Organized labor’s failure to unionize Boeing’s South Carolina manufacturing plant this week can be interpreted as a sign that unions are losing their battle to become a bigger and more relevant player in a rapidly changing economy.
However, the machinist union’s ignominious Boeing defeat, where over 2,000 of nearly 3,000 eligible workers voted against unionization, could also deliver this valuable lesson to labor leaders: Think small.
Indeed, the union’s best chance to stay in the economic game may rest with recruiting subgroups of workers within companies or industries and not depending on organizing huge blocks of folks. It’s a tactic often called micro-union organizing, and it’s emerging throughout the country and in this area — much to the irritation of some anti-union and pro-business advocates.
What’s Warren thinking? Airlines are in for bumpy ride, but Buffett bets big Robert Reed
Wall Street and Main Street perk up and take notice when superinvestor Warren Buffett buys a bunch of stock in a major company.
This week, the Oracle of Omaha’s investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, generated attention by boosting its stake in two major airlines with deep Chicago-area roots,…
Wall Street and Main Street perk up and take notice when superinvestor Warren Buffett buys a bunch of stock in a major company.
This week, the Oracle of Omaha’s investment vehicle, Berkshire Hathaway, generated attention by boosting its stake in two major airlines with deep Chicago-area roots,…
(Robert Reed)
Why go small?
One reason is that half of all union organizing efforts fail and most of those initiatives are aimed at groups with hundreds or thousands of workers, legal experts note.
Tactically, it’s more effective for unions to organize smaller honeycombs of employees, who usually know each other and share workplace experiences, rather than larger disparate groups of on-the-job strangers.
"The typical successful union organizing drive is a bargaining unit, on average, of 25 people," says Michael LeRoy, a professor and labor law expert at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. "The odds are much better if they (unions) organize a small unit versus a large unit."
The National Labor Relations Board, which oversees workers’ rights in the private sector, made it easier to form a mini-bargaining team when it ruled in 2011 that a small number of nursing assistants could organize at Alabama-based Specialty Healthcare, a rehabilitation center.
Amazon was coming to Illinois anyway. It’s time to cut off the tax credits. Robert Reed
With plans to employ up to 7,000 people at nine Chicago-area and downstate facilities, Amazon.com is well on its way to becoming a solid corporate citizen in Illinois.
You can’t beat jobs and business expansion.
Still, you know what would make global e-commerce giant Amazon an even better neighbor?…
With plans to employ up to 7,000 people at nine Chicago-area and downstate facilities, Amazon.com is well on its way to becoming a solid corporate citizen in Illinois.
You can’t beat jobs and business expansion.
Still, you know what would make global e-commerce giant Amazon an even better neighbor?…
(Robert Reed)
A few years later, the panel doubled down and allowed a band of Boston-area Macy’s cosmetic counter workers to do the same.
Since then, more micro-union initiatives have popped up nationwide across a batch of industries including automotive, delivery services, retail pharmacies, health care, light manufacturing, high-tech and media, LeRoy says.
A few years back, the United Steelworkers union made a run at organizing Illinois car washes after successfully organizing them in Los Angeles, while hotel unions sought to organize workers at some smaller suburban hotels.
Locally, tight knots of media and entertainment employees have been among high-profile professionals who’ve voted in union representation.
A couple of years back, WBEZ-FM and "Chicago Tonight" producers at WTTW-Ch. 11 joined forces with the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA). Late last year, employees of the Better Government Association, a small nonprofit government watchdog, also signed up with SAG-AFTRA.
In Trump era, a call for corporate board diversity Robert Reed
A new report is out and it chronicles one of corporate America’s oldest epic fails: An inability to fill major corporate boards with more women and minorities — the very groups that are increasingly becoming consumer, commercial and social powerhouses.
As the Tribune reported this week, the nation’s…
A new report is out and it chronicles one of corporate America’s oldest epic fails: An inability to fill major corporate boards with more women and minorities — the very groups that are increasingly becoming consumer, commercial and social powerhouses.
As the Tribune reported this week, the nation’s…
(Robert Reed)
(Full disclosure: I was a BGA employee before joining the Tribune and left before the union effort began.)
Union representation is on the decline. In 2016, it was 10.7 percent of the country’s total wage and salary workforce — down from 20.1 percent in 1983, when the Labor Department began tabulating such data.
Nonetheless, the growing "gig economy" is a ripe target for micro-union pushes.
In the Age of Uber, large companies are leaning toward hiring many full-time freelance contractors with fewer job-related benefits or worker rights.
If that continues, expect more highly trained professionals — engineers, accountants, doctors — to start looking for the union label.
Over time, millennials may also be more open to organizing, especially if they think it will provide them a greater say in how the company is managed or in determining how socially responsible it should be.
"People are going to organize along many different lines in the new economy," says Craig Becker, the Washington, D.C.-based general counsel of the AFL-CIO, whose Illinois chapter represents thousands of union members.
Suburbs vs. city: Who will win the wooing contest for Caterpillar’s headquarters? Robert Reed
It’s on: Suburbs versus the city.
That’s among the area’s oldest economic development matchups and, right now, an interesting contest is shaping up over who is going to win the headquarters of massive manufacturer Caterpillar, which last week said it was leaving longtime home Peoria for the “Chicago…
It’s on: Suburbs versus the city.
That’s among the area’s oldest economic development matchups and, right now, an interesting contest is shaping up over who is going to win the headquarters of massive manufacturer Caterpillar, which last week said it was leaving longtime home Peoria for the “Chicago…
(Robert Reed)
One point: The public employee sector, which in Illinois makes up the lion’s share of organized labor, is exempt from the NLRB and is not a micro-union target.
History has shown that corporate America won’t welcome union organizers with open arms. Moreover, joining a union doesn’t guarantee that an employer will collectively bargain or agree to a contract.
Micro-union critics argue the NLRB is violating federal labor laws that stipulate only a majority of a business’s workers can seek union representation, not self-selected boutiques within a company.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is really ticked and strongly opposes micro-unions.
So does the Illinois Policy Institute, which asserted micro-unions will "burden American businesses with new red tape and compliance costs."
Companies have a right to oppose organized labor, and unions have a legal right to exist and compete for members.
Those are the rules of corporate engagement.
What’s more, the failure to win over employees at the massive Boeing assembly facility isn’t the end of the American labor movement.
But if unions want a shot at winning big, it will help to think small.
roreed@chicagotribune.com
Twitter @reedtribbiz
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