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”

Partnered with Positive Rhetoric

As a former Union Official and National Organizing Director, I spent many years looking for the correct approach to diversity; not just to affect the outcome of organizing campaigns, but also within the structure of the union itself. I combined implementing true diversity with various persuasion techniques to influence potential members and tointroduce power and discipline within the structure of the organized units. This formula resulted in my success in 97% of the elections I organized.
Read More “The Strength of True Diversity”

Unions and politics have always gone hand in hand. Unions view PAC monies as a back door way of funding events, union candidates and publicpolitical candidates that would support the union movement. Read More “The Political Union”

Just a Public Show
The NLRB is “listening” to both sides of table on the issue of making elections a more “efficient” process. Both management and unions are waiting for the results of the NLRB hearings to find out what changes are going to take place. These hearings are suppose to be a forum for interested parties to express their concerns about how a 10 to15 day election cycle will affect them. Read More “The NLRB Hearings”