LAW? WHAT LAW?….It is, of course, illegal to fire someone for trying to organize a union at their workplace. So how’s that law working out?
We find a steep rise in the 2000s relative to the last half of the 1990s in illegal firings of pro-union workers. By 2005, pro-union workers involved in union election campaigns faced about a 1.8 percent chance of being illegally fired during the course of the campaign….If we assume that employers target union organizers and activists, and that union organizers and activists make up about 10 percent of pro-union workers, our estimates suggest that almost one-in-five union organizers or activists can expect to be fired as a result of their activities in a union election campaign.
Italics mine. This is from a new study by John Schmitt and Ben Zipperer of CEPR. And just so you can’t say I don’t provide good news along with the bad, the authors report that although illegal firings have risen dramatically under the Bush administration, things still aren’t quite as bad as they were during the Reagan administration. So count your blessings.
