Intimidation and Harassment.
Threats and Surveillance.
Interrogation and Retaliation.
All standard tactics in the employer anti-union playbook, and during the past decade we've seen these tactics used more and more often.
In a study released this week, Kate Bronfenbrenner, director of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, documents this in detail -- including the increase in corporate tactics to interfere with, block and delay workers' attempts to form unions, and the ineffectiveness of current labor law to protect and enforce workers' rights in the election process.
The study, "No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing," examines more than 1,000 union-representation campaigns and finds that "intense and aggressive" tactics to block workers' freedom to form unions are becoming more commonplace.
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Here are a few highlights (or lowlights) of the study:
- During union campaigns, bosses threatened to close plants 57 percent the time and threatened to cut wages and benefits 47 percent of the time.
- In more than 60 percent of union campaigns, workers are forced to attend mandatory one-on-one sessions with supervisors and are given anti-union messages or interrogated about their support for a union.
- The number of employers using 10 or more identified coercive tactics to intimidate and harass workers has doubled.
- When employees actually win an election to form a union, 52 percent still have no contract a year later, and 37 percent are without a contract two years after they voted to join a union.
Want to learn more? Click here to read the full study. (pdf)
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