NONUNION ORGANIZATIONS ~

Vol. XIX, No. 1 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. January 1996

I Issue in Brief 1 News

Union Fires Organizer 2

P.K. Firm Sued Ocer Corporate Ca nipa ign 2

From the Editor

Electronic Conzniunications and Union Organizing 3

Preventive Tactics

Guidelines for Constructing an In-House Mediation Program

Campaign Workshop

Ilischa rging Union Act i c ist s

Eniployer’,s Mistake Causes Board To Order New Election

Benefits as a Campaign Issue

Beuwrc. of ?Job Loss Thrcw ts

Union Tactics

SEI U Wins Multislate Agreement

SEIU Tuctics

The Increa.sing Role of Women

Cassette Tape as Organizing Tool

NLRB Hostility to Alternative Dispute Resolution

Thousands of nonunionized American companies have attempted to control the huge costs of employment-related litigation by requiring tha t employees agree to submit disputes to arbitration. To the consternation of many in the business community, action by NLRB general counsel Fred Feinstein has called into question the legality of this approach. Recently, Feinstein agreed to pursue a complaint charging a n employer with a n unfair labor practice on behalf of a n employee who was fired because he refused to sign a n agreement pledging to arbitrate any disputes concerning his employment (Bentleyk Luggage Corp., NLRB Case No. 12-CXA-16658). Another case raising very similar issues is now under consideration, and many believe Feinstein will agree to pursue this case as well.

Under this emerging Board policy, any employer could be subject to unfair labor practice charges for discharging an employee who will not sign an arbitration agreement, warns Jerry M. Hunter, who served as NLRB General Counsel in the Bush administration. “The general counsel’s decision in Bentley’s has called into question the legitimacy of a procedure which offered a p e a t deal of promise to those who would like to see the dockets of the federal and state courts unclogged and disputes concerning employment-related matters decided in a more expeditious and less ex- pensive forum,” Hunter said in a paper presented to the American Arbitra- tion Association.

As they occur, further developments in this area will be discussed in Management Report.

Unions’ Southern Strategy New AFL-CIO president John Sweeney said tha t a substantial portion

of the $10 million increase he has proposed for AFL-CIO organizing should be spent in the South, “because the opportunities a re there.” Further, he suggests starting a Sunbelt Organizing Fund. Among the Southern targets Sweeney said unions should go after are workers a t foreign-owned plants, women and minority workers at Atlanta hotels, and employees in pink- collar service industries. Sweeney said he wanted to target the South because “for decades companies have been moving south because of a lack of unions, depleting the ranks of organized labor elsewhere.”

In recent years, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), of which Sweeney was president for the past decade, has organized thousands of Southern workers. The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers repre-

0 1996 John Wiley Rr Sons, Inc.