Excerpt:Updated Jun. 10, 2011 at 11:44 a.m.
New global union calls for IBM to 'respect' workers' rights
Research Triangle Park, N.C. — As IBM (NYSE: IBM) prepares to launch numerous events in commemoration of the company’s 100th anniversary, a new group of various labor unions is taking Big Blue to task for “systematically denying employees’ their basic rights.”
The Global Union Alliance at IBM, which took shape in May, unveiled a video on YouTube on June 10 that includes employees and union representatives from around the world offering a “happy birthday video.” (Watch the video here.)
The collective union also called for a “common action” across IBM’s global operations on June 14 as a demand to “call on the company to recognize the vital role played by IBMers in the company’s success and to respect their rights as workers.”
The video and call for action are the first major initiatives launched by the Global Union Alliance.
A spokesperson for the union said the group’s complaints about workers rights and unions primarily focused on Bulgaria, Turkey and Chile where he said IBM has fought to keep workers from joining sanctioned organizations.
In the past, unions organized a “silent strike” and a “virtual strike” in cyberspace.
As part of Friday’s announcement, union representatives asked for a meeting with IBM Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Sam Palmisano.
IBM has been asked for comment.
The world’s largest technology company with 430,000 employees recently cut an undisclosed numbers across the US, including in RTP and North Carolina, while opening a new data center in the Midwest and expanding operations in India. India reportedly now has the largest number of IBM workers. (Read more about the layoffs here and IBM's growth in India here.)
Secrecy about job cuts
“In the US, job cuts are constant,” said Tom Midgley, president of Alliance@IBM in the US. “IBM hides that fact, as well as the number of jobs cut, from other employees, communities, elected officials and the media. IBM is off-shoring work at a record pace and sending loyal IBMers to the unemployment line.
“The more than 15,000 ex-employees terminated in the past few years and the thousands more fearing future job loss and declining working conditions will not have the spirit of celebration IBM executives are hoping for.”
IBM no longer says how many employees it has in the US, citing competitive reasons.
Based on data previously provided by IBM, its workforce in the US has declined substantially since 2005. No data was made available in 2010.
- 2009: 105,000
- 2008: 115,000
- 2007: 121,000
- 2006: 127,000
- 2005: 133,789
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/art-levine/big-businesss-threat-to-a_b_158402.html
Excerpt:
Art Levine
Posted January 16, 2009 | 01:44 AM (EST)
If dirty tricks and threats can work to stop unionizing in the workplace, why can't they be used on the American public?
This week, business leaders and their GOP henchmen launched a new attack line: stop union organizing or we'll leave the country. On top of that, their allies in the ideological right are preparing a series of state constitutional amendments designed to thwart the Employee Free Choice Act, and based on the lie that the legislation stops workers from casting a secret ballot.
This week, business leaders and their GOP henchmen launched a new attack line: stop union organizing or we'll leave the country. On top of that, their allies in the ideological right are preparing a series of state constitutional amendments designed to thwart the Employee Free Choice Act, and based on the lie that the legislation stops workers from casting a secret ballot.
http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/publications/general/undermining-the-right-to-organize-employer-behavior-during-union-representation-campaigns.html
Excerpt:
Why aren’t more workers forming unions? New data on employer anti-union behavior
Employer Anti-Union Behavior Is Widespread
Findings from a new report reveal that most employers take full advantage of the opportunity to tread on workers’ rights to a “free choice” before a union representation vote. They do this by aggressively intimidating, harassing, and coercing workers in an effort to undermine union support. Among employers faced with organizing campaigns:
- 30% of employers fire pro-union workers.
- 49% of employers threaten to close a worksite when workers try to form a union, but only 2% actually do.
- 51% of employers coerce workers into opposing unions with bribery or favoritism.
- 82% of employers hire high-priced unionbusting consultants to fight union organizing drives.
- 91% of employers force employees to attend one-on-one anti-union meetings with their supervisors.
Employer Anti-Union Behavior Impedes Union Organizing
The report confirms that union membership in the United States is not declining because workers no longer want, need, or attempt to form unions. Instead, the falling membership rate is related to employers’ systematic use of legal and illegal tactics to stymie union organizing.- Aided by a weak labor law system that fails to protect workers’ rights, employers manipulate the government-supervised union recognition process in a way that allows them to abuse their power and significantly influence the outcome of union representation elections.
- In 91% of the union recognition petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in the survey, a majority of workers indicated they wanted a union before the process began. In several cases, workers demonstrated more than 80% support.
- However, unions were victorious in only 31% of the campaigns in which they filed a petition.
About the Report
- Undermining the Right to Organize examines both legal and illegal employer conduct during the union representation campaign process.
- The report analyzes the impact of employer conduct on union election outcomes.
- The new data exposes the violations of workers’ rights to freely and fairly choose to form unions.
- The study confirms findings from the seminal national survey on employer anti-union behavior— Uneasy Terrain (2000) by Kate Bronfenbrenner.
Report Methodology
- The report is based on a survey of 62 campaigns launched in 2002 in the Chicago metropolitan area.
- Region 13 of the NLRB provided data on all campaigns by unions to represent previously unorganized workers.
- Investigators also conducted case studies of 25 campaigns, and interviewed union organizers, workers, and NLRB representatives.
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