Union busting

from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Union Busting ( union destruction ) is a technical term from the USA for the systematic fight, suppression and sabotage of employee representatives , i.e. unions , works councils and staff councils . This includes legal as well as illegal methods such as unauthorized spying by detective agencies, the targeted discrediting or unjustified dismissal of employee representatives, the promotion of employer-friendly electoral lists and the blocking of works council elections. Union Busting is in a tense relationship with guarantees based on fundamental rights, the applicable labor law (in Germany e.g. the Employment Protection Act , Working Hours Act and Works Constitution Act ), the European Social Charter and the labor law standards of the International Labor Organization (ILO) of the UN. Since the early 2000s are of the same practices, the terms " Union Avoidance " (Eng .: union avoidance ), " Counter Organizing " (Eng .: counterpart organization ) and " Union Prevention " used (dt .: prevent the formation of a staff representative) . In Germany, the food-pleasure-restaurants union first used the term Union Busting in 1999 to denounce the practices of the McDonald’s fast food company . In 2014, the authors Werner Rügemer and Elmar Wigand introduced and coined the term more strongly in Germany, so that it became common in trade unions and the media.

General definition of the term

Union busting is the targeted application and modular combination of practices in order to prevent employer-independent organization and representation of interests in a company, an industry or a state, or to hinder or prevent them from occurring. Union busting is carried out both to attack the current status quo in terms of collectivity, co-determination and protection under labor law, as well as to nip organizing efforts by employees in the bud as far as possible.

Range and occurrence in the USA

The Pinkerton Agency , which was founded in 1850 and after 40 years had a militia of over 30,000 people, is considered the first representative of Union Busting .

The first collection of anti-union methods was created by Robert Franklin Hoxie in 1917, which became known as the "Hoxie List". The Mohawk Valley formula with instructions on how to suppress strikes was published in The Nation in 1937 . Under the name Union-busting consultants (about: consultant for union blasting ) firmierten in the 1980s, the United States of America 1,500 people. In the 1990s, this industry generated around one billion US dollars annually, and sales for 2002 are estimated at around 200 billion dollars. Developments since the 1950s have been documented and analyzed by Professor John Logan from San Francisco State University , and Kate Bronfenbrenner has been researching strategies and methods against union elections since the 1990s . Bronfenbrenner stated about the behavior of employers before works council elections:

“In 96% of the cases, the employer started an anti-union campaign; in 89% of the cases he held compulsory workforce meetings [aimed at specifically anti-union influencing and intimidation]; in 53% of the cases there were more than 5 meetings. In 75% of the cases, external consultants were called in, in 74% [...] anti-union leaflets were distributed. "

- Kate Bronfenbrenner

The strike breaker and corporate consultant Martin Jay Levitt , active since the late 1960s, switched to advising the US trade union AFL-CIO in the 1980s and in 1993 published an autobiography "Confessions of a Union Busters".

Range and occurrence in the Federal Republic of Germany

In Germany in 2010 there were 241 companies with union members in which the organization of the workforce was actively hindered or prevented. In 73% of the cases, the union secretaries cited intimidation as a means, in 43% of the companies no electoral board was appointed, in 24% dismissals were given for candidates, in 16% money was used to prevent workers from participating in elections, in 12% they were necessary Documents and materials not provided. Prominent examples are Amazon.com , Birkenstock , Legoland , Haticon, Nora Systems , United Parcel Systems , Charité / Vivantes , Neupack, Edeka , DURA Automotive Systems , Median and OBI .

public perception

The Rhine JournalistInnenbüro 1987 published a series of writings that cases of sabotage in works council elections u. a. at BMW , the WAZ newspaper group and McDonald’s . The political scientist Bodo Zeuner 1991 published an anthology on the same subject, in which he and examples. a. used at Volkswagen , Siemens and Bosch .

Bad word of the year 2009

According to research by the television magazine Monitor , the word “works council contaminated” was common use in the personnel department of the Bauhaus company , whereupon it was voted the bad word of the year .

literature

  • Martin Jay Levitt : Confessions of a Union Buster , Crown Books. August 24, 1993. ISBN 978-0517583302
  • Werner Rügemer / Elmar Wigand: The finishers. Labor injustice and professional trade union action. Cologne 2017, 3rd expanded and updated edition.

watch TV

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Werner Rügemer / Elmar Wigand: Union-Busting in Germany. The fight against works councils and trade unions as a professional service. In: A study by the Otto Brenner Foundation (ed.): OBS workbook . No. 77 . Frankfurt / Main 2014.
  2. ↑ Werner Rügemer / Elmar Wigand: The Ready Makers: Labor Injustice and Professional Trade Union Combat . 3. Edition. Papy Rossa, Cologne 2017, ISBN 3-89438-555-3 , p. 40 .
  3. ^ Johnny Logan: Consultants, Lawyers and the "Union Free Movement" in the USA since the 1970s . Industrial Relations Journal, No. 3 , 2002, p. 197-213 .
  4. ^ Robert Michael Smith: Blackjacks To Briefcases - A History of Commercialized Strikebreakers and Unionbusting in the United States . Ed .: Ohio University Press. 2003, ISBN 0-8214-1466-6 .
  5. ↑ Kate Bronfenbrenner: No Holds Barred - The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Union Vertification Win Rates. A Private / Public Sector Comparison pp. 24–29, Ithaca 2009
  6. ↑ Barbara Presley Notble: At Work; A Union Buster Confess . The New York Times, September 5, 1993.
  7. ↑ Martin Behrens, Heiner Dribbusch: Employer Measures Against Works Councils: Attacks on Company Co-Determination , in: WSI-Mitteilungen 2/2014, pp. 140–148.
  8. ^ Amazon in Rheinberg gets works council , Westdeutsche Allgemeine Zeitung - website, January 11, 2013. Accessed June 11, 2014.
  9. ^ Again unrest at Birkenstock , Frankfurter Neue Presse - Website, August 22, 2013. Accessed June 11, 2014.
  10. ↑ Werner Rügemer / Elmar Wigand: The finishers. Labor injustice and professional trade union action . 3. Edition. Cologne 2017, p. 194-242 .
  11. ↑ Median clinics: hedge funds and finish-maker law firm. Retrieved August 23, 2017 .
  12. ↑ And you're out! Unions under pressure. (No longer available online.) ZDF Zoom, formerly in the original ; accessed on August 16, 2017 .  ( Page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.@1@ 2Template: Toter Link / www.zdf.de