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In This Issue

1. ORGANIZING
   
   
2. STRIKES & LABOR DISPUTES
   
   
3. MAJOR CONTRACT SETTLEMENTS & NEGOTIATIONS
   
   
4. ADMINISTRATIVE & COURT DECISIONS
   
   
5. LEGISLATION & POLITICS
   
   
6. CRIME & CORRUPTION
   
   

1. Organizing

• Since November 2010, affiliate unions of National Nurses United and the Service Employees International Union have won 13 of 14 representation elections at Florida hospitals owned by HCA (formerly Hospital Corp. of America). Under an election procedure agreement reached with HCA last year, the two unions have organized approximately 4,250 workers in Florida in the last three weeks and have also successfully organized workers at HCA hospitals this year in Texas, Missouri, Kansas, and Nevada. Pursuant to the agreement, HCA designated hospitals that the two unions could target and timelines for organizing the workers. The unions also were given limited access to workers at the hospitals and management agreed to refrain from campaigning against the union.

• In a 70-30 vote, Delta Air Lines passenger service workers voted against representation by the International Association of Machinists. The vote means that the IAM will be decertified as the representative of approximately 5,500 passenger services workers at the former Northwest Airlines, which merged with Delta in 2008. The election was one of several elections held at Delta after the National Mediation Board issued new rules that make it easier for airline and railroad industry workers to unionize. Under the new rule, the NMB will determine the success of an election vote based on the number of votes cast, instead of its previous rule which required it to count all votes not cast as “no” votes. Despite this new rule, Delta Air Lines employees have consistently voted against union representation.

• The International Association of Machinists announced that it has filed an application with the National Mediation Board for representation of approximately 3,200 AirTran Airways employees one year after the IAM failed to obtain the necessary votes for representation. The new application comes after Southwest Airlines' announcement that it will acquire AirTran and merge it into Southwest's operations. The application also follows the National Mediation Board's new rules on election voting, which are more favorable to unions.

• Baltimore Gas and Electric Company utility workers voted by an 80 percent majority against representation by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers. The December election marked the fourth time Baltimore Gas employees have voted against union representation, the most recent previous vote occurred in December 2000.

• Allegiant Airlines flight attendants voted 62 percent in favor of representation by the Transport Workers Union. The union only needed a simple majority of those casting ballots to win the election. The flight attendants are the first employees at Allegiant to organize.

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2. Strikes & Labor Disputes

• UNITE HERE Local 1 hotel employees in Chicago conducted a one-day strike at the Hilton Palmer House hotel in protest of what they described as Hilton's efforts to take advantage of the recession by locking workers into unfair wages and other concessions. Hilton and UNITE HERE have been engaged in on-and-off negotiations since August 2009, and the union maintains that Hilton is trying to lock workers into contracts with minimal raises “despite the fact that all indicators show that hotel business is coming back heartily.” Hilton representatives state that the hotel has offered to increase wages, contributions to employee pensions, and health fund contributions, but that the union continues to insist on further wage increases and “other very costly proposals.”

• Titan Tire Corporation locked out more than 1,000 employees at three of its plants, located in Ohio, Iowa, and Illinois. Titan initiated the lockout after it failed to reach an agreement with the United Steelworkers union and after presenting the union with a final offer. Then, on December 26, workers at Titan's Des Moines, Iowa plant ratified the last and best contract while workers at the Freeport, Illinois and Bryan, Ohio plants rejected the same proposal. According to the union, the company's final offer provides wage freezes and significant increases in employee contributions to health care.

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3. Major Contract Settlements & Negotiations

• Members of the International Brotherhood of Teamsters approved a tentative agreement with Horizon Air by a vote of 60 to 40 percent. The proposed five-year agreement provides bonuses, scheduling flexibility, and “baseball-style” arbitration on pay rates for the company's 600 pilots. Under the “baseball-style” arbitration method, each side submits a proposal and the arbitrator chooses one of the two proposals – the belief is that because the arbitrator will pick one of the two proposals, each party is motivated to make its “best” offer. The name derives from the type of arbitration frequently used in Major League Baseball players' salary disputes.

• Members of the Michigan Nurses Association voted to ratify a three-year contract at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, Michigan. The contract raises wages for 2,100 employees 4.5 percent over term and provides a unique solution to the union's staffing concerns. Under the contract, the hospital can incur penalties of up to $1,200 in a 24-hour period if it does not correct staffing shortages reported by employees. The union states that the staffing shortage portion of the contract is “second to none in this country.”

• International Association of Machinists members at jet engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney's Connecticut plants voted to ratify a new three-year contract. The contract provides for a 3 percent wage increase in the first year, wage increases of 2.5 percent for the second and third years of the agreement, $3,000 signing bonuses and allows the company to proceed with the shutdown of two of its Connecticut facilities. The agreement also provides for an increase to the employees' pension and savings plans.

• United Food and Commercial Workers locals' members and one International Brotherhood of Teamsters local's members voted by a 95 percent majority to ratify three-year agreements with Safeway, Albertsons, and two other grocery stores in the Puget Sound area of Washington state. The new agreement provides for ratification bonuses, slight wage increases and maintains workers health care benefits with slight increases in deductibles and employee weekly contributions to health care premiums. The employers also agreed to make greater contributions to the defined benefit pensions plans.

• More than 2,700 United Healthcare Workers-West members ratified by a 90 percent majority vote a new four-year agreement at five HCA-affiliated hospitals in California. The new agreement provides wage increases of 2 percent to 4 percent each year and maintains employer-paid family health care. The agreement also contains a provision that aids employees who lose hours due to fluctuating patient census in picking up additional hours and protects the union's education fund.

• A union representing over 200 doctors at Harlem Hospital, The Doctors Council SEIU, and the city Health and Hospitals Corp. reached an agreement which narrowly avoided a strike by the 200 member doctors. The agreement limited layoffs of 14 positions at the hospital, ensure doctors will not work shifts of more than 24 hours and addresse staffing concerns.

• The San Francisco Chronicle and members of the California Media Workers Guild ratified a two-year collective bargaining agreement that provides only minimal gains, but no concessions, according to the union. Under the new agreement, the workers will receive 1.5 percent wage increases across the board in July 2011, with some employees receiving an additional 5 percent wage increase. This contract comes after workers accepted significant concessionary amendments to the contract in March 2009 to avoid sale or closure of the 144-year-old newspaper.

• The International Association of Machinists and Alaska Airlines came to a tentative agreement on a three-and-a-half-year contract covering approximately 2,600 employees. The tentative agreement provides a $500 signing bonus, $1,500 ratification bonuses, annual 1.5 percent wage increases, job security and participation in the airlines profit-sharing plan.

• United Auto Workers Local 833 members accepted a five-year contract with Kohler Company that freezes wages for employees and introduces a two-tiered wage scale under which recalled employees will be paid hourly wages at 65 percent of the current wage rate. The new agreement also introduces significantly higher employee contributions to health care premiums. The new agreement was reached just days after Herbert V. Kohler Jr., Kohler's chairman and chief operating officer, sent a letter to all Kohler employees which stated “[u]nless we change, this location will continue to shrink and will cease to be a source of opportunity for existing associates, associates on layoff, and future generations."

• Pacific Gas and Electric Co. clerical workers represented by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 1245 ratified a four-year contract by a 75 percent vote. The agreement incrementally increases wages each year, providing a 1 percent increase in the first year, and a 2 percent increase in the second, third and fourth years. The union and company will negotiate a separate health care benefits agreement in 2011.

• Air Line Pilots Association, representing approximately 2,800 pilots at Pinnacle Airlines, Colgan Air and Mesaba, has reached a tentative collective bargaining agreement with the three carriers' parent company. The agreement provides wage increases of between 2 and 3 percent in each year of the agreement and the retirement benefits provided are similar to those of the Mesaba retirement plan, the most generous plan of the three airlines.

• Mitsubishi and members of United Auto Workers Local 2488 ratified a collective bargaining agreement covering approximately 1,000 employees at Mitsubishi's Normal, Illinois plant. Details of the agreement are subject to a confidentiality agreement and will not be released until after Mitsubishi makes an announcement about a new product line at the Normal plant. However, the parties issued a joint statement that the agreement “will provide job security for UAW members and continues the longstanding partnership between MMNA and the UAW into the future.”

• Continental Airlines fleet service workers ratified their first collective bargaining agreement with representation by the International Brotherhood of Teamsters. The contract's ratification occurred less than one year after bargaining unit members voted for representation by the Teamsters. The initial contract provides 10.5 percent wage increases over a 30-month period and includes protections against unjust discipline, terminations, outsourcing and furloughs.

• Analysis of collective bargaining data compiled by BNA for all 2010 settlements shows an average first-year wage increase of 1.6 percent, down from 2.3 percent in 2009. The median first-year increase for settlements in 2010 was also 1.7 percent, down from 2.5 percent in 2009, and the weighted average was 1.8 percent, compared with 2.7 percent in 2009.

• Major collective bargaining agreements reached in Canada during October 2010 contained average wage increases of 1.3 percent according to analysis of collective bargaining data compiled by Human Resources and Skills Development Canada. The average wage increase was down significantly from 1.8 percent in October 2009. Additionally, private sector collective bargaining agreements in October 2010 showed average wage increases of 0.8 percent, down from 2.1 percent in October 2009.

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4. Administrative & Court Decisions

• Under a new rule proposed by the NLRB, every employer subject to the Act will be required to post a notice informing employees of their rights under the Act. The proposed rule requires employers to post an 11-by-17-inch poster and electronically distribute the notice to all employees. The rule also imposes sanctions against employers that fail to post the required notice, by treating the failure as a Section 8(a)(1) unfair labor practice. Member Brian Hayes has dissented from the NLRB decision granting the rulemaking petition, stating that the NLRB does not have the authority to impose notice posting requirements through rulemaking.

• Lafe Solomon, acting General Counsel of the NLRB, announced an initiative to “systematically” seek remedies for unfair labor practices committed during union organizing campaigns, including steps to seek injunctive relief under Section 10(j) of the Act. Solomon's goal is to create “prompt and effective relief” during the organizing campaign, which will “recreate an atmosphere in which employees will feel free to exercise their Section 7 right to make a free choice regarding unionization.”

• The NLRB certified an International Brotherhood of Teamsters local's victory in an NLRB-supervised election, rejecting the company's contention that a Board agent set up the polling place in a manner that compromised voter privacy and the integrity of the election. Specifically, the Ohio-based company, American Medical Response, alleged that the use of a tabletop voting booth stationed about four to five feet away from NLRB and IBT agents did not comport with the Act's privacy requirements. The Board held that although the NLRB agent who oversaw the election failed to use the NLRB's standard metal booth with curtains that shield voters from head to lower torso, the company failed to present any evidence that the NLRB agent or the election observers witnessed any voters' ballot choices. Physicians & Surgeons Ambulance Serv. Inc. d/b/a Am. Med. Response, 356 NLRB No. 42 (2010).

• The NLRB ruled that the United Auto Workers and Dana Corp., an auto parts manufacturer, did not violate federal labor law by entering an agreement that the company would recognize the union as bargaining agent for its Michigan employees if the union proved in a card check by a neutral third party that it had the support of a majority of workers. The Board held that the agreement fell within the framework of permissible cooperation and that an employer does not cross the line between cooperation and unlawful support until it recognizes a minority union as the exclusive bargaining representative. Dana Corp., 356 NLRB No. 49 (2010).

• The NLRB ruled that Correctional Medical Services, an Albany, New York medical clinic, violated the NLRA when it fired five employees who joined union picketing during their off-duty time. In 2007, the NLRB ruled that the employees lost the protection of the Act because the picketing in which they participated violated Section 8(g) of the Act by failing to provide 10 days advance notice to the health care provider. On appeal, the Second Circuit ruled that the union's violation did not cause the employees to lose the Act's protection. On remand, the Board agreed with the Second Circuit that the employer violated Section 8(a)(1) when it fired employees for participating in the picketing. Correctional Med. Servs. Inc., 356 NLRB No. 48 (2010).

• A California federal district court ordered two Kaiser Permanente entities to grant prospective benefits to approximately 2,300 registered nurses and other professionals. The benefits include wage increases guaranteed in the employees' labor contract, which Kaiser refused to honor after the employees voted to replace their collective bargaining agent. The court held that Kaiser violated Sections 8(a)(1) & (5) of the Act when it changed the established terms and conditions of employment without bargaining with the new union after the employees voted to switch representation from United Healthcare Workers West to the National Union of Healthcare Workers. The decision came just days after an NLRB administrative law judge found that Kaiser's actions in unilaterally changing the terms of the agreement without bargaining with the new union violated employee rights under the Act. Small v. Southern Cal. Permanente Med. Grp., C.D. Cal., No. 10-7395; Southern Cal. Permanente Med. Grp., NLRB ALJ, No. 21-CA-39296.

• An Arkansas federal district court granted three motions to dismiss ABF Freight System's lawsuit which alleged that the International Brotherhood of Teamsters and YRC Worldwide Inc., ABF's largest competitor, violated the National Master Freight Agreement by independently bargaining for concessions which covered all YRC employees, but not ABF employees. The court granted the motions to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction on the basis that ABF bargained independently with the IBT and therefore entered into a separate collective bargaining agreement apart from IBT's agreement with YRC. Therefore, the court ruled that ABF lacked standing, and the court lacked subject matter jurisdiction, to entertain ABF's claims concerning the IBT-YRC agreement. ABF Freight Sys. Inc. v. Int'l Bhd. of Teamsters, W.D. Ark., No. 2:10-cv-02165.

• A Minnesota federal district court ruled that Air Line Pilots Association did not breach its duty of fair representation when it entered into an agreement with Northwest Airlines to modify the pilots' defined benefit plan after Northwest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Plaintiffs alleged that Air Line Pilots Association and Northwest entered into the agreement with the intent of discriminating against older pilots. However, the court found that there was no evidence that the decision to adopt the plan was made out of discriminatory animus and therefore granted Air Line Pilots Association's motion for summary judgment. Northwest Airlines Inc. v. Phillips, D. Minn., No. 07-4803.

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5. Legislation & Politics

• On December 17, President Obama met at the White House with 12 labor leaders, including AFL-CIO president Richard Trumka, UAW president Bob King and SEIU president Mary Kay Henry. The President called the meeting to discuss the current state of the economy, the American job market and the importance of the partnership between the government and labor to growing the economy and furthering economic recovery.

• A final rule published by the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards on December 1 made several changes to unions' financial requirements. First, the rule rescinds the Form T-1 Trust Annual Report, on which unions with total annual receipts exceeding $250,000 were required to disclose the amounts, purposes and sources of money disbursed and received by trusts over which they have managerial control or financial dominance. In place of the T-1 Form, unions will be required to provide information on their wholly owned, controlled, and financed subsidiary organizations on their LM-2 forms. The rule also amends the LM-3 form, filed by unions with receipts of less than $250,000 per year, to conform the subsidiary organization reporting requirements to those of the LM-2 form. Finally, the rule reverts to a pre-2003 interpretation that public sector intermediate bodies that represent no private sector employees, and contain no local unions that represent private sector employees, are exempt from coverage under the Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. The rule took effect January 1, 2011.

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6. Crime & Corruption

• The former Carpenters and Joiners of America Local 455 business manager was sentenced in federal court to 28 months in prison for embezzling approximately $85,000 from the local over a seven-year period. The former business manager, Shawn Clark, used the local's American Express credit card to ring up improper charges including approximately $65,000 at gentleman's clubs, $7,000 at restaurants and bars and $18,000 at an office supply store and the U.S. Post Office.

• American Federation of Government Employees Local 1223 former president Duane Edouard DeJoie pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud in connection with embezzling $5,369 from the union. DeJoie deposited $5,369 in checks into a personal back account under his control. He is scheduled for sentencing on April 26, 2011.
  

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If you have questions about items that appeared in this bulletin, or would like to learn more about any of these topics, please contact William Miossi at (202) 282-5708 or (312) 558-6109, or one of the other Labor & Employment Relations partners listed here:

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