Federal labor officials have forced the Service Employees International Union Local 49 — one of Oregon’s most active labor groups — to suspend many of its organizing efforts for six months, as part of a legal settlement with a Portland worker [represented by attorneys for the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation] who accused the union of violating labor laws.
The settlement highlights the National Labor Relations Board’s efforts to exert more control over “card-check” [scheme] agreements, in which employers may voluntarily recognize a union if a majority of employees sign cards authorizing representation.
With the use of card checks, unions have increasingly bypassed the traditional — and more arduous — federal election process that the labor board oversees. The number of petitions for NLRB elections filed by unions declined 26 percent between federal fiscal years 2005 and 2006. Experts say the drop-off largely has resulted from a surge in card-check and similar agreements.
It remains to be seen whether the NLRB will also invalidate the card-check organizing scheme of the Trump Casino by Rep. Robert Andrews.
Read all about it in the Oregonian.
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