A-Infos (en) US, NAF* Firebrand #3 - The Scum of the Earth: Union Busting Lawyers

   Last month, Portland Public Schools' Superintendent
Vickie Phillips caused quite a ruckus by firing Steve
Goldschmidt, Executive Director of Human Resources for
the District. Much of the commotion was caused by cele-
brating teachers, support staff, and district unions, who
were oh-so-happy to see Goldschmidt get canned. In addi-
tion to leaching about $180,000 a year from the district in
salary, annuities, and bonuses, Goldschmidt is responsible
for the near-strike in 2002. And of course there's the little
matter of contracting out the janitorial services at PPS,
which cost about 300 workers their family-wage jobs. Not
that Goldschmidt's nasty record begins at PPS... in fact he
has a long history of representing school districts in
Oregon- including leading the Eugene district in the
longest teacher's strike in state history back in 1987.
Given these facts, it's easy to see how many district
employees think Goldschmidt was hired for a very specif-
ic purpose- to break up their unions.
    Yep, that's right: he's a union
buster. And he's not alone. Anti-
union lawyers and consultants like
Goldschmidt are big business here
in Portland. Employers first hire
them to fight off organizing cam-
paigns. Once the union is in place,
the lawyers do battle with workers
at the bargaining table. And even in
stable union workplaces, union
busters lurk in the shadows, con-
stantly strategizing about how to
keep workers down.
   An excellent introduction to the
art of union busting is found in the
book "Confessions of a Union
Buster", written by former buster
Martin Levitt. Levitt has planned
and executed union busting cam-
paigns at more than 250 businesses
across America- from coalmines
and factories to airlines and nursing
homes. At the height of his very
lucrative union-busting career however, Levitt experi-
enced a moral awakening that led him to renounce his
very dirty profession. Driven "by horror and remorse", he
decided to write a memoir exposing the secret world of
union busting to the public. "Union busting is a field pop-
ulated by bullies and built on deceit", Levitt writes in his
prologue. He continues, "A campaign against a union is an
assault on individuals and a war on the truth... the only
way to bust a union is to lie, distort manipulate, threaten,
and always, always attack."
  Portland resident Carrie Schneider knows what it's like
to be under attack from a union buster. She is a teachers'
assistant at the newly organized Early Head Start Family
Center of Portland. The organizing campaign lasted for
eight months, ending in a landslide election victory last
June. Leading the failed anti-union campaign for Early
Head Start was local union buster Jackie Damn, of the
dreaded Bullard Smith Jernstedt firm. You may remember
this firm from such campaigns as Boydston and the Parry
Center.
  We recently spoke with Carrie and her union organizer,
Megan, about their successful battle with a union buster.
Based on their experiences, with a little help from Levitt,
we then put together the following section describing the
many aspects of union busting.

                        CONTROL:

   "The former Executive Director of Early Head Start,
Cynthia Wells, fought the organizing drive aggressively,
using all the tricks in the book" begins Megan. Carrie
agrees, saying "She didn't support our organizing efforts
because, as she put it, she wanted to continue to do "what
she wanted, when she wanted, and she wasn't about to let
some union come in and try to tell her how to do her job."
According to Levitt, this "lust for control" is exactly what
moves executives to fight off unions. The purpose of his
job as a union buster, writes Levitt, was to make sure that
"management would continue to wield absolute control
over its workers." To achieve this goal, Levitt learns that
it was essential "to gain complete control of a company
the moment I walked in the door." It's an ironic state-
ment," comments Megan, "because a common refrain in
the anti-union chorus goes something like 'we don't need
an outside, third party telling us what's best.'"

                          MONEY:

  As we saw with Goldschmidt, union busters make big
bucks! Levitt charged his clients $1000 per day, plus a
$10,000 retainer, travel/lodging expenses, and an open-
ended food and drink tab. Early Head Start racked up
$50,000 bill for the services of Jackie Damn, whose firm
bills between 215 and 295 dollars an hour, before the
Board of Directors finally interceded, forcing Ms. Wells
to dismiss her attorney and end the hearing quickly. "A
critical piece of the workers' campaign was our communi-
ty organizing. We worked hard to gain the support of the
city council, religious leaders,
and other stakeholders and channeled that into public
pressure on the agency. It finally paid off when Cynthia
Wells had to represent herself on the final day of the hear-
ing," remembers Megan. Employers will often explain
this expense by admitting that they know very little about
unions and want to be sure that they are upholding all
legal
obligations. They will use the legal advice to provide
employees with important "updates" that emphasize the
complications and the ambiguity in law. It is so sweet
that workers have employers who are willing to do this
difficult research for them so that they are "fully
 informed on this matter."

DELAY DELAY DELAY:
The process outlined by the NLRB for obtaining a
union    election seems simple on paper. The union
must show that 30% of the workers support organizing
and want to be represented for the purposes of collective
bargaining. After filing this evidence, usually in the form
of 'authorization cards,' with a formal petition, the wait
begins for several steps the board must take to confirm
which employees will be included and how the election
will take place. The employer must agree with the unit as
the union defines it or object and trigger a hearing by a
board agent. In the case of Early Head Start, the hearing
dragged on for five weeks while Ms. Damn argued that
the teachers, close to 1/3 of the bargaining unit, were real-
ly supervisors and therefore exempt from voting. Carrie
remembers the excitement of talking to her coworkers and
gathering enough authorization cards to move forward,
and then the stagnation that followed. "It was nearly four
months after we filed for an election before a voting date
was set. Management did not deserve this extended peri-
od of time to intimidate us or try to wear down our
resolve." She points out the tragic efficiency of delay as
union busting tool- "the ol' wait 'em out" routine. Thirteen
employees (just over ten percent), almost all union sup-
porters, left the agency during the course of the campaign.
Management's campaign makes work even more stress-
ful! Megan explained, "the employer will use the days
before the election to pressure, stretch, guilt, and harass
workers incessantly. That is why most unions will not file
for an election unless they are sure that the vast majority
of workers are support-
ive- losing some votes is
a sure bet."

 DIVIDE AND CONQUER:

  It is important to rec-
ognize that while union
organizers cannot talk to
employees at their
workplace, paid con-
sultants like Levitt have
unlimited         worksite
access. Levitt discusses
at length his strategy of
control during an anti-
union campaign. The
first part of the formula
was to immediately
              Spring/Summer Issue
recruit and retrain all supervisors to be his anti-union foot
soldiers. Levitt uses a combination of group meetings and
frequent individual interviews to convince supervisors
that it is their responsibility to squash the union. He wants
the supervisors to see the union organizing drive as a per-
sonal attack on their leadership, and tells them repeatedly
that "the workers will not be voting for or against a union,
but for or against management, including all of you."
Once Levitt has the supervisors under his control, he uses
them to deliver his anti-union "fact-sheets" to their subor-
dinates, asks them to make subtle threats to the workers,
and forces them to spy on union supporters. Those super-
visors who do not play ball with Levitt are put under
immense pressure, made to feel humiliated, and some-
times fired by the Boss. At Early Head Start, Ms. Wells
drew her own line in the sand. Those managers who
crossed it, and sided with the workers, were forced to
"resign" under serious pressure. Later in the campaign
they wrote letters to the EHS Board of Directors describ-
ing Cynthia's irresponsibility as director of the program.

                   MAKE IT PERSONAL:

  After the campaign became public at EHS, Ms. Wells
wasted no time before attacking the vocal union support-
ers. At the first all staff training she lost her composure in
a heated discussion with her employees, claiming, "don't
think that I don't know exactly who is involved in this. I
know exactly who you are." She openly announced one
employee who had been routinely harassed at work was
looking for another job. Her comments had two objec-
tives, to instill fears about job security and to morally iso-
late the 'troublemakers' as those who do not care about the
children and families Head Start serves. Her efforts to
paint the workers on the organizing committee as bad
eggs who just want more money came as no surprise to
Megan, who explains the ruse. "As much as we tried to
prepare them for the boss's campaign against them, Ms.
Wells' hateful and inflammatory attitude still shocked
them." When teachers at one EHS site wrote and distrib-
uted a thoughtful grievance about the episode, Ms Wells'
response was equally manipulative. She wrote:
"It would be my hope that you reconsider your current
position and join the growing list of employees who pre-
fer to work together to build a strong healthy program
based on mutual respect."
  During the NLRB hearing, Ms Damn's calculated ques-
tions brought workers to tears. Megan describes how the
whole spectacle seemed designed to demean the workers
and question the integrity of the union. "It was an emo-
tional experience for everyone and very tense. It did not
have to be that way. Wanting to be part of a union to gain
a voice at work isn't personal; it is smart. Yet at every
opportunity the employer chose to obstruct the process
and redirect the focus onto individuals."
                      CONSEQUENCES
  Surely these nefarious tactics are frowned upon by the
authorities? What is the recourse for workers when
employers go wild? A long-term labor union attorney in
the Northwest spoke to Firebrand about the NLRB
process. "It is almost impossible to use the NLRB as a
positive device," he says. The ease with which manage-
ment's side can delay the process, the political nature of
the appointed board, and the lack of appropriate remedy
for violations means the NLRB offers little protection for
workers. It is a burdensome process. "The law does not
protect against lies."
  For Carrie, "the biggest shock of the campaign for me
was the fundamental difference between labor law, and
what I'd always imagined law to be. It seems that some
people will follow a law only when the perceived conse-
quences of not following the law are sufficiently severe
and the prospect of posting a falsely contrite notice on an
office door is pretty fucking tame."
  It is up to us to expose the busters and their clients.
                          Ken Beamus
                          Jackie Damn
                         Dean Zografos
                           Kathy Peck
                           Aiken Blitz
==============================
* Firebrand is a publication of the Firebrand Collective,
a member collective of the Northwest Anarchist Federation
(NAF).
FIREBRAND - A VOICE FOR PORTLANDS RANK AND FILE WORKERS
ISSUE 3 Spring/Summer 2005 Federation)
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