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Issue No. 306 | 12 May 2006 |
Good Times
Interview: Out of the Bedroom Industrial: Cloak and Dagger Unions: Lockout! Legal: The Fantasy of Choice Politics: Labor Pains Economics: Economics and the Public Purpose Corporate: House of Horrors History: Clash Of Cultures International: Childs Play Culture: Folk You Mate! Review: Last Holeproof Hero
Workplace Cop Shrugs Shoulders Gerry Built Apartments Fall Behind Killer Bosses Swoop on Croweaters US: Thousands Fired For Joining Unions
The Soapbox The Locker Room Parliament
Budget Dividend The Real Truth About Independent Contractors
Labor Council of NSW |
News US: Thousands Fired For Joining Unions
Bob Boyle, Brian Breining and Brian Smith are three of more than 20,000 workers fired every year because they want to join a union. In Dover, Ohio, Breining and Smith were both active in trying to win a voice at work with the USW at Cultured Stone Co. They say the safety conditions at the 70-year-old manufactured stone warehouse were "tragic," with holes in the floor, windows falling out of their frames, huge leaks in the roof. There were huge wage gaps between workers doing the same job. "The reason we wanted a union wasn't what most people typically think," says Breining. "It was to have a grievance procedure, for accountability to management, to have an up-to-date handbook, equal opportunity, so two identical situations wouldn't be handled in different ways depending on who you are. "It didn't work because the company spread anti-union propaganda. They slandered us. And they gave everyone a 3 percent pay increase across the board. "They ran a campaign to shoot us down. We put our organizing committee together. It wasn't long after that when I was fired. That wasn't the reason they gave, but that's what happened." "Employers have a huge amount of latitude in our system. An employer can fire because they don't like the colour of your hair," says former National Labour Relations Board member and AFL-CIO legal counsel Sarah Fox. Members of the AFL-CIO have signed up a bipartisan group of Employee Free Choice Act politicians to protect workers trying to form a union at work. But the AFL-CIO is doubtful Republican lawmakers are likely to allow a vote on the legislation even if it does gain majority support.
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