| US shippers’ forecast freight growth falls to near five-year low | |
|---|---|
 | The roughly 600 shippers surveyed by Wolfe Research earlier this year say they expect same-store shipments to drop on average 2.2 percent over the next 12 months. It’s a far cry from where shippers’ expectations were a year, even months, ago. Volume forecasts for the next 12 months are down 3.1 percent year-over-year and 3.5 percent since the end of 2014. |
Thursday, May 28, 2015
Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too
Viewpoint: The Decline of Unions Is Your Problem Too
The weakness of labor hurts all employees in every sector
What happened to American labor unions?
Last week came news that the share of America’s workforce that’s unionized hit a 97-year low. A mere 11.3% of workers now belong to a union, and a great chunk of those are in the shrinking public sector. In the private sector, unionization fell to an abysmal 6.6%, down from a peak of 35% during the 1950s.
Most Americans yawned at this news. On one level that’s understandable. After all, most Americans aren’t in a union. It’s a vicious cycle: as unions decline, fewer people see their fates as bound up with unions, which just accelerates the decline.
But on another level, America’s non-reaction is striking. We remain in the wake of the GreatRecession. Inequality and wealth concentration are at levels not seen since just before the Great Depression. This would seem as ripe a time in modern memory for a revival of organized labor. Instead, a basic assumption now shapes most Americans’ mindset about labor: the belief that the death of unions isn’t my problem because I’m not in a union. That assumption is wrong in two critical ways.
First, the fact is that when unions are stronger the economy as a whole doesbetter. Unions restore demand to an economy by raising wages for their members and putting more purchasing power to work, enabling more hiring. On the flip side, when labor is weak and capital unconstrained, corporations hoard, hiring slows, and inequality deepens. Thus we have today both recordhighs in corporate profits and record lows in wages.
Second, unions lift wages for non-union members too by creating a higher prevailing wage. Even if you aren’t a member your pay is influenced by the strength or weakness of organized labor. The presence of unions sets off a wage race to the top. Their absence sets off a race to the bottom.
Unfortunately, the relegation of organized labor to tiny minority status and the fact that the public sector is the last remaining stronghold for unions have led many Americans to see them as special interests seeking special privileges, often on the taxpayer’s dime. This thinking is as upside-down as our economy.
(MORE: How to Grow)
This country has gotten to today’s level of inequality because, ironically, those who work for a living think like atomized individuals while those who hire for a living organize collectively to rig policy in their favor. Today’s 97-year low is the result of decades of efforts to squeeze unions and disperse their power.
To be sure, unions bear part of the blame for their own decline. Some of the work rules they’ve achieved through bargaining made their companies and their own unions less adaptive to change. That’s why a few national labor leaders, from Service Employees International Union and elsewhere, have launched a “Labor 3.0″ project to reimagine unions. And it’s significant that innovative forms of worker organizing are now emerging, likeCoworker.org or the National Domestic Workers Alliance, that bypass traditional union structures altogether.
Whatever form it takes, though, organized labor keeps an economy healthy. Some conservatives now argue for a higher federal minimum wage on the notion that when companies pay their employees enough to live, the employees will rely less on government assistance and participate more in economic life. Precisely the same case can be made for unions. Consider that workers at non-unionized Walmart constitute in many states the largest bloc of food stamp and Medicaid recipients.
If we want a better economy, then, we need a better story about how the economy works, in which a union worker is not a cost but a customer. The weakness of labor is everyone’s problem — and its revival everyone’s opportunity.
Friday, May 22, 2015
Change Conway to Win
Union Busters Lupe Cruz & Ass. LM-21
$3,169,698 is the price that Conway and other corporations are willing to pay to keep us union-free. That’s what they have paid to Lupe Cruz and Associates, a firm of union busters. That’s what Conway has paid so far to keep our wages and benefits down. That’s what they pay to make sure you have no rights at work. They spend that money willfully because that is nothing compared to what they will have to pay us in better wages and benefits should we organize. These people are hired to lie to us, to make us believe that we don’t need a union. They make money on people’s misery. Everything Conway has given to us over the past year is because they are trying to stop the bleeding. The wage increase is to pacify us. That will go away once the union movement dies down. Let’s keep making this company throw money away on union busters. All that money will go to waste and we will still get our union
Wednesday, May 20, 2015
Monday, May 11, 2015
The Union Buster
The Union Buster
Even though private employees have a federal right to organize a union in America, it's not always easy. Many employers hit the panic button when they hear the word "union" and hire a union busting consulting firm. These are firms that specialize in scare tactics, misinformation and intimidation.
The History of Union Busting - From Baseball Bats to Brief Cases
Years ago, when workers in America tried to form a union the company would call thugs in to beat up workers and intimidate them. Over time this industry evolved into a multi-billion dollar cottage industry and today's union busters use brief cases and wear ties.
From the moment a union buster steps onto a company's property he takes control of labor relations. It's his job to spread fear in an orchestrated and carefully planned campaign. Often times, the employer pays thousands of dollars per employee for the union buster to keep the union out. To some employers, it's not about the money it's about the power and they'll spend as much as they need to in order to prevent employees from exercising their federally protected rights.
There is a difference between a "management consultant" who helps management negotiate collective bargaining agreements and a "union buster". A management consultant represents management, obeys the law and tries to get a contract that is fair to all parties.
A union buster is a snake in the grass who goes to bed at night dreaming of ways to violate employees' rights. Sometimes employees don't even see the union buster during a campaign so the snake can avoid filling out financial disclosure forms with the federal government. The union buster has a whole bag of tricks that he uses to spread intimidation and misinformation. Unfortunately, all of his tricks are based on lies.
Lie #1 The Union Impedes Communication
Sometimes the union buster has a supervisor or member of the management team read from a "script" in front of workers in an attempt to show how "restrictive" things will be if the union is voted in. He will tell employees that if they have a union, employees won't be able to communicate with supervisors and everything will be military like.
What the union buster's puppet won't tell you is the first step of a union grievance procedure is for the employee to speak with their supervisor. The union encourages communication between employees and management. The more communication there is the better the company runs. The better the company runs the more money they make. The more money they make the more our members make.
Lie #2 We Won't Negotiate
During a union campaign, the union buster will have management try to convince the employees that they won’t negotiate if the union is voted in. The fact is, the federal law says the opposite. Management will negotiate because they have to negotiate with employees. It is an unfair labor practice for management to refuse to negotiate or even bargain in bad faith.
The union buster will also pretend like they might actually negotiate standards down at the bargaining table. But statistics from the Department of Labor say otherwise. Employees who negotiate collectively with their employers have higher salaries on average than their non union counterparts. In addition, safety is typically higher and turnover is typically lower at unionized facilities.
Bargaining unit employees vote on the final agreement and most employees won’t vote to cut their own standards.
Lie #3 Strikes
Scare tactics are a big part of the union buster’s campaign. They will have management talk a lot about strikes and act like everyone who organizes a union ends up on strike. The truth is, less than 2% of all contract negotiations end in a strike or work stoppage. If management were really trying to get the facts out they would talk about the 98% of bargaining that ends in a mutual agreement between the parties.
When the company states that a strike is imminent if employees organize they are breaking the law. The union doesn’t force anyone on strike. A strike is a decision voted on by the employees. In the 2% of contract talks that end in a strike a majority of employees voted to take action.
Lie #4 Dues
When employees begin to form a union, management suddenly becomes concerned about how you spend your money. They will exaggerate the amount of dues that members pay say the union just wants your money. What they won’t tell you is you don’t have to decide if you’re going to become a member and pay dues until after your contract goes into effect. If the improvements in pay, benefits and fair treatment aren’t worth your dues then you’re probably not going to join.
The union buster will train supervisors to act like they are worried that paying dues is a waste of your money. But when you think about it, they really aren’t concerned about how you spend your paycheck. It’s OK with them if you give it all to the church, blow it at a casino, invest it in the market or buy alcohol and cigarettes or anything else for that matter. They don’t care because they know it’s none of their business. The only reason they care if you’re paying union dues is because they don’t want you to organize and bargain collectively.
Lie #5 Just Give Us One More Chance
The union buster also trains supervisors and managers to beg for one more chance. They’ll say they didn’t know that employees were frustrated and now that they know they want a chance to fix the problems. They’ll say the company is one big family and they need just one more chance. Supervisors will start treating employees better and show new concern for their well being.
The union buster knows that if the union is voted down, the employees can’t file for another election for a year and that buys them time. Most employees who give management one more chance realize soon after the election that they’ve been lied to. Asking for one more chance is managements way of guilting employees into voting no in order to retain complete control of conditions and standards.
Lie #6 Promises
The union buster is a pro at the whisper campaign. They’ll get supervisors to whisper promises of promotions in employees ears or promise better pay if the union is voted down. They’ll give special treatment to certain employees if they turn against the union. But the special treatment will end on election day. Many employees who were tricked with promises find themselves treated just as poorly as their co-workers after the union loses an election.
Lie #7 Bargaining From Scratch
It is illegal for an employer to say you’ll be bargaining from scratch. It is also illegal for an employer to threaten to reduce benefits if the union is voted in. When you negotiate a first contract you start with the pay and benefits you have now and negotiate changes. You’ll decide what to ask for in your contract then vote on it.
Friday, May 8, 2015
The ideals we all share and cherish as Americans are many and today on display is the freedom of speech, our right to seek representation in the workplace and our liberty to vote and have our voice be heard. Our fellow FedEx Freight Drivers out of Chicago Heights, IL have spoken and the 8 week long campaign ends tonight with the majority electing to not seek Union representation.
So as the clock strikes midnight tonight we honor every one of those men and woman that have honorably exercised their right at the ballot box and we respect tonight’s outcome.
The drivers out of CGT understand the issues at the heart of the ballots casted tonight and no matter what side you are on this is now a time to join together and move forward. The company has made its case and the majority has elected to not seek representation at this time. Instead the votes tonight entrust the company to make good on its commitments to address the issues or it will ultimately lose the trust its been granted tonight 12 months from now.
The battle in CGT was not won tonight but rest assured the campaign to form our own Union here at FedEx Freight is not over.
So as the clock strikes midnight tonight we honor every one of those men and woman that have honorably exercised their right at the ballot box and we respect tonight’s outcome.
The drivers out of CGT understand the issues at the heart of the ballots casted tonight and no matter what side you are on this is now a time to join together and move forward. The company has made its case and the majority has elected to not seek representation at this time. Instead the votes tonight entrust the company to make good on its commitments to address the issues or it will ultimately lose the trust its been granted tonight 12 months from now.
The battle in CGT was not won tonight but rest assured the campaign to form our own Union here at FedEx Freight is not over.
Monday, May 4, 2015
Message to CGT
Change FedEx to Win would like to wish all of you at CGT the best as you go thru these final days before the election this Friday. The advise we can give you is to be strong and united. Fedex will do everything they can do to sway your vote. Stay focused, support each other and most of all remember why you are at this point. A better pension, better healthcare, representation, " just cause employee " not an "at will" employee, and most of all for your families!
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