A Peek Inside Labor Strategy and Organizing History

Due to unions’ long-term planning, even companies that think they are in “safe” industries can never quite tell if they will eventually become targets of organizing campaigns. A perfect example is provide by Indian gaming: after prolonged union pressure, even sovereign Indian nations are now subject to the NRLA and union organizing.

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “Unions Hit the Jackpot in Indian Casinos”

Not even a month past Labor Day, the holiest of union holidays, and the unions are waging war. These warshave developed into a pattern. The SEIU-UHW and the newly formed National Union of Healthcare Workers (NUHW) are raiding each other’s membership. This battle will have a direct effect on everyone, not just those in thehealthcare industry, in the form of healthcare quality and cost. In California, 43,000 Kaiser employees (and SEIU-UHW) members are voting onwhether to stay with the SEIU-UHW or become members of the NUHW union.

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “Unions Eating Their Own”

Organized labor was officially welcomed back to the White House on Friday morning as President Obama signed three executive orders intended to reverse policies imposed by the Bush Administration regarding labor unions. The Executive orders require federal contractors to offer jobs to current workers when contracts change and make it more difficult for those contractors to impede union activity. Shortly after the signing Vice President Joe Biden turned to the audience filled with labor leaders and said “Welcomeback to the White House.

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “Unions Are Welcomed Back To The White House”

Years ago, as unions started losing their traditional members, they started targeting Latino workers for membership drives; they felt they were one of the most vulnerable ethnic groups and were an easy fix to stop their dwindling rank and filenumbers.

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “Unions Aiming at Hispanics and Getting Ready – Are You?”

(Mergers and Membership)

Union mergers and large corporate campaigns are upon us once again.Unions know that their strengths are in unity and their chances of success are stronger when they merge together on projects, or better yeton a permanent basis. USWA President Leo W. Gerard stated at an International Executive Board in January 2008 that his goal for the next5 years (and his order to his district directors) is to direct efforts to merge independent unions and their members into the rank and file of the USWA.

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “Union Paradigm Shift”

Bob King Vows to Bring Spark Back to the UAW

In his first speech as President of the UAW, Bob King promises to bring back excitement to the UAW. King promised to bring new breath to the organizing department. What can we expect from the UAW in the next coming years?

Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “UAW’s New King”

Reviewing the Nissan/Canton Campaign
Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Read More “UAW Organizing Failures”

With the proposed changes in the National Labor Relations Board it is apparent that the union and management share polar opposite viewpoints. Union’s smell fresh blood and management is (and very well should be) fearful that the changes will affect their ability to maintain their union free status.
Ricardo Torres – President & CEO
Doug Grima Senior Consultant – PSLCStephen Sestina – Vice President, Human Resource Services
Read More “Two Views on the Proposed NLRB Changes and the UAW”

Preparing for 2015

Now that the NLRB has a fully-staffed and unchallenged Board, the era of the Quickie Election has commenced. Read on to discover our InsideEdge insights into how to prevent unionization in the upcoming environment. Read More “The Year of the Quickie Election”

The 20 Year Plan

When I was working with the AFL/CIO and IBT, we had strategic thinktanks that were charged with planning organizing tactics for the future(up to 20 years in advance). The unions had solid long and short term plans, many of which we are seeing take shape today. It was a struggle for the AFL/CIO to get all the affiliates on the same page as far as working together as a cohesive force. As a union official, it was my jobto beat the target organization by any means necessary, but it was veryfrustrating for many of us on the long term strategic planning committees because every union was fighting for the same workers. The 80’s and 90’s ushered in a different kind of union. There was a time when a union was defined by its core industries and they could depend onthis union density to support their outlandish spending habits. BY the mid 90’s we finely got most of the unions on the AFL/CIO executive boardto support and fund the Organizers Institute where Richard Bensinger and myself set the curriculum for organizing tactics into the new millennium. Read More “The Union’s Hidden Power Plan”