IATSE 3rd 2019_web

STAGECRAFT
Protecting The Right To Organize Act
O
n August 9, 2019 the NLRB released A Notice of Proposed Rulemaking under
the under the headline “NLRB Proposes Rulemaking to Protect Employee
Free Choice.” The free choice referenced is the free choice to not be represented
by a union. The Board is proposing to make it easier for employers to challenge
voluntary recognition, to proceed immediately to elections despite pending unfair
labor practices, and to undermine recognition in the construction industry.
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This was followed shortly afterwards
by a ruling that allows employers to
withdraw recognition based upon
“evidence” that the union lacks a
majority among the workers. The ruling
dismisses any union rebuttal evidence as
immaterial and forces the union to file
for a new election. These are just two
of the most recent egregious assaults on
established NLRB precedent specifically
intended to undermine unions and
spearheaded by the Republican majority
on the Board.
The Protecting the Right to Organize
Act has been introduced to accomplish a
legislative overhaul to rectify the NLRB’s
recent administrative changes. It does so
in ways that address specific impediments
that our union has encountered during
organizing efforts.
In 2016 after winning an election
to represent stagehands employed by
Crew One in Atlanta by a 2-1 margin,
the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals
overturned the NLRB decision directing
the election and declared the workers to
be independent contractors. The willful
misclassification of workers is one of
the greatest organizing impediments
unions face. The PRO Act will revise the
definition of independent contractor to
make it more difficult to deny workers
representational rights. The Act also
narrows the definition of a supervisor
to eliminate assigning and directing
workers as factor in denying those
workers representation rights.
Having limited restrictions on those
eligible to exercise their representational
rights the PRO Act seeks to streamline
the organizing process. In a recent
representation election, stagehands in
Columbus, Ohio were subjected to an
onslaught of employer propaganda
through mandatory anti-union meetings
and misleading mailings. The campaign
was sufficient to narrowly defeat the
union. To overcome employer’s campaign
advantages the PRO Act bans captive
audience meetings. It also eliminates the
employer as a party in representation cases,
properly recognizing that the decision
to be represented is the workers and that
it should not be subject to employers’
obstructionist tactics. Employers can also
be issued a bargaining order where they
interfered with a fair election and cannot
demonstrate that their interference was
unlikely to have affected the outcome of
the election.
In the Pacific Northwest we have
been in negotiations for a first contract
with Rhino Staging for over two years
since winning an election to represent
their riggers. The PRO Act authorizes
first contract arbitration. Taking into
consideration the employer’s financial
status, size, type of business, cost of
living, and comparable conditions
among workers employed in similar
businesses the arbitration panel issues
a decision binding on the parties for
two years. This eliminates employers’
incentive to protract negotiations in the
hopes disheartening and frustrating the
workers into abandoning their union.
The PRO Act strengthens the rights
of workers to engage in protest and strike
activity. The PRO Act prohibits employers
from permanently replacing striking
workers. Recently the Trump NLRB has
signaled its intention to ban inflatable rats
as a protest tactic. We have used bannering
as a successful organizing tool for many
years. The PRO Act significantly expands
workers’ right to engage in concerted
activity in the face of employer opposition.
The prohibition against secondary activity
enshrined in the Taft Hartley Act is
eliminated. No longer will we be prevented
from targeting those employers whose
complicit behavior is essential to success
of the primary employer’s anti-union
conduct. The proposed legislation also
eliminates restrictions on recognitional
picketing.
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