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Enabling Micro-Unions is a Dangerous Game
Townhall.com ^ | July 25, 2014 | Fred Wszolek

Posted on 07/25/2014 12:06:25 PM PDT by Kaslin

resident Obama’s National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has showed itself once again to be a strident advocate for the interests of Big Labor bosses, ready to stand up for union interests even in the face of common sense. This week, the NLRB ruled that cosmetics workers at a Macy’s store in Saugus, Massachusetts, were allowed to form a collective bargaining unit for their department alone – what’s known as a “micro-union.” Of course, the three-to-one decision was split along strictly partisan lines. The three Democrats on the Board sided with the United Food & Commercial Workers Union (UFCW), representing the Macy’s workers, while one Republican dissented.

Forming micro-unions like the UFCW is attempting at the Macy’s in Saugus is just one of the latest strategies employed by labor bosses as they desperately attempt to hang on to any sort of relevance in the modern workplace. It’s easy to understand their panic – membership has been steadily declining for decades. As of 2013, only 11.3 percent of American workers belonged to a union and that number falls even further in the private sector.

As more and more workers reject Big Labor’s outdated, inefficient and often shady ways of doing business, union bosses are turning more and more to unconventional methods to infiltrate workplaces. They’ll form “worker centers,” for instance, which are used as labor fronts to agitate and disrupt businesses, and advance policies that hurt employers and cost workers their jobs.

And then there’s the “micro-union,” which President Obama’s NLRB both created and endorsed. Micro-unions form when a certain department, shift group or other collection of employees organize themselves into a bargaining unit apart from other workers at their business. It undoes the traditional criteria that governed how unions could be formed for generations and allows union bosses to divide up a workplace by selecting only those workers who agree with them. That’s what’s happening in Saugus, but it’s not unique to that situation. It’s cropped up elsewhere in the retail sector – in the women’s shoe department at Bergdorf Goodman in New York.

Micro-unions create unnecessary barriers and inherently sow discord between different small groups of workers and lead to different segments of the workforce negotiating against one another. It’s possible that different groups of employees could organize under the auspices of different major unions – some could join the UFCW while others may opt to join the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) for instance. And inordinate amounts of time would be taken up dealing with the different unions’ competing demands.

In fact, Macy’s expressed the very practical concern following the NLRB ruling that micro-union’s segmentation of the workforce could prove “an impediment to providing a consistent level of customer service.” Going further, the added costs associated with micro-unions risks an employer’s solvency – particularly small businesses – and threatens the flexibility needed to compete successfully in the marketplace.

With this ruling, the NLRB is doubling down on the controversial decision it issued in the Specialty Healthcare case in 2011. By allowing certain staff members at a long-term care facility to organize themselves to the exclusion of other workers, the NLRB threw well-established labor law and precedent out the window in a giveaway to union bosses. Up until then, the standard for unionization had been “wall-to-wall,” meaning a majority of employees must be organized as a single group. The Board’s decision was always intended to go beyond health care facilities and targeted retail stores, which has now begun to manifest itself much to the delight of union organizers and the chagrin of employers.

The Obama Administration’s support for micro-unions sets a dangerous course that only hurts the businesses our nation relies upon to employ workers and to generate tax revenues, which government agencies such as the NLRB use to actively undercut them at every turn.


TOPICS: Editorial
KEYWORDS: barack0bama; nlrb; unions
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1 posted on 07/25/2014 12:06:25 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin

Coming soon:

The French Fry Cookers Union................................


2 posted on 07/25/2014 12:18:05 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Kaslin

insanty


3 posted on 07/25/2014 12:23:16 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

It is indeed insanity


4 posted on 07/25/2014 12:25:03 PM PDT by Kaslin (He needed the ignorant to reelect him, and he got them. Now we all have to pay the consequenses)
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To: Kaslin

“You can’t tell me to take out the trash, my union says I do nothing but fries!”

“Union?”

“I started it yesterday and I’m the Union rep and the only member”

*facepalm*


5 posted on 07/25/2014 12:29:02 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

This is aimed right at the heart of TWO targets:

1. Wal Mart
2. Small businesses

If they succeed in getting a couple of dumbass employees in Wal Mart or a small private corporation to declare themselves ‘a collective bargaining group’ then the flood gates will open all across the US for low wage workers to splinter into thousands of ‘unions’........................


6 posted on 07/25/2014 12:32:25 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Kaslin
I remember they tried this on Wal-Mart back in the 1990’s by unionizing the in store butchers. Wal-Mart responded by firing all the butchers and outsourcing meat cutting and packing to regional centers. Which is why there are no butchers in Wal-Mart’s today....
7 posted on 07/25/2014 12:34:57 PM PDT by apillar
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To: GeronL

Drive-in window employee: I’m sorry, sir, you’ll have to wait for your fries.
Customer: Why?
Employee: The French Fry Union Worker’s are on break and won’t be back for 15 minutes...............Hey, wait! Where are you going?......Come Back!.........................


8 posted on 07/25/2014 12:35:48 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Red Badger

lol


9 posted on 07/25/2014 12:37:39 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: Kaslin

South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is preparing to introduce an amendment to the Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies appropriations bill for Fiscal Year 2015 – an amendment that could play a crucial role in improving conditions for American workers and restoring a longstanding labor law precedent.

The Graham amendment would help stop the spread of micro-unions, a disturbing tactic employed by Big Labor in recent years with the goal of disrupting workplaces.

Read more: http://dailycaller.com/2014/06/20/sen-graham-has-it-right-on-micro-unions/#ixzz38Vk6ofQf


10 posted on 07/25/2014 12:40:03 PM PDT by Rusty0604
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To: Kaslin

Unions are the perfect example of the dictum that power corrupts. There were places where they were needed (19th century mines, early 20th century textile mills), but now they are almost universally corrupt organizations who pay their officers excessively, interfere in politics, and do their best to suck the lifeblood out of their hosts (see GM).


11 posted on 07/25/2014 12:44:35 PM PDT by Pearls Before Swine
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To: GeronL

To continue your previous post conversation:

“Well then, get in there and make some more fries! We’re busy as hell, we need more fries!”

“The union rules state that I cannot be forced to make more than two baskets of fries per hour! It has only been ten minutes, so you’ll have to wait for 50 more minutes for those fries!”.........................


12 posted on 07/25/2014 12:46:23 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Kaslin

What good can come from Union Power.?..
What could go wrong?...


13 posted on 07/25/2014 12:46:55 PM PDT by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole..)
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To: Red Badger

lolz


14 posted on 07/25/2014 12:50:34 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

Continuing...............

Fifty Minutes later:

“Where’s my fries?”

“Can’t make any.”

“Why not?”

“Don’t have any to fry.”

“Well, the get some from the freezer!”

“Can’t. Not part of my job description. The Frozen Food Distribution Union handles that.”

“Then tell them to bring you some!”

“Can’t.”

“WHY???????..........”

“He is on strike for new gloves and I am in solidarity with that, so I won’t cross his picket line.”.......................


15 posted on 07/25/2014 12:58:19 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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To: Red Badger

Walmart hopped into bed with Big Gov about a decade ago.
Personally I am predicting they will voluntarily accept unionization at some point in exchange for continuing to have the table slanted in their direction.


16 posted on 07/25/2014 1:10:43 PM PDT by Buckeye McFrog
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To: Kaslin

Too easy to just close that Macy’s store or any store. It’s all a matter of profit. They are not a non-profit jobs creation agency.

You’d think the Hostess Twinkies company would have taught a lesson.

Why go to all that work for a piddling return on your money when you can do the same or better with investments?


17 posted on 07/25/2014 1:29:38 PM PDT by xzins ( Retired Army Chaplain and Proud of It! Those who truly support our troops pray for victory!)
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To: Kaslin

If I am not mistaken the cosmetic workers at Macy’s are not employees of Macy’s. They work for Revlon etc. Revlon leases space from Macy’s. So these workers will not be negotiation with Macy’s but with Revlon.


18 posted on 07/25/2014 1:29:41 PM PDT by Maine Mariner
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To: Red Badger

lol

perfect


19 posted on 07/25/2014 2:15:09 PM PDT by GeronL (Vote for Conservatives not for Republicans)
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To: GeronL

The continuing saga:

“Then I’LL GET YOU SOME FRIES!”

“You can’t do that.”

“And just why not?”

“You’re management. You would be depriving a worker of his job by delivering the fries yourself.”

“Then how am I supposed to get fries to my customers?”

“You could order some.”

“From where??????”

“Across the street at Burger Barn. They aren’t union.”....................................


20 posted on 07/25/2014 2:30:29 PM PDT by Red Badger (If you compromise with evil, you just get more evil..........................)
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