The National Labor Relations Board’s (“NLRB”) aggressive campaign to educate non-union employees about their rights under the National Labor Relations Act (“NLRA”) is in full swing.
In addition to the mandatory notice posting requirement that will go into effect for all employers on April 30, the NLRB recently announced its plan to launch a new website designed to educate both union and non-union employees about their rights under the NLRA. These rights include the rights to discuss working conditions and to present grievances to their employers. Under the NLRA, employees have a right to engage in such “protected concerted activity,” even when they are not union employees or involved in union organizing efforts.
The new website will be rolled out in mid-April, just before employers are required to post the Notice of Employee Rights. The NLRB also plans to distribute pamphlets, published in both English and Spanish, addressing workers’ rights and to publicly discuss this information across various media outlets.
Read More:
The United Auto Workers union has begun passing out cards to employees of the Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga to determine whether there is enough support to hold a union representation election.
But the cards are not the official instruments the union would have to collect from at least 30 percent of the plant’s hourly workers to force a union vote, said Gary Casteel, director of the UAW’s District 8, which includes Tennessee.
“We have not started an official organizing campaign,” he said, refuting some national media reports.
“What got some people up in arms is that we passed out some cards, but they were never about setting up an election,” Casteel said. “The cards were just gauging the level of support.”
Read More:
Hundreds of janitors from SEIU Local 1, joined by women’s rights activists and other supporters, rallied outside the Chicago Board of Trade building Thursday afternoon.
In an effort to tie pending contract negotiations with International Women’s Day and women’s equality issues, such as equal pay for equal work, the group is demanding “fair wage increases.”
“Women today are still paid just 77 cents for every dollar their male counterparts are paid,” said Aleksandra Figus, who has been a janitor for 28 years. “But unionization raises female workers’ wages by $2 an hour.”
In a press release, the group said they also want Illinois’ corporations to create more jobs, while raising wages and rejecting tax breaks.
Read More:
FINDLAY, Ohio—Members of United Steelworkers Local 207L, locked out of their jobs for three months by Cooper Tire and Rubber Co., approved a new five-year contract Feb. 27 by 627 to 321.
The lockout began Nov. 28 after workers rejected 606 to 305 the company’s “last, best and final offer.”
The company had demanded a wage scale with undisclosed piece rates and productivity standards. This was removed from the new proposal and replaced with “minimum performance levels” ranging from 80 to 85 percent of the average. The contract also dropped a proposed five-tier classification system.
But lower pay and benefits for new hires was retained. Workers hired after Jan. 1, 2009, have a starting wage of 70 percent of pay of other workers and cap out at 85 percent of the previous pay scale. New hires receive lump sum bonuses of $1,200 in 2012 and 2013 and hourly wage increases totaling 45 cents over the following three years. New hires start out at $13 per hour.
Instead of a wage increase, workers hired before 2009 receive three annual bonuses of $800, and undefined lump sums in the final two years.
Defined benefit pensions for workers hired before 2009 are maintained at the previous level. Newer workers will only get individual 401(k) retirement accounts.
Read More:
TORONTO, February 9, 2012/MILTON, ON- AFI International, North America’s leader in crisis management and response, is pleased to announce that Desmond Taljaard, its national vice president of operations and security services, has been selected as the sole representative for the CSIS at the Provincial Review of Training Regulations for the security industry.
Taljaard was appointed by the society based on his extensive experience and impeccable industry credentials. Prior to joining AFI, he held many high level security roles both in Canada and abroad, including operational air marshal for an international airline, police hostage negotiator and detective inspector in Internal Affairs with the South African police service. Mr. Taljaard has also taught in the Police and Public Safety Institute at Algonquin College in Ottawa and is an active member of the CSIS national capital region chapter.
Read More:
INDIANAPOLIS | Indiana’s right-to-work law took effect Wednesday, prohibiting a business and a union from agreeing to charge fees to nonunion employees for union-provided representation and grievance services. Employees covered by an existing contract cannot opt out of paying union fees until the contract expires.
Here’s how Northwest Indiana’s lawmakers voted on House Bill 1001.
Indiana Senate approved legislation in a 28-22 vote Wednesday.
Negotiators are staying mum on how many jobs at the Port of Longview’s EGT grain terminal will be filled by union longshoremen, but a tentative settlement has already compelled the longshore union and EGT to push back a key labor hearing at the heart of the dispute.
The National Labor Relations Board postponed a hearing scheduled for Monday on whether the International Longshore and Warehouse Union engaged in illegal picketing during last summer’s protests, according to Frank Randolph, Port of Longview attorney.
The first day of the hearing, expected to last at least a month, has been rescheduled for Feb. 6. According to the labor board, the Pacific Maritime Association also is listed as a party because of the lost time incurred by shippers due to longshore walkouts in Longview, Seattle and Tacoma in September in protest of EGT’s hiring policies.
Attorneys for EGT, the ILWU and the Port of Longview are discussing ways to modify the company’s lease and the port’s working agreement with the ILWU to create the legal framework to get union workers in the terminal, Randolph said Tuesday, adding that the parties are also trying to settle a federal lawsuit filed a year ago over the staffing of the terminal.
It’s called a “reopener.” It’s a tool in labor negotiations for breaking stubborn deadlocks.
And it just might work in the American Crystal Sugar case, because Crystal’s circumstances seem tailor-made for what a reopener can provide. Here’s how.
This idea comes to the Herald from Richard Aregood, professor of journalism at UND and former president of the Philadelphia local of the Newspaper Guild, a newspaper union.
As Herald readers know, American Crystal Sugar workers have been locked out of their jobs since August. One big reason is the uncertainty facing the sugar program in Washington.
In a nutshell, Crystal’s grower/owners and executives want to streamline the business because the sugar program may be at risk. If the program goes away — if sugar-import limits are eased, and the federal government lets the price of sugar drop — Crystal must be ready to compete ferociously against low-cost and/or subsidized sugar from overseas.
Read More:
Ohio-based International Management Assistance Corporation (IMAC) has achieved HRCI approval for several of the courses offered at its IMAC Online Training Academy. Human resources professionals will now receive HRCI accreditation towards their Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) designation upon successful completion of any of these unique, professionally-relevant courses, available at www.imac-training.com.
The courses pre-approved by the HR Certification Institute (HRCI) have been designed expressly to further the careers of HR professionals, and include pragmatic subject matter developed by some of the industry’s top security professionals. Most popular of the accredited courses include an overview of workplace violence, nonviolent confrontation, high-risk terminations and work stoppage management.
Launched in early 2011, the IMAC Online Training Academy is unique in the practical and applicable nature of the training it provides. The IMAC security education team brings together respected experts who will instruct primarily on the realistic application of field-tested concepts and tactics to ensure students get relevant knowledge and techniques to equip them to succeed in the industry today. In addition to its more than twenty courses geared to HR professionals, the school also provides workplace violence training for security professionals and corporate executives.
Read More:
