Workplace Bullying Solutions for Unions

Unions Under Assault

Union busting has always been part of American history. Organizers were routinely fired, despite the illegality. The NLRB was under control of administrations that hated labor. Unions are not to blame for the decline in unionization rates in the U.S. since Reagan broke the PATCO union. "Employment at will" is the principle most loved by employers -- the right to terminate people anytime, anywhere for no cause is a threat faced by 93% of private sector workers.

After the 2010 election cycle, a number of Tea Party (corporate-backed) newcomers took control of state legislatures and governorships. These political novices introduced bills they could not have created themselves. It turns out that the driving force behind all the anti-union laws is a group called ALEC (American Legislative Exchange Council). Investigative reporting discovered the ALEC-Tea Party-Legislation link. Overnight, existing collective bargaining rights were stripped away in Wisconsin and Ohio. Elected city officials in Michigan were replaced by "Emergency Financial Managers" who privatized municipal work and undid unions with the stroke of a pen. Hard-won labor victories that took years to accomplish through organizing, protesting and bargaining were erased.

While under assault, it's easy to pull back and focus solely on survival of the union. However, this is risky because members expect support and benefits from membership, regardless of external pressure on unions.

Abuse in the Workplace Runs Rampant

Workers, your members, are also under assault in the trenches at work. More work is done by fewer hands. The investor class boasts how much more "productive" the U.S. workforce is. This is done by simply holding output steady while the number of workers dwindle. It is a sick ratio and not worth bragging about. In a way, it's an index that detects abuse.

At the 1:1 level, between workers and bosses, the abuse is increasing. In 2010, the Workplace Bullying Institute (WBI) conducted its second national scientific survey of workplace bullying. Bullying, abusive conduct, is defined as repeated health-harming mistreatment by one or more employees that takes the form of either verbal abuse; threats, intimidation or humiliation; sabotage of work; or exploitation of a worker's known vulnerability, psychological or physical. According to that definition, 35% of all adult Americans reported directly experiencing it. That's 54 million workers. It's an epidemic that jeopardizes employee health, cuts short careers and toxifies the work environment.

The message from management to your members is to "suffer in silence or be fired. There are many others in the street waiting to replace you."

Members Expect Unions to Protect Them from Bullying at Work

Though bullying is more prevalent in education and healthcare than most professions, it occurs everywhere. It is as unconscionable that some union presidents have never heard of workplace bullying when their members are suffering from it as when corporate executives say it doesn't happen in their companies. Canadian and European unions actually lead the anti-bullying efforts in their countries. American unions lag behind. Just as we admonish corporate executives to ignore bullying at their peril, the same is true for union presidents. Talk to your members. Gauge the impact of bullying on your membership!

Greg Sorozan, SEIU/NAGE President in Massachusetts, negotiated a "Mutual Respect" clause into the contract affecting 21,000 state workers in 2009. Since then, he has successfully invoked the provision to bring awareness to workplace bullying in grievances.

What are you doing to help your members? Many are in pain and deserve relief.

Start Here -- Poll Your Membership Now -- Free!

We will design with you a simple survey to estimate how large a problem workplace bullying is to your members. We have an online data collection survey site. It's anonymous, 3rd party and easy. Simply e-mail your membership the link to your union-specific survey. Statistical summaries of the findings will be provided within a week of the end of the survey period.

Call WBI today: 360-656-6630 Or e-mail us: info (at) workplacebullying.org

Only unions are employee advocates. Serve your members by working to stop bullying with our help. Also please support the anti-bullying Healthy Workplace Legislative Campaign in your state which will benefit all workers. Visit the HWB website to learn details.

The WBI director is a card-carrying union member (UAW Local 1981) and WBI is pro-worker, anti-abuse, pro-labor.