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SEPTEMBER 14, 2023
On the Prospect website
* Maureen Tkacik on the fate of Amazon's preeminent union-buster
* Ryan Cooper on how Nordic (well, Finnish) social democracy delivers
the greatest goods
for the
greatest numbers
* David Dayen on the NLRB case that may label noncompete agreements
as an unfair labor practice for which workers can receive remediation
Meyerson on TAP
How to Reform Labor Law Without Exactly Reforming Labor Law
Federal agencies and Democratic states are enhancing worker rights
despite congressional inaction.
The past few weeks have made it hi-def clear how critical government is
to both the well-being of workers and their prospects for organizing.
The converse has been clear, of course, for the past 50 years. The
failure of the federal government to reform labor law so that workers
can't be fired for trying to unionize has been central to the decline
in the share of organized workers from one-third of the private-sector
workforce in the mid-20th century to a bare 6 percent today.
This summer, though, semi-demi reforms to labor law have seeped through
the cracks of our federal system as a federal agency and a state
government have both managed to conform labor law, as best they can, to
the spirit and letter of workers' rights initially encoded in the
National Labor Relations Act.
As we've reported on extensively at the
**Prospect**, the National Labor Relations Board has issued rulings,
upholding the cases brought by its general counsel, that have required
employers to recognize their workers' unions when a demonstrable
majority of workers have shown they want to affiliate, and if the
employer commits an unfair labor practice in the course of a
Board-supervised recognition election. Further cases likely coming
before the Board will seek sanctions against employers who refuse to
bargain in good faith with their unionized workers, including the
Board's imposition of wage and benefit mandates equal to those at
comparable unionized companies. Another case may rule that noncompete
clauses that keep workers from seeking other employment also constitute
an unfair labor practice
for which the Board may prescribe a remedy.
None of these new or possibly-in-the-works rulings actually change labor
law in the way that congressional action could, but they do restore some
of the penalties employers once had to pay before labor law rules were
weakened, and will likely spur more organizing efforts in industries
that many unions had written off as unorganizable given the state of the
law.
The National Labor Relations Act also preempts states' ability to
enact laws affecting private-sector workers' right to collective
bargaining, but that hasn't deterred several of the bluest states from
tiptoeing up to that line this summer, too. Led by Minnesota, several
states have forbidden employers from compelling their employees to
attend the anti-union propaganda meetings that companies routinely hold
when seeking to kill off organizing efforts. And in just the past week,
California has passed laws raising the wages of half a million fast-food
workers
,
extending unemployment insurance to strikers (a move much welcomed by
the striking Hollywood guilds), and giving its own legislative staffs
collective-bargaining rights. Today, it's also likely to give major
raises to the support staffs at hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes.
As well, it has created a fast-food council, where workers will sit
opposite employers on a body that can prod state government to address
issues of worker safety, the timing of shifts, and the like. It's not
collective bargaining, but it's close as it can come without running
afoul of federal preemption.
In sum, responding to the surging, almost bipartisan support for unions
that's clear from all public polling, and the much higher profile that
union support now commands within the Democratic base and the Democratic
Party, government agencies and states are moving to fulfill those
expectations. Congress remains the laggard; the unrepresentative nature
of the Senate remains a huge obstacle. But pro-union governmental
initiatives are seeping through the cracks.
~ HAROLD MEYERSON
Follow Harold Meyerson on Twitter
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Catch Us if You Can
The mysterious firing of Amazon's most ruthless union-buster from his
new job underscores the monopoly's insidious stranglehold over
shopping. BY MAUREEN TKACIK
The Nordic Way of Freedom
Liberty isn't when every jerk gets to inconvenience everyone else. BY
RYAN COOPER
NLRB Complaint Calls a Noncompete Agreement an Unfair Labor Practice
The complaint against an Ohio spa follows General Counsel Jennifer
Abruzzo's memo seeking these kinds of cases. BY DAVID DAYEN
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