You'd think a group called the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace (CDW) would be dedicated to promoting the needs and desires of America's workers. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, CDW spreads half-truths and lies about the Employee Free Choice Act to wage an ill-conceived assault on the rights and opportunities of millions of men and women across the country.  

Here's the real scoop on the Coalition for a Democratic Workplace...

Today the Las Vegas Sun looks behind conservatives' curtains and exposes the true intent of corporate-funded attacks on worker organizing drives.  Corporate-backed adman Richard Berman is known for attacking Mothers Against Drunk Driving and for claiming that second-hand smoke does not cause cancer, but his latest targets are teachers' unions.  Though he purports to fight for workers through his Center for Union Facts front group, Rick Berman betrayed his true intent:

What's not in doubt is that when Berman goes after the teachers, it will be brutal.

At the Sparks conference, he approvingly quoted mobster Al Capone: "You can get further with a kind word and a gun than you can with just a kind word."

Political and labor observers are watching closely because as Berman acknowledged in his Sparks speech, his attack on teachers unions is really a small front in a much bigger battle over the future of the labor movement and its role in American politics. It's not clear Berman cares at all about education policy. His real target is the broader labor movement.

When is a FedEx worker not a FedEx employee? When it benefits the FedEx Corporation.  In a new report, Fed Up with FedEx: How FedEx Ground Tramples Workers' Rights at Civil Rights, the Leadership Conference on Civil Rights and American Rights at Work document the widespread use of employee misclassification at FedEx Ground, which denies workers’ fundamental civil rights and workplace protections.

» Learn more
» Read the executive summary
» Download the report (PDF)

FedEx Ground drivers often face long hours, no benefits, and no control over their work because the company claims they are independent contractors.  When drivers attempt to form unions to address their working conditions, they face an arduous route. First, they must prove they are employees, and not independent contractors who lack the federally protected right to form a union. If they overcome that legal obstacle, they have to go up against FedEx Ground’s sophisticated anti-union campaign.

Management routinely coerces employees not to choose union representation.  Freedom of association—the right of employees to join a union and bargain collectively—is theoretically guaranteed by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), the U.S. Constitution, and several international human rights agreements.  However, as Human Rights Watch concluded in a 2000 report on U.S. compliance with international human rights standards, employees’ freedom of association in the United States is routinely violated through employer coercion.¹ 

More effective remedies against employer coercion—like injunctive relief and monetary penalties—in the Employee Free Choice Act will help restore workers' freedom to form unions.

When Dean Singleton buys out a paper, he guts it: huge staff layoffs, lowered wages for remaining staff, and community beats eliminated.  Then he buys more papers in the community and consolidates:  combining staff positions so that one staff writes for 5-10 newspapers.  Singleton also has a sophisticated strategy and record of breaking up unions at the newspapers under his ownership, and doing all he can to prevent his workers from having any control over their work and lives under MediaNews. Dean Singleton's media consolidation destroys a free and independent press and denies workers their rights.

Anyone who's a fan of the hit TV show "The Office" knows Dunder-Mifflin employees need a union - or something - to deal with their bumbling boss Michael.  On a recent episode, the warehouse workers finally expressed the need for a union to improve their workplace. But when the corporate boss Jan found out about it, she illegally threatened employees that the Dunder-Mifflin plant would close and that they would lose their jobs if they formed a union

Jackson Lewis presents itself as a reputable "national workplace law firm," yet under its polished veneer lies a for-profit unionbuster. In fact, Jackson Lewis is one of the oldest and largest union avoidance law firms in the nation. Jackson Lewis counsels businesses on labor relations strategies that prevent unions from entering the workplace. By operating in the shadows of corporate unionbusting campaigns, the firm remains virtually unknown to the general public. 

The Smithfield Foods' meatpackers struggle to form a union began in 1994, when workers sought union representation with the United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW)  to address the poor conditions in the Tar Heel, North Carolina factory.  Injuries are a regular occurrence with the fast assembly line and the use of sharp knives. 

On December 15, 2000, an NLRB Administrative Law Judge found Smithfield committed multiple labor law violations during Smithfield workers' organizing efforts in 1994 and 1997.

On March 7, 2003, hours after auto maintenance service workers employed by U-Haul in Nevada filed a petition to hold a union representation election, U-Haul fired four workers—Jorge Garcia, Salvador Campos, Johnny DeGuzman, and Jesus Jacobo.  Of the thousands of U-Haul employees nationwide, only a handful of them are represented by unions.  And it appears that U-Haul intends to stay essentially union-free:  In little over a year since the auto maintenance service employees began their union organizing drive to gain better wages and fair treatment on the job, U-Haul fired 39 workers and closed down one facility in Nevada.

» Download the fact sheet (PDF)
» Download the fact sheet in Spanish (PDF)

For decades, the telecommunications industry has provided technicians, customer service agents, operators, and others with job security, opportunities to advance and gain new skills, and sustainable wages and benefits. Yet since Verizon was formed in 2000, it has shirked its responsibilities as a public utility, pursuing a race-to-the-bottom, low-road business model that is detrimental to both employees and customers.

Our new report, Broken Promises, reveals how Verizon uses this model to interfere with its employees’ rights to form unions, putting good jobs and quality service at risk.

» Download the report (PDF)
» Read the press release

This report chronicles Comcast’s efforts to prevent and undermine workers from organizing new unions or successfully negotiating a contract on the terms and conditions of their employment.

» Download the report (PDF: 32 pages, 709 KB)

Findings from this new survey of workers’ opinions on union and employer coercion during card check campaigns and National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) elections reveal that claims of union pressure in card check campaigns are grossly exaggerated.

Authored by Adrienne Eaton, Ph.D. of Rutgers University, and Jill Kriesky, Ph.D. of Wheeling Jesuit University - March 2006

» Download the issue brief (PDF: 4 pages, 66 KB)

Exposing the harmful impact of Wal-Mart's low-cost, low-price business model is the subject of the recently released report "Wal-Mart's Sustainability Initiative: A Civil Society Critique."  Twenty-three organizations, including American Rights at Work, reveal how the big box retailer's business model undermines the environment, communities, and workers.

» View a press release
» Check out our contribution to the report (PDF)
» Download the whole report (PDF)

This report offers a comprehensive examination of the company’s abysmal labor standards, including an investigation into Wal-Mart’s unapologetic, systematic manner of aggressively interfering with its employees’ democratic right to form unions as a method to address their mistreatment.  The study also demonstrates how Wal-Martization is eroding middle-class standards for workers in the grocery industry.

» Download the report
» More about Wal-Mart

Facts and Frequently Asked Questions about Unionbusting

Findings from this new report reveal that a majority of employers aggressively use both legal and illegal anti-union tactics during union representation elections, which impedes workers’ ability to form unions.

» Download the report (PDF: 35 pages, 688 KB)
» View a one-page fact sheet
» Download a half-page flyer (PDF: 503 KB)

“The presence of secret ballots can’t overcome the corrupt nature of NLRB elections.”

"The most frightening aspect,...was to watch as one by one the outspoken 'troublemakers' were led out the door for poor performance, bad attitudes, and various other charges."

"Anti-union employers are making a mockery of the principles governing American elections.  Weak labor laws allow anti-union employers to manipulate the outcome of union elections in a manner that is inherently unfair and undemocratic."

According to Garth Brooks, "it's great to work for Wal-Mart."  But what would happen if Garth found out what it's really like to work for the retail giant?  What would he have to say about Wal-Mart's ruthless campaign against workers' rights?

The ongoing discovery phase of a malpractice case against workplace law giant Jackson Lewis offers an extraordinary inside look at a well-financed and all-too-common attack against workers who attempt to form unions. The New York Times published a feature story on the lawsuit in December 2004.

Here’s a tale told far too often: workers have come together to vote for a union, but don’t have a contract in their workplace.  Why?  Their employer unlawfully refuses to bargain with them and the National Labor Relations Board fails to enforce our weak labor law. 

Ten years after Goya Foods employees in Miami voted for a union, a circuit court judge ordered the company to finally negotiate a contract.  This is yet another example of why Congress must amend labor law to grant workers the right to first contract arbitration, ensuring that their vote for a union actually leads to a union contract.

North Carolina meatpackers have endured grisly working conditions, unfair pay, and a decade of attacks on their right to organize.  So why has the NLRB failed to rule on their case for four years?   

When employees collectively decide that they no longer wish to be represented by a union, they have the ability under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) to vote to revoke union representation at their workplace.  This process, known as a decertification, is expressly intended for workers to initiate, not employers.  While it is illegal for employers to orchestrate a decertification election to rid employees of their union, they can use their position of power to break the law with little fear of the consequences.