Tag Archives: union busting

Betsy DeVos Accused of Union Busting

March 23, 2018 IM

The American Federation of Government Employees (AFGE), representing US Department of Education employees, filed a complaint in March accusing Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos’s agency of union busting after it implemented a 40-page “collective bargaining agreement.”

The union says that the document is anything but what its name implies—it wasn’t bargained and there was no agreement. The document strips out most of the content of the parties previous collective bargaining agreement, removing virtually all union rights. The new rules require employees carry out union duties without pay and also forbids them to use Department of Education office space and equipment.

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Modern Union Busters Work from the Inside—and You Won’t Like Where They’ll Take You

August 4, 2015 Ray Hair

Since the dawn of unions, there have been union busters. It’s an eternal dynamic between capital and labor. Generations ago, the Pinkertons lurked near factory gates with their bats. In the Chicago Haymarket riots, police and workers perished from a bomb blast during a demonstration in support of an eight-hour workday. In the Harlan County, Kentucky, coal-mining wars of the 1930s, state, and federal troops fought the union.

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Walker Ends Ban on Seven-Day Workweek

August 3, 2015 IM

Since 1927, Wisconsin law has required employers in manufacturing and retail to give workers at least one 24-hour period off per calendar week. Union-busting Governor Scott Walker repealed the law on July 12 with an amendment to a two-year budget. According to the new law, working seven days in a row is “voluntary,” but as Donald Kettl, former head of the University of Wisconsin’s La Follette School of Public Affairs contends, many workers will probably feel they are putting their job at risk if they refuse. The old law allowed for waivers, such as for retail workers during the Christmas season, which provided records to monitor possible abuse by employers.

Postal Workers’ Union Alleges Canada Post Union-Bustin

July 15, 2015 IM

The Canadian Union of Postal Workers (CUPW) has alleged that Canada Post is union-busting, having dropped its contract with the unionized temp agency that had been staffing its parcel intake plants. When a unionized company is sold or transferred, union-busting is prevented by the labor code under “successor rights provisions,” which ensure that a collective agreement remains in tact and workers keep their jobs during the transition. But when a unionized subcontractor loses a contract, as with the aforementioned situation, these protections do not apply. So, the union is forced to weigh their options, which may include filing an unfair labour practice complaint with the Industrial Relations Board against Canada Post.

AFM