2014 is off to a fast start with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
Read More “An Intriguing Year for Big Labor in 2014”

I was sitting at my computer the other day reading about the strike at Verizon and looking at the videos and pictures of the “chaos” on the streets. It took me directly back to my days when I was working as a national strike coordinator with the union. I realized that many people don’t really understand the complexity of a strike. Have you ever asked yourself what kind of manipulation takes place to convince 45,000 workers to walk away from their company to go on strike? With over 20 years of working inside the union movement, I had the opportunity to spend some of these years working as a strike coordinator. Read More “An Insider’s View into the Anatomy of a Strike”

And a Preview of What Is to Come

The “quickie” election countdown hasconcluded and the rule should be considered permanent. April 14, 2015 arguably witnessed the most sweeping changes ever implemented by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) since labor law was transformed byits very creation.
Read More “A Former Union Official’s Perspective on the Quickie Election”

In Union Alliances

Listening to the Rolling Stones last week reminded me of an alliance forged between the California Nurses Association (CNA) and the United Steelworkers (USW). While the USW wouldn’t get what they wanted, the CNA surely got what they needed. Read More ““You Can’t Always Get What You Want””

As I wait for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to come back with a decision on how they are going to change the union election process I have been pondering my former years as a union official and the tactics I would deploy when running campaigns from the national level. I recall when I was an Organizing Director for the United Steelworkers (USW) and accepted a challenge to organize mini-mills. We were losing members in the larger “full service” steel mills (integratedsteel mills) with a vast amount of foreign made steel coming into the country. So called, mini-mills were popping up all over the United States and they were mostly non-union. We also had an enormous amount ofnon-union vendors and/or contractors with permanent stations and workforces at the mills that depended on USW membership support to be able to compete for their jobs. The union was quite angry because for the most part, we had the skilled workforce to consolidate these jobs into our membership.
Read More “Working From The Inside Out”

Smokescreens and Sabotage

Organizing tactics and strategiesaffect every aspect of the union. During my organizing days, everythingmy team and I did were carefully calculated to influence the way futurecampaigns would be run. These days, while teaching management training courses, I mention how we took a “victory by any means necessary” approach. One of the most common questions I receive is “why would a union want to destroy a company when all it is doing is hurting their own members who won’t have a job if the company closes”. Read More “Where There is Smoke There is Fire”

Now that the holiday gift-giving season is past, we would like to take a few minutes to recognize and examine the companies and workers who make it possible: warehousing hubsand distribution centers. Please read on to see how labor views these groups and some of the tactics they employ to drive a wedge between management and workers. Read More “Warehousing Anger”

Looking for new tactics to utilize in an organizers quest to recruit new members is the number one goal of every good organizing department. Read More “Using Empowerment Zones to My Advantage”

Unions have been taking a more aggressive approach at organizing since Craig Becker has been selected to head the NLRB. My contacts from inside the AFL/CIO and Change to Win organizations tell me that they areinstructing their affiliates that they want to cause a “perfect storm” inside the NLRB on a national level and create a severe backlog of ULP’sand EEOC cases to frustrate companies and create a political foundationto try to push forward changes in labor organizing law.
Read More “Unions Are Digging In”

It Happened Before. It’s Happening Now. Will It Happen Again?

We have been over-inundated with news of corrupt union officials betraying their members’ trust and stealing their members’ dues monies. The case involving Fiat Chrysler Automobiles (FCA) and the UAW being the most recognized. It’s no secret that unions have a history of corruption, but it still seems like many people are surprised when they read about these abuses of power. Many people are asking themselves, “Where is the oversite on union finances?” or, “Are all union officials corrupt?” Read More “Understanding Corrupt Union Officials”