Monday, February 25, 2008

[IWS] U.K. Unions & AFL-CIO Join Against UNION BUSTER CONSULTANTS [22 February 2009

IWS Documented News Service
_______________________________
Institute for Workplace Studies----------------- Professor Samuel B. Bacharach
School of Industrial & Labor Relations
-------- Director, Institute for Workplace Studies
Cornell University
16 East 34th Street, 4th floor
---------------------- Stuart Basefsky
New York, NY 10016
-------------------------------Director, IWS News Bureau
________________________________________________________________________

U.S. Anti-Union Consultants: A Threat to the Rights of British Workers
John Logan
Employment Relations and Organizational Behavior Group, Department of Management, London School of Economics and Political Science
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/loganreport.pdf
[full-text, 28 pages]

[excerpt]
This report provides an overview of the impact of union avoidance consultants in
the US and discusses their recent activities in the UK. The first section of this
report summarizes the development of the union avoidance industry in the US in
the past few decades, describes the activities of consultants during counterorganizing
campaigns, provides brief details of two anti-union campaigns, and
discusses the negative impact that consultants have had on the character of labormanagement
relations in the United States. The second section discusses the extent
of anti-union activity in the UK and describes some recent UK organizing
campaigns orchestrated by US consultants. It concludes with an analysis of why
of how to stop this unwanted US import from flourishing in the UK. While recent
consultant activity in the UK pales in comparison with the scale and intensity of
consultant activity in the US, it nonetheless represents a development that should
concern anyone who believes in workers' right to organize and bargain
collectively.


AFL-CIO, U.K. Unions Join Forces Against Union-Busters
by James Parks, Feb 22, 2008
http://blog.aflcio.org/2008/02/22/afl-cio-uk-unions-join-forces-against-union-busters/


Protocol between AFL-CIO and the TUC [12 February 2008]
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/protocolagreement.pdf


[excerpt from AFL-CIO blog]
U.S. corporations are exporting more than consumer goods these days­they're increasingly exporting their anti-workers practices as well. In countries such as the United Kingdom, which still enjoys a high rate of union membership, more and more employers there are beginning to use American union-busters.

In one of the first concrete steps to continue the global solidarity of the historic < http://blog.aflcio.org/2007/12/06/afl-cio-hosting-historic-global-summit-on-organizing > Global Organizing Summit in December, the AFL-CIO and the British Trades Union Congress (< http://www.tuc.org.uk/> TUC) are joining forces to try to eliminate the vicious intimidation practices employers use to prevent workers from seeking a better quality of life.

AFL-CIO President John Sweeney and TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber signed a < http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/protocolagreement.pdf> joint agreement Feb. 12 to work together to eliminate the intimidation of workers who want to improve the quality of their families' lives by forming a union.

The two union federations agreed to share information about the activity of union-busting firms in the United States and Britain, develop a shared database of union-busting activity and create "Busting the Union-Busters" training materials. Both will jointly lobby governments and relevant international bodies to restrict the activities of the union-busters. Click < http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/protocolagreement.pdf>here to read the agreement.

AND MORE....
______________________________
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****************************************
Stuart Basefsky                   
Director, IWS News Bureau                
Institute for Workplace Studies 
Cornell/ILR School                        
16 E. 34th Street, 4th Floor             
New York, NY 10016                        
                                   
Telephone: (607) 255-2703                
Fax: (607) 255-9641                       
E-mail: smb6@cornell.edu                  
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