Unions are good, actually
Veteran labor journalist Steve Greenhouse has published a terrific story in The New Republic on modern union-busting tactics. Workers at firms including Trader Joe’s, Starbucks, Apple, Amazon, and REI have voted for unions in several states in the US but have yet to win a contract.
Law firms specializing in fighting unionization (Seyfarth Shaw, which fought Cesar Chavez and the United Farm Workers; Morgan Lewis, which represented Donald Trump until 2021; and Littler Mendelson, which guides “companies in developing and initiating strategies that lawfully avoid unions or effectively respond to unconventional corporate campaigns.”) draw out procedures to tire out organizers.
Tactics include refusing Zoom/hybrid meetings, meeting out of town, and threatening workers with losing benefits. The ultimate goal is to drag out proceedings long enough (1 year!) so that the union gets decertified, with workers thinking that it’s unable to deliver.
Such an outcome is very much within management’s interests: if the unions win a fair contract, this raises the risk of other shops doing the same thing, all of which would cut into the corporation’s bottom line and level of control.
Considering that the vast majority of people, to say nothing of voters, are workers, it seems like a bad bet for a firm to publicly side with their class antagonists. And yet:
Within our diverse group of labor lawyers you will find a variety of ages, races, ethnicities and genders, reflecting the makeup of our clients and, more important, their employees. This diverse team of many views and voices gives us a unique ability to serve clients.
Unions strengthen individual agency, corporate accountability, and democracy. The recently proposed PRO Act would strengthen workers’ right and ability to organize and should be a central demand from Americans every day until it passes. In the meantime, here’s what you can do:
1. Tell your senator to support the PRO Act
2. Inform people about anti-worker policies in these different companies
3. Inform people about these anti-worker law firms
4. Raise awareness about how worker power, solidarity are indispensable to democracy
