Page 14 - The Digital Carpenter, Vol. 1 Issue 2

the products of the council will continue through new and existing relationships sought by both management and labor as we share the common goals of an e cient, e ective and innovative government.”
It’s troubling to the NRCC too that the Trump Administration did not extend the Obama-era Executive Order that established the bene cial Council on Federal Labor Management.
ORGANIZING ATTEMPTS BY WORKERS IN 2017 AND 2018
There have been both positive gains and setbacks in 2017-2018 in the organizing of workers.
In late January 2018, employees at Slate.com joined thousands of other digital writers in agreeing to be represented by the Writers Guild of America East. Just prior to that, newsroom employees at the Los Angeles Times voted overwhelming 248-44 to be represented by the NewsGuild-Communications Workers of America and Vox Media recognized the Writers Guild of America as its collective bargaining representative for its 400 employees.
In August 2017, 60 percent of the 3,500 employees at Nissan’s Canton, Mississippi voted against joining the United Automobile Workers (UAW). Prior to the vote, plant managers held “roundtable” talks with the predominately African American employee base and told employees if they joined the UAW – and walked out during a strike – they would not be guaranteed their jobs. As a result of the employee intimidation, a regional director of the National Labor Relations Board issued a complaint that accused the company of illegally threatening employees if they chose to unionize and threatening to re workers involved in the organizing e ort.
This type of employee intimidation is not new throughout the history of Unions.
At the Northeast Regional Council of Carpenters, we are dedicated to standing together hand-in-hand with our Union Brothers and Sisters in their respective battles against well-funded individuals and organizations that want to take away their rights, their good pay and health/ retirement bene ts that the collective bargaining of Unions has won for all American workers during the last 150 years.
We urge you to join us in this ght.
THE PREVAILING WAGE“IS BASED ON SURVEYS OF LOCAL WAGES AND BENEFITS, NOT WHETHER THERE IS A UNION OR NOT. THIS (AMENDMENT) IS ABOUT CUTTING WAGES IN YOUR LOCAL COMMUNITY.” HE ASKED COLLEAGUES: “WHY WOULD YOU EVER WANT TO GO BACK AND SAY, ‘I
WANT TO HURT THE PEOPLE I REPRESENT?’
—NEW JERSEY CONGRESSMAN DONALD NORCROSS
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