Unions Just Got A Big Legal Victory Handed To Them By… Clarence Thomas?

In writing the opinion of Integrity Staffing Solutions Inc. vs. Busk et. al, Justice Clarence Thomas clearly was not thinking about handing unions a powerful new tool for unionizing. Instead he was thinking about how it was fine for any company to restrain and employee for hours each week without any compensation. But, in his wording, he may have just struck down right-to-work laws nationwide without realizing it.

These arguments are properly presented to the employer at the bargaining table, see 29 U.S.C., 254(b)(1), not to a court in an FLSA claim.

Per this section of US Code, the issue of a workplace retaining an employee without compensation for hours each week is one which must be handled in negotiations between the employer and the employee, their agent or their collective bargaining representative. This statement, as simple as it is, has a lot of weight behind it due to the nature of the case behind it. By retaining the full text of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), combined with this decision, the entire workplace dynamic for collective bargaining just changed overnight.

The case itself involves contractors at an Amazon warehouse facility, who can take considerable time each day to go through security checkpoints in order to leave their jobs. The warehouse itself is not unionized, and Amazon is firmly against unions.

Clarence Thomas just put into a court decision that workplace issues involving compensated time must be handled in negotiations, the cornerstone of collective bargaining and unions, and not the courts. By blocking the courts, but with FLSA itself upheld This also means that companies can no longer fail to engage in negotiations, relying upon the courts to handle such matters – the Supreme Court just ordered them to the bargaining table. Tactics to block unionizing now can, and will be considered unconstitutional per this decision.

Laws like Right-To-Work, where an employee can avoid joining a union, now no longer can apply in the way intended. The Supreme Court just ordered people to the bargaining table, the Union representative, with but a few short words.

Elizabeth Warren's Next Target: Walmart

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) has it out for Walmart. On Tuesday, the freshman senator will hold an event on Capitol Hill calling out the retail giant for its low wages and terrible employment practices. The briefing will be held a week ahead of the nationwide anti-Walmart protests planned for Black Friday.

Warren will be joined by Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.); members of OUR Walmart, a union-backed group helping organize Walmart workers; and representatives from other labor groups. Warren and her colleagues also plan to discuss legislation that could help Walmart employees and other low-wage workers around the country, including measures that would raise the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour, forbid unpredictable irregular work schedules for part-time workers, and help prevent employers from retaliating against workers who share wage information.

Roughly 825,000 of Walmart's hourly store employees earn less than $25,000 a year. About 600,000 Walmart workers are part-time, and many rely on food stamps and Medicaid. Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, says its average full-time hourly wage is $12.83, though OUR Walmart has calculated it as closer to $9 an hour.

Walmart has retaliated against employees who have protested these low wages. In January, the National Labor Relations Board ruled that the company illegally fired, threatened, or disciplined more than 60 workers in 14 states for publicly complaining about wages and working conditions.

OUR Walmart is planning on holding a wave of protests at 1,600 Walmart stores the day after Thanksgiving to call for a $15 minimum wage and more opportunities for full-time hours. Last year, the group held demonstrations at more than 1,200 stores.

"The Walmart economy—a business model where a few profit significantly on the backs of the working poor and a diminishing middle class—perpetuates the income inequality problems that are devastating our country," OUR Walmart and the United Food and Commercial Workers union said in a statement Monday.

Fast Food Franchise Owners Ask Congress For Help To Stop Worker Campaign For Wages, Union

The fast food industry is hoping that a day of lobbying on Capitol Hill can blunt the momentum that fast food workers have gained through nearly two years of strikes and multiple lawsuits.

The International Franchise Association (IFA) is flying fast food store owners and other franchisees into Washington on Tuesday to drum up congressional opposition to a recent legal decision that could make corporations liable for how franchise employees are treated. The trade group expects more than 350 business owners from both the franchisee and franchisor sides of the business model to show up at its event this week, according to The Hill. Speaker John Boehner (R-OH) and former Republican Governors Association head and Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour are scheduled to speak to the group, and the paper reports that top Senate Republicans will introduce legislation targeting federal labor regulators in general later this week.

The top attorney for the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) determined in July that McDonald’s exerts so much control over how franchisees operate that they are responsible for labor law violations committed by franchise owners. That finding has yet to be tested in court, but if it holds up and is applied beyond the nation’s largest fast food chain, it would make it much harder for industries that rely on franchising to stymie workers’ attempts to exercise their labor rights.

IFA President Steve Caldeira said the board’s decision about McDonald’s franchisees “would essentially take away their autonomy to run their own business.” But franchisees enjoy little autonomy under the restrictive agreements they sign with the corporation now.

McDonald’s sends both formal company inspectors and secret shoppers into some of its stores to verify that the owners are keeping up with the exacting requirements of its contracts. It installs a computer system that monitors the money coming in and going out of each store at all times, automatically alerting managers if their labor costs get too high — an occurrence that can trigger labor law violations such as requiring workers to clock out but keep working or remain on-site without pay until the computer system reports that the store is back in the black.

Nine in 10 fast food workers report wage theft. The industry pays corporate CEOs 1,200 times more than it pays the typical worker. McDonald’s made $5.6 billion in profit on $28.1 billion in total revenue last year.

Most fast food companies require franchise owners to demonstrate a personal net worth in the millions of dollars before they are eligible to run a store. McDonald’s won’t entertain franchise applications from anyone who doesn’t have at least $750,000 in non-borrowed assets.

The eagerness of IFA members to take up McDonald’s cause against the NLRB indicates that many other companies fear they are vulnerable to the same arguments about corporate control over franchise workplaces, and would ultimately face the same consequences for labor violations that the board’s lawyer believes McDonald’s should face.

It also signals that franchise owners and their corporate bosses are more afraid of workers’ power than of the enforcement mechanisms that are supposed to punish wage theft. While workers have won several multi-million-dollar wage theft settlements this year, the legal systems that govern wage and hour violations around the country are generally ineffective. In California, where labor law is robust, workers have a less than one-in-five chance of recovering lost wages even when they prove they were robbed and win a judgment for restitution from the state. Wage theft steals more money each year than every bank robbery and store holdup in America combined.

Pension Theft: Illinois Senate and House pass bill slashing retirement benefits

Illinois lawmakers voted yesterday to sharply reduce the pensions of active and retired state and university employees and teachers, despite tens of thousands of phone calls and legislative office visits by union members in the final days, and hours of emotional, back-and-forth debate on the floors of the state House and Senate.

"This is no victory for Illinois, but a dark day for its citizens and public servants,” the AFSCME Council 31-led We Are One Illinois union coalition said in a statement after the votes. “Teachers, caregivers, police, and others stand to lose huge portions of their life savings because politicians chose to threaten their retirement security.”

The We Are One Illinois coalition vowed to challenge the matter in court.

The passage of the bill amounts to a cash grab of $100 billion taken directly from public employees who were promised these benefits by the state, and that they earned over the course of their careers in public service. The measure raises the retirement age up to five years for many state workers and scales back the size of and even skips some annual cost-of-living increases for retirees.

"A majority of legislators ignored and defied their oaths of office today,” We Are One said, referring to the passage of the bill that many believe violates the state’s constitution.

In fact, Senate President John Cullerton, whose earlier union-backed plan to curb pension spending was stymied by House Speaker Michael Madigan, said he remained concerned. 

"I think the bill has serious constitutional problems,” said Cullerton. “I've made that clear from the start, but now it's in front of the court and they can decide.”

That's Union Strong!

Teamsters Block Westboro Baptist Church From Protesting Boston Marathon Victims Funeral

"The Westboro Baptist Church vowed to protest today’s funeral of Boston Marathon Bombing victim Krystle Campbell, so hundreds of members of the Teamsters Union showed up to protect mourners and block the Westboro members from the sight of Campbell’s friends and family.

Meanwhile, hundreds more were across the street, among them more than 200 union members, organized by Teamsters Local 25, to form a human shield against a protest that never materialized from the Westboro Baptist Church.

The union members began gathering before 8 a.m. today, promising to block protesters from the Westboro Baptist Church if they picketed.

“It’s the right thing to do,” O’Brien said of the decision to protect the funeral. “The family deserves a peaceful grieving process that’s free from any coward-led group.” Full story here!