Union Accused of Using "Union Busters" To Persuade Union Staffers Against Unionizing
1199SEIU-UHWE leadership is accused of using "proxies" to intimidate union staff and distribute anti-union literature.
By Peter List, Editor | May 7, 2024
The leadership of 1199SEIU-UHWE is allegedly using “a small group of non-employees who were recruited by the anti-union campaign,” including union president George Gresham’s retired executive assistant, as well as a retired union Executive Vice President to persuade employees against unionizing.
Approximately, 260 employees of the union are scheduled to vote in a mail-ballot election beginning on May 17th to decide whether or not they will be represented by the Washington-Baltimore News Guild, Local 32035, a union that represents, among other employers, union staffers employed by other labor unions.
Initially, the management of 1199SEIU-UHWE had vowed to remain neutral in the union staff’s campaign to unionize. However, according to the 1199 In-House Staff Union Organizing Committee, union management has not done that.
Instead, according to the Committee, management is using “union busters” to enter secure areas of the union’s headquarters to dissuade staff from unionizing.
“Those persons were let into a secure area of the headquarters office that is only accessible to staff with IDs - they must swipe to get in,” the Committee shared via email.
So those persons were deliberately allowed into secure staff areas by someone with swipe access. Those persons proceeded to aggressively question staff members (“who are you, what do you do here, what are you working on right now”), tried to peer at the contents of people’s desks, tried to view sensitive information on computer screens, refused to leave when they were asked to leave, yelled at staff, physically blocked the hallway to the elevators and stairs (which are the only exits from the floor), and even physically pushed at least one person who was blocking the doorway to a secure area.
In addition to the anti-union “proxies of top management” initiating “unwanted physical contact” with one of the union staffers, they distributed flyers (see below) around the union’s offices.
It should be noted that, if the allegations that union management is using “proxies” who are distributing flyers like the one above, union management may be found by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to be responsible for the flyer’s contents being distributed by its “agents.”
As the flyer appears to contain veiled threats (“please don’t start over”) as well as promises to make “some real changes,” both of which could be found to be objectionable by the NLRB, if the union staffers loses their election, under the NLRB’s new Cemex doctrine, the NLRB could order 1199SEIU-UHWE management to bargain with the union.
