With their pension plans about ready to implode (no wonder they’re clamoring for a union pension bailout), a union boss who was just dumped by his top running mate, and with hundreds of members out on strike, the International Brotherhood of Teamsters can now add one more thing to their pot of bad luck: The union just won the 2010 Most Decertified Union Award.
Every year for the past five years, Union Free America (one of a handful of websites that is committed to helping employees maintain their independence) gives out its Most Decertified Union Award and this year’s award winner (or loser, as the case may be) is the International Brotherhood of Teamsters:
Teamsters Union Wins 2010 Most Decertified Union Award
The International Brotherhood of Teamsters is the winner of Union Free America’s 5th Annual “Most Decertified Union Award.” This honor is awarded to the labor union that lost the most decertification elections during the preceding 12 months.
The judging was based on an analysis of the reports of election results on the National Labor Relations Board’s web site for the period August 2009 through July 2010. During that time the NLRB conducted 251 decertification elections. Employees seeking to rid themselves of a union won 157 or 63 percent of them.
The Teamsters union won the “Most Decertified Union Award” by being decertified 48 times during that period. The Teamsters were involved in a total of 64 decertification elections of which they lost 75 percent.
The United Food and Commercial Workers Union (UFCW) came in a distant second by being decertified in 9 out of 15 elections, or 60 percent.
The International Union of Operating Engineers (IUOE) won honorable mention by being decertified 8 times. This may seem paltry compared to the Teamsters, but IUOE deserves recognition for being decertified in 8 out of 8 elections.
The Teamsters outstanding performance was not enough to help the Change to Win federation edge out the larger AFL-CIO in the competition. AFL-CIO unions participated in 99 decertification elections and lost 69 of them while the Change to Win unions participated in a total of 101 decertification elections, but lost only 60 of them.
Colorful certificates commemorating these achievements have been sent to the Teamsters, Food and Commercial Workers and Operating Engineers unions.
Read the rest here.
In order to win an award of this nature means that unionized workers in workplaces across America were brave enough to educate themselves about the complicated nature of union decertification, gather signatures from their co-workers, likely withstand union harassment and legal wrangling before, finally, exercising their right to vote the union out.
This is particularly noteworthy as President Obama’s union-controlled National Labor Relations Board considers ways to make it more difficult for workers to decertify unions.
The National Labor Relations Board, in 3-to-2 decisions, has granted review and invited interested parties to file briefs in two sets of cases that question when a labor union’s support among employees can be challenged.
One set of cases (Rite Aid Store #6473 and Lamons Gasket Co.) asks the newly-constituted Board to reconsider the 2007 decision in Dana Corp., 351 NLRB 434. In that decision, the Board majority held that when an employer agrees to voluntarily recognize a union based on signed authorization cards, it must post a notice advising the employees that they have a right, within 45 days of the notice, to file a petition for an election to decertify the union or in support of a rival union, if they so desire. If the notice is not posted, the union and employer may not later claim that their contract bars a petition by a rival union or for decertification.
As the union-controlled NLRB is likely to rule however the unions want it to, it is likely that agency will establish rules making it more difficult for workers who are newly unionized to file for decertification in the manner described above.
So, in the meantime, congratulations to all those workers out there who helped the Teamsters earn this award! You’ve overcome obstacles, as well as saved yourself hundreds of dollars per year in union dues.
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“I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776
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