Center for Union Lies

By Jordan Barab, Firedoglake. Posted June 5, 2006.

An article in Tuesday's New York Times about the Teamsters' campaign to organize Federal Express describes a typical example of how difficult it is to organize a union these days:

Not long after 21 of the 23 drivers in Northborough petitioned last fall for an election to join the Teamsters, FedEx dismissed five union supporters and six others quit, with several complaining that managers had made their lives unbearable.

"They started to harass and intimidate everybody," Mr. Williams said. "Some people they tried to starve out. Instead of giving 120 to 130 packages, they cut it to 60 or 70 to reduce the money."

Ken Flynn, a pro-union driver who was dismissed, said that after the unionization drive began, management added six managers to the three already there. The new ones, he said, spent much of their time speaking out against the union. FedEx says the new managers were assisting with the holiday rush and helping to transfer the operation to another terminal in Northborough.

To sway the drivers, FedEx prepared a 25-minute DVD that accused the Teamsters of being incompetent and violent.

Meanwhile, on another planet, readers of USA Today and other newspapers may have noticed a recent one-page ad by a new corporate supported anti-union outfit (mis)named The Center For Union Facts. The ad asks "Why is a union like a Roach Motel?"

The answer: "Because getting in is the easy part."

In that one heading lies the essence of the Center's lies, the reasons for its existence, and the state of the American labor movement today. The real union fact is that there is almost nothing harder than getting into a union these days -- particularly if the union chooses to use the classic secret ballot election process that has been the staple of union organizing for decades.

What is the Center for Union Facts, and why does it exist? The Executive Director of the Center is a figure well known in corporate flackdom named Richard Berman. Berman is infamous for forming corporate-backed associations to defend mercury in fish (FishScam.com), challenge Mothers Against Drunk Driving and its efforts to lower the legal blood alcohol content limit, dismiss concern about obesity as "hype," defend the tobacco industry against smoking curbs in restaurants and the beverage industry against restrictions on alcohol use, and to argue against raising the minimum wage. The Center is funded by corporate money, although Berman refuses to reveal his funding sources.

Accrding to its website, the Center is "dedicated to showing Americans the truth about today's union leadership." In addition to running fact-challenged ads. the Center also sees itself as a repository for factoids about self-serving union "bosses" and union corruption. But Labor Economist and blogger Nathan Newman, who actually drilled down into the data that the Center's website provides, noted that Berman's information doesn't exactly make the point that he intended to make. Berman highlights "$400 million in labor racketeering fines and civil restitution in the last five years" which comes from a Department of Labor list. But and, lo and behold most were

businesses that defrauded the unions- ie. the union leaders were the victims not the criminals … In fact, almost all of the big money associated with the $400 million figure in labor racketeering was committed by private industry AGAINST unions, not by union officials.

And why have the corporate powers-that-be drafted Berman into action? The answer can be found most recently in a union victory for janitors at the University of Miami in Florida. But this wasn't your classic union victory. The janitors, represented by the Service Employees International Union, were not striking to win wage increases, nor did the victory mean that the company had agreed to recognize the union. After a lengthy strike, a hunger strike by workers and a commitment on the part of the university to raise wages significantly, the janitors continued to hold out for something even more valuable: a "card check" agreement with Unicco, the university's contractor that employs the janitors.

Jordan Barab blogs at Confined Space.