Cubicle workers unite ... white-collar unions?

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.suntimes.com/business/1857296,CST-NWS-union01.article

October 31, 2009
BY ANITA BRUZZESE

Could a union be coming soon to a cubicle near you?

While unions often have been associated with the factory floor, the current congressional and presidential support of unions, along with a disillusioned professional labor force, may mean that the time is ripe for unionization to move into new territory -- the white-collar arena.

Not only has President Obama expressed support of unions, but his appointments to the National Labor Relations Board "have fundamentally changed the face of the NLRB, and are poised to make much more union-friendly policies," says Shanti Atkins, a lawyer and president and CEO of ELT Inc. in San Francisco.

One of those changes currently afoot is the proposed Employee Free Choice Act, now in a House committee, which would change the NLRB system regarding how workers vote on unions, Atkins says.

Specifically, the bill would give workers the choice of forming unions by getting a majority of employees to sign cards to join, without having to hold a secret ballot election. Currently, the law leaves it up to companies to decide whether employees must hold an election or can organize by checking the union membership cards. The proposed bill also states that if employers and employees can't agree to a contract within 120 days, then a government arbitrator will help them set terms.

"There is certain to be an increase in union-organizing activities, regardless of whether or not the highly controversial bill passes," Atkins says.

FULL story at link.

[PhD]

1. I certainly hope not

I work in a white collar environment that used to be unionized. There was endless conflict between employees and management as well as among differing groups of employees. The biggest instigators were the union leaders who were entrenched in power by loyal core group large enough to outshout everyone else. The endless strife finally reached the point that the union was decertified about 4 years ago. Since then, the stress level has plummeted and employee retention has increased about 25%. It's also gratifying to see underperformers protected by union rules for so long finally get let go and replaced by people who can actually do the job they're paid to do.

[burning rain]

2. Not very subtle, are you?

.

[PhD]

4. Unions may work in some places

But I've never worked in one of them.

[gtar100]

3. CWA. Union workers are in the cubes already.

Given that they have the protection of a contract with guaranteed annual salary increases, I'm feeling a might bit jealous since our executive management just decided to put a freeze on all management salaries for next year.

[nadinbrzezinski]

5. It should come

and yes some unions are bad... but overall unions are the reason for forty hour weeks.

[exboyfil]

6. My coworker sent me a write up about the engineer's

union at Boeing, and the contract which they signed which was less than earthshaking. I sent a message back commenting that it demonstrates that engineers have very little leverage in salary negotiation, and that management could have painted one of two scenarios (one if we agree to your demands (10% salary increase) then we will go out of business or two we will shut down engineering here and move it to India).

I said nothing about my own workplace (which is not unionized in the office and probably never will be unionized), but our e-mails got monitored and they sent it back to my supervisor.

When I went in one morning my badge did not work at first. As soon as I got to my office, my manager called me into a conference room and said it was probably not a good idea to send e-mails about union activities. No threats or anything. I asked my manager about my badge, but he said it was unrelated. I got to wonder.

[ProgressiveProfessor]

7. White Collar Unions are problematic

Most union contracts are based on job categories and have the implicit assumption all workers in a category can do the same things equally. There is also seniority, which is often irrelevant in white collar environments. Those kind of industrial worker approaches are not particularly effective in a white collar/post industrial workplace where differences between individuals in the same job matters and assignment flexibility is important. White collar is fundamentally merit based, seniority has no part in things. Given those basics, a white collar unions are going to have a hard go of it.

[uponit7771]

8. IT industry could use this but for the enforcement of labor laws and not wage increases

[Romulox]

9. I expect the workforce at large would support white collar unions with as much passion

as white collar workers have supported organized labor in this country.

:scared: