Where's the Goddamn Outrage-When It Comes to Labor Laws-We Have a Corporate Crime Wave-Dave Lindorff

[kpete]

Where's the Goddamn Outrage: When It Comes to Labor Laws, We Have a Corporate Crime Wave
Submitted by dlindorff on Wed, 2009-05-20 15:48.

By Dave Lindorff

A new study of 1004 union organizing drives conducted by the director of labor education research at Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations has found that two-third of the companies involved were violating US labor law by holding one-on-one interrogations of workers, by threatening workers about their union support, by firing union organizers or using half a dozen other illegal tactics to defeat unionization campaigns.

Prof. Kate Bronfenbrenner, author of No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition ot Organizing, says that these illegal tactics by employers have been used to drive union representation at American companies down to only 12.4 percent from a level of 22 percent just 30 years ago.

If a similar level of illegal behavior by companies was reported dealing with, say, false billing of customers, deceptive reports to shareholders or violation of environmental laws, there would be a clamor for action in Congress, and among the public, but so far, there is no outcry over this wholesale violation of the nation’s labor laws.

One reason may be because nobody except the unions themselves and the companies breaking the law would know about this particular corporate crime wave.

more:
http://www.afterdowningstreet.org/node/42797

[able1]

1. Don't you think Obama is outraged? EOM

[Vinnie From Indy]

2. Two words - American Media

They set and control the agenda for their owners and allies. The American people have proven that they are easily controlled by the media. Almost six decades of Madison Avenue perfecting the art of persuasion has come in very handy for the wealthy elite.

[madrchsod]

3. no one in the government gives a shit about the workers....

we are expendable because there is always another country that will work cheaper.

[Dinger]

4. If Anybody In The Obama Administration Is Outraged, I'm Not Seeing It

I do see Kucinich's outrage, but then again, he's not in the White House.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

5. We've HAD a crime wave involving Labor Laws for awhile

Below is just the INTRO from George Miller's NLRB report from 2006

http://www.changetowin.org/fileadmin/pdf/George_Miller_NLRB_report_07-13-06.pdf
WORKERS’ RIGHTS UNDER
ATTACK BY BUSH
ADMINISTRATION

President Bush’s National Labor Relations Board
Rolls Back Labor Protections

THE HONORABLE GEORGE MILLER
SENIOR DEMOCRATIC MEMBER
COMMITTEE ON EDUCATION AND THE WORKFORCE
U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
July 13, 2006

Over the past five years, President Bush has stacked the National Labor Relations Board
with anti-union members – and American workers are paying the price. Millions of
workers have seen their right to organize eliminated or severely restricted, their basic
human rights have been trampled, and businesses have essentially been given free rein to
make it as difficult as possible for their employees to organize.

Labor Protections Stolen From Large Categories of Workers
Some of the Bush Board’s most egregious rulings have denied labor protections for wide
swaths of workers.
· 45,000 disabled workers have lost their right to organize
· 51,000 teaching and research assistants have lost their right to organize
· 2 million temporary workers have had their right to organize severely limited
· 8 million workers, including 1.4 million charge nurses, leadmen and load
supervisors, are currently facing the loss of their organizing rights

Human Rights Trampled
Workers’ basic human rights have been undermined. The Bush Board undermined
workers’ fundamental right of association when it ruled that a company could impose a
blanket ban on off-duty fraternizing by its employees in 2005. The company was
effectively given license to punish workers simply for having a friendly gathering at the
local pizza parlor, for example.

(skip)

Hypocrisy and Unfairness Abound in Bush Board��s Decisions
The Bush Board has shown its hypocrisy by applying double standards to supervisors’
anti-union and pro-union conduct. When a supervisor campaigns against a union, the
NLRB deems it “free speech.” When a supervisor campaigns for a union, however, the
Bush Board has, on occasion, overturned the entire union election.
*********************************************************************************************************************************
Meanwhile

The GAO found that the Wage and Hour Division left low wage workers vulnerable to wage theft. Its almost as though they . . . . didn't . . .care . . .

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/packages/pdf/national/20090325_GAOTestimony.pdf

[Captain Hilts]

6. Today's WSJ had a great article about investors rebelling over exec. pay. Let's hope

that trickles down.

[Wednesdays]

7. K&R

:kick: