We have a lot of rights. Yet those who fear the exercise of those rights are able to use intimidation and fear to convince people that employing their rights is not in their onw best interst: think of every bad police interrogation you’ve watched on TV.

Union busting is like that.

From the Pioneer Press:

Wal-Mart and the union trying to organize workers in the discounter’s Twin Cities area stores have reached a settlement over allegations the retailer violated federal labor laws.

The United Food and Commercial Workers Local 789 filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board last summer accusing Wal-Mart of illegal antiunion activity at the Midway store on University Avenue in St. Paul and at a store in Hastings.

The union later withdrew the Midway charges after employees declined to testify. But at the Hastings store, the board found merit to allegations that a manager threatened to fire an employee if he continued to engage in union organizing. The same manager solicited grievances from an employee with the purpose of discouraging a union, also illegal, according to the NLRB.

The National Labor Relations Act protects employees’ rights to engage in union organizing activity.

That’s all well and good, but what was the result of the settlement?

Wal-Mart has agreed to post a notice at its Hastings store for 60 days informing employees of their protected right to form a union.

The posting is the only remedy the National Labor Relations Act provides in such cases, unless there is actual harm to the employee such as a demotion or termination, said Osthus.

During the union’s organizing campaign last summer, Wal-Mart sent a team from its corporate offices to the five stores where workers were most active in trying to form a union, according to Doug Mork, Local 789′s organizing director. The team held daily meetings and tried to persuade employees they don’t need a union. “They beat the crap out of us,” Mork said.

Wal-Mart, he added, is “an awfully tough nut to crack.”

I wonder if the notice will be posted in much the same manner as the by-pass (normal and hyper-space) notices that so troubled Arthur Dent?

Jeff Hess: Have Coffee Will Write.

This entry was posted on Sunday, December 27th, 2009 at 0630 by Jeff Hess and is filed under Organized Labor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.