Unions Push for Radical Rule Change

It’s no secret that unions are pushy and prone to intimidation.  But if a handful of unions get their way, it could get worse.  The New York Times reports that seven unions are requesting that employers be forced to negotiate with them even if they don’t represent a majority of workers.  As a lawyer in the article points out, that’s a pretty major divergence from the way things work now:

Daniel Halem, a lawyer with Proskauer Rose, which represents many employers, called the unions’ argument “a radical concept.” He said it conflicted with the premise of the National Labor Relations Act “that unions must have the support of a majority of employees.”

“This concept is totally at odds with that,” Mr. Halem said.

Fortunately, as ShopFloor notes, it doesn’t look like the proposal will get much support in the near-term.  But if a Democratic president gets elected in ’08, the NLRB could suddenly find itself with board members far more sympathetic to union demands.

The good news out of this, I think, is that at least a few unions are recognizing that they’re becoming increasingly unpopular and that they’ve been more or less confined to a perpetually shrinking share of the workforce.   Nationwide, unions lose about a half a million members a year, and this is just the most recent, and, I think, most desperate, attempt to shore up their power and influence in the face of dwindling support.