Category Archives: unions

Jocks on strike? Congress looks at unions organizing athletes

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By Eric Schulzke, Deseret News National Edition

Monday, May 19 2014

With the National Labor Relations Board deliberating whether to clear the way for Northwestern’s football team to unionize, a congressional panel met last week to debate how to respond to charges that college atheletes are exploited labor.

Whatever comes of the current dispute at Northwestern, the controversy puts pressure on the NCAA to change how it treats atheletes. Some changes appear to be in the likely result, whichever way the unionization fight goes.

“For its part,” the Chronicle of Higher Education notes, “the NCAA has stepped up efforts to help athletes. Last month its Division I Board of Directors approved a measure allowing colleges to provide more meals for players. The board also endorsed changes in the Division I governance structure that are expected to provide wealthy colleges with more autonomy, setting the stage for big-time athletics programs to increase the value of scholarships and to provide new health and welfare benefits.”

Many of the lawmakers at the hearing doubted that unionization was a real answer. “Can the NCAA and institutions do more to protect students? Absolutely,” said Rep. John P. Kline Jr., a Minnesota Republican and chairman of the House Education and the Workforce Committee in prepared remarks.

“They could start by giving students a greater role in shaping policies that govern college athletics. They could also work to help ensure a sports injury doesn’t end a student’s academic career and find a responsible solution that will deliver the health care injured players may need. While promoting change is often difficult, student athletes deserve a determined effort to address these concerns,” Kline added.

Prior to the hearing, union organizers, including a former UCLA linebacker, expressed fears that Congress would consider legislation that would head off the unionization effort.

“CAPA is concerned that this hearing has been called in an attempt to legitimize the NCAA’s illegitimate effort to eliminate college athletes’ rights,” Ramogi Huma, president of the College Athletes Players Association, told the Associated Press.

Northwestern’s football players voted last month on whether to unionize, but the results of the vote will not be made known until after the National Labor Relations Board makes a final determination on whether they are allowed to do so.

ESPN noted that “the ballots will not be opened until after the national NLRB body rules on whether to accept the ruling of its regional director in Chicago that players are employees. But the 76 eligible voters — those scholarship players with remaining NCAA eligibility — are under significant pressure to vote no.”

“Head football coach Pat Fitzgerald has led the defensive effort,” Slate noted, “which seems befitting for a former linebacker. A generally beloved figure in the locker room and on campus, he has been meeting with players to ‘educate’ them about the apparently dreadful repercussions of bringing union reps onto campus. Publicly, he’s simply argued that the school can address athletes’ concerns, like better medical care, without collective bargaining.”

International Trade Union Confederation World Congress, Berlin 18 – 23 May 2014

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http://www.ituc-csi.org

Over 1500 trade unionists from 161 countries will gather at the Berlin City Cube in Berlin, Germany from May 18 to 23 for the 3rd International Trade Union Confederation World Congress which takes place every four years. The ITUC is the largest democratic organisation in the world representing 325 national trade unions and working people all over the world. The 2014 theme is “Building Workers’ Power”.

Press Conference: ITUC General Secretary Sharan Burrow will hold a press conference at 12:45 – 1:15 pm on Sunday 18th May at the Berlin City Cube.

The opening ceremony takes place 2:30 p.m. on Sunday, 18 May and includes addresses from German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter Steinmeier and Helen Clark, UNDP Administrator, representing the United Nations, and ITUC President Michael Sommer.

The ITUC General Secretary’s address by Sharan Burrow outlining the state of the world for working people and the findings of the ITUC Global Poll 2014 will take place on Monday 19th May followed by an address by ILO Director-General Guy Ryder.

Delegates will debate organising campaigns in multi-national companies including T-Mobile USA and Deutsche Telekom, organising in the informal sector, government action plans to address inequality including a minimum living wage and social protection, climate action and trade agreements. The Congress will hold a public vote for the worst boss in the world.

There will be workers’ hearings on the informal sector and discrimination and panel debates on indigenous rights, domestic workers. A new global rights index will be released on the worst countries for workers based on violations recorded from 2013 – 2014. The Congress will adopt an action plan for the ITUC mandated by the 325 national trade union centres for a four-year programme of work.

Special guests include former professional footballers Abdeslam Ouaddou and Zahir Belounis who was trapped in Qatar for 17 months; Gordon Brown MP, UN Special Envoy for Global Education; Jay Naidoo, Chairman of the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition and a former Minister in the Mandela Cabinet; Professor Ozlem Onaran, Professor of Workforce and Economic Development Policy at University of Greenwich; Larry Elliott, Guardian Economics Editor; and Jayati Ghosh, Professor of Economics at Jawaharlal Nehru University, New Delhi, India.

For complete details of the ITUC World Congress agenda and arrangements please see: http://congress2014.ituc-csi.org/programme

The International Trade Union Confederation represents 176 million workers from 161 countries. The ITUC brings together the world’s independent and free national trade unions centres.

WorkLife: There’s Power in Youth and Unions Working Together

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May 16, 2014    By Gabriel Bako    http://policyfix.ca

While the labour landscape has changed dramatically in Canada in the last 58 years, the legal framework has not. The labour relations framework that we use today in Canada was implemented in 1944 with PC-1003, and the Rand Formula in 1946. The models were based on the Wagner Act of 1935 that was implemented in the United States which gave important legal rights to organized workers. PC-1003 gives legal rights to unions to collectively bargain, represent, and organize workers and the Rand Formula gives the provisions for automatic dues check-offs.

It’s clear that these pieces of legislation are necessary to the viability of the labour movement, however there needs to be some updates. In 1944 organizing was radically different from today, as was the labour landscape. Industrial and manufacturing sectors are shrinking and today the largest employment growth is in the retail/service sector, accounting for 11.5 percent of all employment in Canada in 2011.  These new jobs are mainly precarious and non-union, with fast food and mall jobs becoming more common. They usually pay minimum wage, lack stable hours, and provide few or no benefits. Even union retail/service workplaces jobs are becoming increasingly precarious. The push from non-union competitors sets the tone for how union retail/service workplaces operate their business. In today’s unionized retail/service sectors the employers intentionally hire young workers with the knowledge they aren’t well informed about their workplace rights. In addition, even in unionized retail/service workplaces the opportunity of full-time hours or even a guarantee of set hours is unlikely.

Unions are trying to organize the precarious non-unionized sector, but at the same time they’re finding it increasingly difficult just to protect their current members. Whether union or non-union, the retail/service sector is precarious, and this push comes from neoliberal policies that have become more normalized and mainstream in recent years.

The push from corporate elites to undermine labour legislation has resulted in the weakening of card-check legislation and automatic certifications, attempts to enact so called right to work, attacks on the Rand Formula, and more recently the assault on unions through attempts to impose onerous financial reporting regulations on unions and restrictions on their social justice activities.

This assault on workers is making it increasingly difficult for unions to expand into areas where they need to gain ground. For example, the growing retail sector is characterized by high-turnover and the ability to jump between workplaces, making it difficult for unions to organize. However if we want a healthy and sustainable labour movement we must find new ways to connect with the many young people who work in this sector.

Unions are realizing that they must organize these workers; it is critical for the viability of unions, but also for the workers. Despite the reality that Monday to Friday 9-5 jobs are a distant memory, unions can still achieve better scheduling provisions, fair wage increases, respect and dignity, benefits, and the right for workers to have a democratic, participatory role in their workplaces. Youth want to organize, and the unions want to organize them, but the labour relations framework doesn’t allow for this to happen effectively with the changes brought on through increases in retail/service jobs.

In today’s society young people want to take collective action against all kinds of injustice but are often doing this in non-traditional ways that are grassroots and association based; such as community coalitions, worker cooperatives, and employee associations, rather than through formalized structures such as unions. The problem is that under the current labour relations framework, these grassroots and association based structures don’t have any legal rights in terms of the employment relationship. Under these systems employees cannot formally negotiate collective agreements, and they can’t access grievance and arbitration procedures. Therefore unionization is still the best option for achieving workplace rights.

While unions want to have more inclusivity and broader representation they haven’t been able to work out some of the internal barriers that allow for this to occur. Their often hierarchal structures don’t always reflect the diversity of the labour market today. This allows for things to remain status quo, and active young people who would like to give voice to change aren’t always given the opportunity.

Unions must recognize that in order to work they must allow youth to take on participatory roles in all aspects of the union – organizing drives, negotiations, advisory and executive boards, and even take on staff positions. Unions must begin to reflect the workforce they’re looking to organize. There are some unions doing this, and it’s creating positive changes. Yet the biggest change that needs to occur is that young people and unions must come together to find ways for a new organizing model that is successful; perhaps the Wagner model isn’t it.

The challenge is great. The legislative changes required to give the labour movement the tools it needs to organize increasing numbers of precarious youth will only come about with a substantial sea change in our political landscape. Before this will happen, more youth must become engaged in politics and in the labour movement, and labour must increasingly reach out to youth.

Gabriel Bako is major in the Labour Studies Department at the University of Manitoba and a member of  UFCW 832.

Supreme Court hearing arguments on Saskatchewan labour laws

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Essential services legislation, changes to Trade Union Act in dispute

CBC News Posted: May 16, 2014

Labour groups squared off against the Saskatchewan government and business at the Supreme Court of Canada today in a dispute over changes to Saskatchewan’s labour laws proposed in 2008.

The Saskatchewan Federation of Labour says Bill 5, Saskatchewan’s essential services law, and Bill 6, which involves changes to the former Trade Union Act, are in violation of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

The essential services law restricts which public sector workers can walk off the job during a strike.

The Saskatchewan government says it’s similar to laws in effect in other provinces and will be used to ensure public safety during labour disruptions. However, unions say the law makes it possible to declare so many employees “essential” that it undercuts their ability to bargain collectively.

Unions also say the Trade Union Act changes make it tougher to form unions in the first place, by raising the threshold of voting workers required to get a certification vote and by eliminating automatic certification in cases where 50 per cent of workers sign union cards in favour of secret ballot votes in all cases where the threshold is met.

The province says the changes make the laws more democratic and ensure public safety.

The unions had a partial victory at the Court of Queen’s Bench level when a judge ruled in their favour on essential services, but the Appeal Court of Saskatchewan reversed that and dismissed both their cases.

The Supreme Court of Canada is expected to hear arguments for and against why the right to strike should be enshrined as a Charter-protected right. 

In addition to the Saskatchewan participants in the case, labour groups, provincial governments and businesses from across Canada are intervening in the challenge.