Jointly, Rep. John Kline (R-MN), chairman of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce, and Rep. Phil Roe (R-TN), chairman of the Subcommittee on Health, Employment, Labor, and Pensions, issued a statement after a federal judge blocked the Department of Labor “persuader” rule. The congressmen declared the rule an “assault on the right of workers to make informed union decisions” and applauded the judge on his decision. Read the full press release here.

(The below article originally appeared in Planet Labor, 15 November 2016, nº9923–www.planetlabor.com)

United States: services union SEIU ordered to pay a company for damage to its reputation as a result of its unionization campaign

In September, a civil court jury ordered the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) to pay $7.8 million to the Professional Janitorial Service of Houston (PJS), ruling the union was too aggressive in its interference with the corporation’s business relations. The SEIU has stated it will appeal the decision on what appears to be the first such ruling against a union for defamation. 

On September 6th 2016, Houston county jury awarded a local commercial cleaning firm, Professional Janitorial Services (PJS), $5.3 million in damages for the union’s aggressive campaigning practices. An additional $2.5 million was awarded in prejudgement interest on September 26th, totaling a hefty $7.8 million payout order for the union. The SEIU has roundly criticised what it sees as an attack on its freedom of speech and said it would appeal the verdict. In a statement, the SEIU called the outcome an assault on free speech rights and said the trial was “riddled with procedural errors and blatant appeals to the prejudices of the jury.”

Ten years of legal battles and other wrangling. The PJS of Houston fought the SEIU from its very beginnings of unionizing in the area. The first suit against the SEIU was filed on May 3, 2007, when the union had just started organizing the employer’s janitorial staff. According to a former SEIU organizer, the SEIU followed its traditional model of organizing through contractors: pressurizing building owners in particular those who controlled the contract awards. The verdict said the unions had spread ‘pure lies’ among these property owners in a bid to ‘denigrate’ the company.

Over the next nine years of legal suit, SEIU filed 19 unfair-labor-practice complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) which were all either resolved in the employer’s favor or retracted by the union, and 25 wage claims with the Department of Labor of overdue wages and employees forced to work off the clock. Only one wage claim was ruled in the union’s favor in 2008, awarding one employee $1,854 in wages.

‘Card check’ refusal and more intensified action. During SEIU’s organizing, the PJS refused to accept cards signed by employees in favor of joining a union and instead required that SEIU win a secret-ballot election to be able to represent its employees. In response, the SEIU launched its “all-out” corporate campaign, explaining the successive years of aggressive organizing against PJS and its business reputation.

The company convinced the jury by proving that over the course of the SEIU’s lengthy corporate campaign, an estimated dozen companies had terminated their contracts with PJS as a result of various organizing and protest tactics used by the union workers. The company also presented a number of employee testimonies that contested the union’s allegations over working conditions and over certain employees contracts having been terminated. Union Emails, memos and the like also showed the union as being particularly ‘aggressive’ in its aim to harm the company’s economic interests.

Read more

OSHA has come under fire for an email mistakenly sent to an International Franchise Association member. The email, which instructs OSHA inspectors to focus more on items helpful to Union organization than the safety of employees, has raised questions about OSHA’s Union ties. When asked for additional information under the Freedom of Information Act, OSHA provided a document that was 80% redacted, sparking Congress members to say that OSHA may be drifting from their core purpose and inspecting in areas where they have no expertise. More information may be found here.

In 2014, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that home-care workers have a First Amendment right not to pay fees to a union they don’t wish to join. Since then, the Freedom Foundation in Washington State has sought to notify affected employees of their rights. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has refused to provide the Freedom Foundation with the names of their members. Now that SEIU has lost a court case to block the Freedom Foundation’s information request, they have sponsored a ballot known as the Seniors and Vulnerable Individuals’ Safety and Financial Crimes Prevention Act. Under the ballot measure, the Freedom Foundation or other outsiders would be blocked from obtaining the list of union members’ names. Read the Wall Street Journal’s take on the fraudulent ballot here.

A Texas court awarded a temporary injunction against the Obama administration’s Fair Pay and Safe Workplaces final rule, also known as “blacklisting”, on October 25. The Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), its Southeast Chapter and the National Association of Security Companies (NASCO) filed a legal challenge October 7. The rule, which requires government contractors to report alleged violations that firms are still contesting, will force businesses to abandon pursuit of government contracts and will make the contracting process less efficient and more expensive. Read more about the court case and ABC’s efforts to fight the Fair Pay and Workplaces Executive Order 13673 here. Additional information about blacklisting can be found here.

Robert Smith III, a former agent for the International Longshoremen’s Association Local 970, pleaded guilty to mail fraud after stealing more than $1 million from the union. The crime carries a penalty of up to 20 years in prison. Sentencing will take place February 17, 2017. Read more about it here.