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NLRB Orders New Election at Chinese Daily News
Adding fuzzy math to its book of tricks, the increasingly worker-hostile National Labor Relations Board has ordered a new election for 150 Chinese Daily News employees who first voted for representation by The Newspaper Guild-CWA in March 2001.
Management at the Los Angeles-area newspaper appealed the vote and for four years has refused to recognize, let alone bargain with, the union. Despite managers' intimidation, threats, cultural coercion and even firings, workers have continued to fight for their union rights. The new election is scheduled for some time in September.
"Between stalling tactics and outrageous rulings, the NLRB has allowed management to wage a vicious and unrelenting anti-union campaign—a campaign that is likely to get even worse as the new election date approaches," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said.
The NLRB upheld management's claim that the election, 78-63 for the union, was tainted by the involvement of a group leader who solicited union authorization cards from seven workers. But as the one dissenting NLRB member noted, even if the seven challenged ballots had been thrown out, the union still would have prevailed by one vote.
The case first went to a hearing officer in NLRB Region 21, who found no objectionable conduct on the group leader's part, nor any merit with management's other allegations. After that appeal was denied, the publisher appealed further to the national board in Washington.
The case languished there for almost four years. Finally, with the normally 5-member board down to three because of unfilled vacancies, two Republican appointees seized a recent NLRB decision as a precedent to rule for management.
Member Wilma Liebman dissented, saying it was wrong for the board to apply the new decision retroactively. She said the case should have been sent back to Region 21 to resolve the ballot challenges, noting that even a decision for management wouldn't change the math favoring the union. Ordering a new election, she wrote, "is contrary to the often-cited (NLRB) principle that representation elections should not lightly be set aside."
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said the case illustrates how the system that is supposed to protect workers is, in fact, heavily weighted in management's favor.
"So, management has had four more years to harass and intimidate workers who should have long ago had their union," Cohen said. "This is a prime example of why our labor election system is broken and why we need to make company neutrality and card-check recognition the law of the land through the Employee Free Choice Act."
Management at the Los Angeles-area newspaper appealed the vote and for four years has refused to recognize, let alone bargain with, the union. Despite managers' intimidation, threats, cultural coercion and even firings, workers have continued to fight for their union rights. The new election is scheduled for some time in September.
"Between stalling tactics and outrageous rulings, the NLRB has allowed management to wage a vicious and unrelenting anti-union campaign—a campaign that is likely to get even worse as the new election date approaches," TNG-CWA President Linda Foley said.
The NLRB upheld management's claim that the election, 78-63 for the union, was tainted by the involvement of a group leader who solicited union authorization cards from seven workers. But as the one dissenting NLRB member noted, even if the seven challenged ballots had been thrown out, the union still would have prevailed by one vote.
The case first went to a hearing officer in NLRB Region 21, who found no objectionable conduct on the group leader's part, nor any merit with management's other allegations. After that appeal was denied, the publisher appealed further to the national board in Washington.
The case languished there for almost four years. Finally, with the normally 5-member board down to three because of unfilled vacancies, two Republican appointees seized a recent NLRB decision as a precedent to rule for management.
Member Wilma Liebman dissented, saying it was wrong for the board to apply the new decision retroactively. She said the case should have been sent back to Region 21 to resolve the ballot challenges, noting that even a decision for management wouldn't change the math favoring the union. Ordering a new election, she wrote, "is contrary to the often-cited (NLRB) principle that representation elections should not lightly be set aside."
CWA Executive Vice President Larry Cohen said the case illustrates how the system that is supposed to protect workers is, in fact, heavily weighted in management's favor.
"So, management has had four more years to harass and intimidate workers who should have long ago had their union," Cohen said. "This is a prime example of why our labor election system is broken and why we need to make company neutrality and card-check recognition the law of the land through the Employee Free Choice Act."