2010 union free planning

Bloomberg has a good piece on corporate ramp up in advance of expected legislation to provide an easier path for organizing workers. As noted before, card check is dead, but quickie elections are a likely result of early action in 2010. Its a political necessity for Democrats to energize their labor base.

Oregon captive audience law challenged

U.S. Chamber sues to block enforcement of Oregon law preventing employers from having captive audience meetings with employees during union organizing drives. This prediction is easy. I see no way state regulation of the NLRB campaign process survives a preemption challenge.

NUHW wins Santa Rosa election

In a tight vote, Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital healthcare workers have apparently chosen the National Union of Health Workers (NUHW) as their representative for collective bargaining. The vote was NUHW 283, 263 for No Union, 13 for SEIU. There were 17 challenged ballots. The linked article provides significant detail about the contentious fight between SEIU and NUHW, as well as the roller coaster election tallying of ballots. We have previously blogged about this here and here. The SEIU is being accused of stonewalling the certification by not cooperating in the resolution of the 17 challenged ballots. If the challenges are not resolved there will be a runoff election without SEIU on the ballot, In a close election the outcome of a runoff is not guaranteed.

AFL-CIO and social media

The AFL-CIO blog recently embraced the use of social media as an organizing tool. One of an employer's big advantages in the effort to maintain union free status is the difficulty labor has in contacting employees. Employers assert property rights to prevent FtF access, access to e-mail or any other use of company property to communicate a union message. Under current law, employers have many ways to prevent workplace communications concerning unionization, as long as they do not discriminate on the basis of content. While unions are free to approach employees at home, or other times when they are away from the workplace, this is both intrusive and inefficient. Thats where the intertubes, social media and blogging comes in.
Web sites, blogs and social media have the potential to level the playing fields for labor and its organizers. Its  cheap, easy to master and effective communication. Instead of pounding the pavement at shift change or home visitations, the organizing committee can build support by inviting friends to a Facebook page which subsequently can be an effective tool for communications necessary to maintain support during a campaign.
Register-Guard exposes the difficulty for an employer trying to restrict workplace e-mail communication. Employers of employees who have access to e-mail at work should make promulgation of an effective e-mail and computer use policies a top priority. Just like having appropriate no access and no distribution rules prior to organizing activity, proper restrictions on e-mail and social media use through employer property (computer or smart phone) must be in place ahead of the activity.
Improper monitoring of electronic data can run afoul of not only the surveillance restrictions of the NLRA, but also federal data transmission and data storage laws designed to ensure privacy. Improper monitoring of social media raises similar concerns.
I think it is very likely the NLRB will revisit the question of whether employee use of e-mail is a presumptive Section 7 right as Member Liebman suggested in her dissent in Register-Guard.