Most Americans Like Unions and Companies Alike

About 60% of adults have a favorable view of labor unions and businesses according to a Pew Research Center survey. This is a 10% increase since March 2015, and favorable opinions of each are at their highest levels in nearly a decade. In the “not really news” category: Democrats and Democrat-leaning independents are much more…
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Union Corruption Continues in Cleveland and Kansas

In Cleveland, a labor union has been recommended for trusteeship by a federal investigative panel after it was named in a report for misusing funds and violating the Federal Labor Standards Act. The officers of the Teamsters’ Local involved, which has employees in the grocery and warehousing industry, spent over 70% of its members’ dues…
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Union Employers May Track Employees through GPS, Sometimes

A Company whose workforce is unionized lawfully terminated an employee after installing a GPS tracking device on the employee’s company-owned truck to assist a private investigator in following him. The investigator personally observed the employee operating his truck in an unsafe and illegal manner, failing to follow specified delivery times, stealing time, and falsifying his…
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Why a Manufacturing Plant Strike in Wisconsin is Worth Following

Two thousand workers at a manufacturing plant in Northern Wisconsin have been walking the picket line since mid-November. Such a strike would have been commonplace a decade ago. Nowadays, it’s a rarity. While labor has become adept at hit-and-run publicity strikes like the “Fight for $15” one-day stunts, major strikes of over 1,000 workers are…
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Despite the Widespread Steelworker Strike at Oil Refiners Across the US, Union Strikes are a Dying Pressure Tactic

In the 1950’s there were an average of 352 large-scale work stoppages each year. A large-scale work stoppage is defined as at least 1000 workers walking off the job. 1952 saw the most large-scale strikes – 470 – when 2.7 million workers took part in workplace stoppages. Since then, the number of strikes has fallen…
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How do You Lose a Union Election after Winning It?

Employees at an industrial aluminum facility in New York started a union organizing drive. The Company countered with an anti-union campaign. The union lost the election by roughly 271 votes for representation to 285 votes to stay union-free. During the campaign period, the union filed numerous unfair labor practice charges alleging that the Company restored…
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