Labor Peace Ordinance Won In Monterey

At the urging of dozens of Monterey Peninsula HERE Local 483 members, the City of Marina unanimously approved on October 2, 2001 a Labor Peace Ordinance for the development of new hotels. The ordinance requires that the City receive proof from a hotel company that there will be no labor unrest—pickets, strikes, etc.,— that could interfere with the City getting paid back from the revenues of a new hotel development. It applies to hotel developments that receive public assistance.

“We intend to demand that any new project include card check and neutrality provisions. If necessary, our members will picket in order to make sure that we get a card check,” said Leonard O’Neill, secretary-treasurer of the Local. A 300—500 room hotel project, known as Marina Knolls, is planned for the area with others on the drawing boards.

One of the three Republicans on the 5-member City Council seconded the motion and added, "It is time we start taking care of each other." The Marina Gazette reported the final moments: "A unanimous vote by City Council passed ... the ordinance and a spontaneous cheer went up from those in attendance."

Click here for more

Labor Peace at Yale

According to the Yale Law School Monitoring Committee, the following Elements Make up a Successful Labor Peace/Organizing Agreement:

1. Negotiation Process: To be successful, a private agreement at Yale must be jointly negotiated between a committee of union representatives, including rank-and-file workers, and a committee of administration representatives. The purpose of these negotiations is to develop a set of straight-forward procedures that are suitable to these particular workplaces and that improve upon the deficiencies of the NLRB process. The parties must agree to abide by the outcome of the process and, if the employees choose to unionize, to negotiate in good faith.

2. Fair Process: The agreement will detail a process for determining whether workers wish to be represented by the union and spell out which workers are part of the bargaining unit. In most labor peace agreements, the plebiscite process takes the form of a card-count (a process by which a neutral third party confirms that a majority of employees have signed union authorization cards), but an alternative mechanism is an election governed by strict guidelines with neutral monitoring to reduce coercion.

3. Employee Free Choice: The agreement must strictly limit both employer and union coercion, intimidation, and confrontation. Most previous agreements require the employer to be neutral with respect to employees’ choice regarding the question of unionization, or to express opinions about unionization only in forums that minimize the potential for coercion. For instance, they prohibit mandatory meetings or one-onone meetings addressing unionization. They also restrict union-led corporate or attack campaigning designed to pressure employers. Neutrality/non-coercion may be adapted to the context in which the organizing takes place. In any setting, prohibitions against non-coercion can coexist with provisions encouraging reasoned debate.

4. Access: The agreement should increase employees’ ability to obtain information from and discuss unionization with union organizers.

5. Enforcement Mechanisms: To solve the critical problem of weak enforcemen mechanisms in the NLRA process, the agreement should contain effective, binding, and speedy methods to address any violations or disputes, including penalties sufficient to remedy and deter violations.

6. Timeliness: Private agreements should prevent delays and frivolous appeals, which are currently endemic to the NLRA process.

7. Joint Statement to Inform all Employees and Supervisors about the Agreement: Notice of the agreement should be sent to all employees and supervisors explaining the new cooperative relationship, the shared goals and the terms of the private agreement, and the process by which employees will decide whether or not to seek union representation.

Conclusion

As an employer, Yale would benefit from taking another step towards improving labor relations by negotiating private labor peace agreements. Moreover, the Yale community as a whole would benefit from taking such a step towards respect for employee free choice. Civility is a hallmark of the kinds of rewarding relationships that a university fosters; extending that value to employee relations makes sense as a matter of institutional identity. Doing so would also extend respect to the New Haven community, recognizing that Yale and its employees are also members of this larger public sphere. Finally, these agreements would also advance Yale’s role as a globally recognized leader and as a responsible employer by setting a standard for civilized and democratic labor relations.

For more, see http://islandia.law.yale.edu/wrp/execsumm.pdf

More coming soon.

home | login | my profile | join our network | about us | contact us | forums | site map