” and in many states under public sector labor relations acts, employees may be forced to pay union dues as a condition of employment, even if they reject union affiliation.
Privilege #5: Unlimited, undisclosed electioneering.
The Federal Election Campaign Act exempts unions from its limits on campaign contributions and expenditures, as well as some of its reporting requirements. Union bigwigs can spend unlimited amounts on communications to members and their families in support of, or opposition to, candidates for federal office, and they need not report these expenditures if they successfully claim that union publications are primarily devoted to other subjects. For years, the politically active National Education Association (NEA) teacher union has gotten away with claiming zero political expenditures on its IRS tax forms!
Privilege #6: Ability to strong-arm employers into negotiations.
Unlike all other parties in the economic marketplace, union officials can compel employers to bargain with them. The NLRA, FLRA, and RLA make it illegal for employers to resist a union’s collective bargaining efforts and difficult for them to counter aggressive and deceptive campaigns waged by union organizers.
Privilege #7: Right to trespass on an employer’s private property.
The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 (and state anti-injunction acts) give union activists immunity from injunctions against trespass on an employer’s property.
Privilege #8: Ability of strikers to keep jobs despite refusing to work.
Unlike other employees, unionized employees in the private sector have the right to strike; that is, to refuse to work while keeping their job. In some cases, it is illegal for employers to hire replacement workers, even to avert bankruptcy. Meanwhile, union officials demonize replacement workers as “scabs” to set them up for retaliation.
Privilege #9: Union-only cartels on construction projects.
Under so-called project labor agreements, governments (local, state, or federal) award contracts for construction on major projects such as highways, airports, and stadiums exclusively to unionized firms. Such practices effectively lock-out qualified contractors and employees who refuse to submit to exclusive union bargaining, forced union dues, and wasteful union work rules. So far, just three states have outlawed these discriminatory and costly union-only pacts.
Privilege #10: Government funding of forced unionism.
On top of all of the special powers and immunities granted to organized labor, politicians even pour taxpayer money straight into union coffers. Union groups receive upwards of $160 million annually in direct federal grants. But that’s just the tip of the iceberg. In 2001, the federal Department of Labor doled out $148 million for “international labor programs” overwhelmingly controlled by an AFL-CIO front group. Federal bureaucrats spend approximately $2.6 billion per year on “job training programs” that, under the Workforce Investment Act, must be administered by boards filled with union officials. Union bosses also benefit from a plethora of state and local government giveaways.
The workers at VW-Chattanooga did unite... and told the UAW to go pound sand.
Union is following standard protocol, happens all the time.
FU UAW.
Let the American people have a do-over with Obama/Biden and the union can have their do-over.
“Unions Request a “Do-Over” in Failed Chattanooga Union Vote”
And this time...this time with more INTIMIDATION!!!
Standard leftist position - keep voting until you get the result you want. Then everything’s settled and no more votes are needed.
Agreed . . . IF we can have a “do-over” of the Congressional Obamacare vote. . . .
“DO OVER” ?
Really?
They just want another chance to do a better FIX on the vote count!!
“Keep voting, comrades, until we win!”
Another recall vote. How’d that work out for ya lately?
Keep voting till they win, then it’s settled law
Have they ever agreed to a do-over after winning?
A bunch of sniveling self serving RATS. WAH!
“And we’ll KEEP re-voting until you vote the way we WANT you to!”
Given the way the Tennessee legislature threatened VW and how Corker stuck his nose in I wouldn’t be surprised if they get a second vote. But what will the UAW do if they get even fewer votes the second time around? What will that do to them?
And you can bet that Obama’s thugs will be all behind this effort, seen and unseen.
Well, if “do overs” are allowed now, how about a “do over” on the last presidential election?
United Auto Workers union cries ‘Mommy’ to Labor Relations Board for a re-vote at Tennessee VW
No one likes a sore loser, but the United Auto Workers doesn’t seem to care.
When two small groups of workers fought the union’s intervention, the United Auto Workers and the Volkswagen Group of America immediately took offense. In a prepared statement, Volkswagen officials said the National Right to Work Foundation and Southern Momentum were unwarranted in their attempts to counter the United Auto Workers’ appeal.
The union argued that the two groups lacked jurisdiction to intercede, since neither was a labor organization or a party to the election.
Since VW wanted the Union, then the Union’s stance is there should have been no campaigning against the referendum by anybody, not even workers who opposed the Union. That seems to be the rationale, and Obastard’s NLRB will probably find for the Union and call another election.