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Statement on a Bill to Amend the NLRA
Excerpts by William L. Kircher
AFL-CIO Director, Department of Organization
The National Labor Relations Act was hailed as the
Bill of Rights for the American labor Movement when it was passed in
1935. . . . It provided processes under which employees could express
themselves on unionization and it further provided that certain acts of
employers and their agents were unfair labor practices and therefore,
illegal. . . . The provisions establishing unfair labor practices were
essential . . . in protecting the right to organize if employees, in
exercising that right, had to expose themselves to employer intimidation
and coercion and even to loss of their jobs.
*****
As we indicated, 94% of all employers who seek NLRB
elections, ostensibly to determine whether their employees really want
the union, end up conducting an anti-union campaign before that
election. . . . We found from our study that 70% of all the employers
who opposed the union gave captive audience speeches. A captive audience
speech is one given during production time by the plant superintendent
or other agent of the employer. In other words, 70% of all employers who
opposed the union were willing to halt production to do it. . . . It is
a rare indication indeed when an employer allows the union equal time to
respond or allows the union any access whatever to the plant grounds.
*****
We conducted a special examination of the speeches
given during the past four months and found that 50% of them were given
within the last 72 hours before the election. Thus they were timed to
have their greatest impact and to prevent the union from utilizing other
slower means of communication to respond. As a matter of fact, 7% of
these speeches were given in the last 24 hours before the election. This
is a violation of the Board's election regulations, but this rather
clear rule does not seem to have much impact on 7% of the employers.
*****
It is very natural for workers to unionize because
unionism and the collective bargaining process enable them to increase
their wages and obtain that dignity and self respect which comes with
job security. To overcome these natural tendencies the employer must
create an essentially unnatural atmosphere. The ingredients of that
unnatural atmosphere are nearly always fear, suspicion, division, and
hatred. Employers are not reluctant to create this atmosphere even
though they violate the law by doing so because they know that the
sanctions they will incur are similar in effect to a slingshot used
against a charging elephant. . . . To combat elephantile employer unfair
labor practices we need better weapons.
*****
Frequently the story of the union organizing campaign
starts with the decision by a group of local businessmen in a small and
rural-dominated community to attract industry. . . . They attempt to
offer financial incentives to the company, float bond issues, and, most
importantly, they promise cheap 'cooperative' labor.
*****
Once the company arrives the power structure in the
community feels they have a God-sent mission to keep the union out.
*****
Incidentally, this God-sent mission to keep the union
out is frequently strengthened by local business participation in the
bond issue and perhaps even a partial, though minority share, in the
company. How sad it is that this method of luring business turns into a
trap to enslave the entire community. . . . In campaign after campaign
in the Southeastern, Southwestern and Midwestern part of the United
States, this issue is raised.
*****
The local police are alerted . . . . The local
newspaper is frequently deluged with anti-union editorials with the
usual warnings of dire consequences if the union wins. . . . The town
banker or local merchant who has extended credit to the employees is
also an effective weapon in amassing pressure on the worker. . . . But
sure the most heinous of all violations is blacklisting -- the most
primitive of all unfair labor practices. This practice can work formally
or informally. . . . Under the formal system an employer in an area who
fires an employee for his union activity notifies the other employers in
the area. . . . Under the informal method the employee is required to
state the reason for past discharges on the application form. . . .
The issue of race is often a useful tool of these
union busters. If the union is attempting to organize a predominantly
Negro work force, then the company pictures the union as responsible for
wholesale discrimination in the building trades. But where the unit is
comprised primarily of whites, the company stresses contributions made
by unions to Civil Rights Groups and more specifically hints that if the
union wins, Negroes will replace whites in the work force.
*****
One of the greatest problems which the union
organizer faces is the existence of the so-called "labor
consultant". . . . He exists and specializes in one thing--busting
unions. A series of these firms--some lawyers and some not--have grown
up in various parts of the country. They are very shrewd. The worst of
the lot refuse to register under the Labor management Reporting and
Disclosure Act. They build up staffs--frequently by recruiting from the
NLRB. As a result they have close personal contacts with the NLRB
Regional Offices and are intimately familiar with its inner workings.
*****
Far too often a number of key union supporters are
discharged shortly after such labor consultants have been hired. . . .
one of the chief weapons in the labor consultant's bag of tricks is his
ability to delay the final outcome of representation and unfair labor
practice cases.
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Super Rich: A Guide to Having it All
By Russell Simmons
Russell Simmons knows firsthand that
wealth is rooted in much more than the
stock
market. True wealth has more to do with
what's in your heart than what's in your
wallet. Using this knowledge, Simmons
became one of America's shrewdest
entrepreneurs, achieving a level of
success that most investors only dream
about. No matter how much material gain
he accumulated, he never stopped lending
a hand to those less fortunate. In
Super Rich, Simmons uses his rare
blend of spiritual savvy and
street-smart wisdom to offer a new
definition of wealth-and share timeless
principles for developing an unshakable
sense of self that can weather any
financial storm. As Simmons says, "Happy
can make you money, but money can't make
you happy." |
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The New Jim Crow
Mass Incarceration in the Age of
Colorblindness
By Michele Alexander
Contrary to the
rosy picture of race embodied in Barack
Obama's political success and Oprah
Winfrey's financial success, legal
scholar Alexander argues vigorously and
persuasively that [w]e have not ended
racial caste in America; we have merely
redesigned it. Jim Crow and legal racial
segregation has been replaced by mass
incarceration as a system of social
control (More African Americans are
under correctional control today... than
were enslaved in 1850). Alexander
reviews American racial history from the
colonies to the Clinton administration,
delineating its transformation into the
war on drugs. She offers an acute
analysis of the effect of this mass
incarceration upon former inmates who
will be discriminated against, legally,
for the rest of their lives, denied
employment, housing, education, and
public benefits. Most provocatively, she
reveals how both the move toward
colorblindness and affirmative action
may blur our vision of injustice: most
Americans know and don't know the truth
about mass incarceration—but her
carefully researched, deeply engaging,
and thoroughly readable book should
change that.—Publishers
Weekly |
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The White Masters of the
World
From
The World and Africa, 1965
By W. E. B. Du Bois
W. E. B. Du Bois’
Arraignment and Indictment of White Civilization
(Fletcher)
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Ancient African Nations
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If you like this page consider making a donation
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Negro Digest /
Black World
Browse all issues
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Enjoy!
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The Death of Emmett Till by Bob Dylan
/
The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll
/
Only a Pawn in Their Game
Rev. Jesse Lee Peterson Thanks America for
Slavery /
George Jackson /
Hurricane Carter
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The Journal of Negro History issues at Project Gutenberg
The
Haitian Declaration of Independence 1804
/
January 1, 1804 -- The Founding of
Haiti
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December 2011
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