Bernie Sanders's ambitious plan to double union membership, explained

[Uncle Joe]

(snip)

Sanders’s plan calls for the end to “at-will” employment, aims to double union membership in his first term in office, and advocates for industry-wide collective bargaining. It also directly addresses criticism from those like former Vice President Joe Biden who argue Medicare-for-all, Sanders’s central health care policy, could be bad for unions.

Sanders has made labor unions central to his presidential campaign platform. Union membership in the United States has been declining steadily since the 1980s. Only 10.7 percent of Americans were union members in 2018, compared to a third of workers in 1950s. As Vox’s Dylan Matthews explained, this decline of union membership is a major factor in the increase in inequality in the US. Currently, women, Latinos, and African Americans represent the fastest-growing contingent of union membership.

(snip)

“This morning I’m joining workers in Milwaukee to demand every 2020 candidate release a detailed plan like Bernie Sanders’s explaining how they will make it possible for all working people to join unions,” Mary Kay Henry, the president of the Service Employees International Union, one of the largest and most influential unions in North America, tweeted Wednesday. “This is no time for minor tweaks to our broken system.”

(snip)

Sanders has long argued that if unions didn’t have to spend all their political will fighting for health benefits, they would have more room to win higher wages and benefits. There is a wealth of research that has found increased health care costs bring down wage growth. Although there’s less evidence that companies engage in the trade-off the other way, but as Sarah Kliff reported, experts in labor economics believe this relationship exists.

(snip)

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/21/20826661/bernie-sanders-union-plan-labor-worker-rights-2020

This is a nice informative read.

[guillaumeb]

1. Recommended.

Repeal the Taft-Hartley Act, and nominate worker friendly people to the NLRB.

Ever since the NLRA passed, over strong GOP objection, the right has been fighting back. That fight started with the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act which greatly weakened the NLRA.

[wasupaloopa]

2. I am a retired SEIU member. Not having to negotiate

for health care does not mean employers will pay higher wages. Nor will it create more union workers.

Getting rid of right to work laws means people already in unions have to pay dues.

Bernie where’s the PLAN?

[Hassin Bin Sober]

3. Controlling and bringing down the cost of healthcare will absolutely leave more room for wages.

There have been studies that show the rising cost of healthcare is one of big reasons wages have stagnated.

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/new-report-shows-the-harmful-effect-rising-health-care-costs-have-on-wage-stagnation-2018-09-04

New report shows the harmful effect rising health care costs have on wage stagnation

[wasupaloopa]

5. Employers will have more net income and employees

will have to pay for Medicare.

Saying things are so doesn’t make it so.

Where is the plan for more unions?

[Go Vols]

15. Union contractors pays insurance now,

guess that $12.22 per hour will go on your check after MFA,and be making $57.00 an hour and pay insurance out of pocket?

[Uncle Joe]

17. +1.

[wasupaloopa]

19. That makes no sense. If an employer does not have

to pay an expense it does not mean they will pay that amount to employees.

That is what is wrong with MFA discussions. They are all built on unrealistic assumptions.

What will happen is that employers will pocket the money and employees will still have to pay Medicare for coverage.

Unless the Medicare coverage is better than employer provided coverage there is not much difference to the employee.

Another thing is MFA will be designed by Congress not by Bernie. Saying what it will be like is also not being realistic.

Why do intelligent people (I am assuming Bernie backers are intelligent) not critique what Bernie is saying? It is similar to trump followers believing everything he says.

[Uncle Joe]

4. Here is more of the article if you didn't read it.

(snip)

“Under this plan, all company savings that result from reduced health care contributions from Medicare for All will accrue equitably to workers in the form of increased wages or other benefits,” the plan reads, adding that the unions will continue to be able to negotiate any coverage that’s not duplicative of the benefits under Medicare-for-all. Sanders’s Medicare For All bill proposes expanding current Medicare coverage to also include dental, vision and hearing.

(snip)

t should be noted that several of the country’s biggest unions agree with Sanders’s reading of Medicare-for-all. As Vox reported in August, representatives from Association of Flight Attendants, American Federation of Teachers, and SEIU are all open — if not supportive — of single-payer health care.

“Every time we go to the table the for-profit system has put so much pressure that when we get what we already have we call that a win,” Sara Nelson, president of the Association of Flight Attendants, told Vox then about the difficulties negotiating health care poses. She added that having a government-sponsored baseline health insurance would go a long way to help unions negotiate better wages, and benefits in other areas of their contract.

(snip)

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2019/8/21/20826661/bernie-sanders-union-plan-labor-worker-rights-2020

[wasupaloopa]

6. Who is going to force an employer to pay higher wages?

I am sorry but Bernie’s ideas are make believe and I am so dumbfounded that so many buy into them.

And where is the more unions plan!

[Uncle Joe]

7. The Unions. n/t

[wasupaloopa]

20. Unions, if there are unions negotiate contracts.

They do not dictate what employers do. Most employees are not in unions.

Again why do you not critique what Bernie is saying?

Why will reality as it exists now not be reality if Bernie is president?

[MichMan]

8. Just make union membership compulsory

No non union facilities allowed

[ismnotwasm]

12. You have heard of the Janus decision?

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.forbes.com/sites/briankmiller/2018/06/27/unpacking-the-janus-decision/amp/

The Supreme Court matters. Explain how private sector employees in healthcare are going to get that going.

[myohmy2]

9. I'm...

...lovin' it!

...I'm getting really good vibes...we can't do any better than Bernie...

...he's going to make a real positive difference in the lives of the American people when he's elected President...

...I can feel it...

...think President Sanders...

[Uncle Joe]

10. One thing is for sure whether one favors Bernie or not, I don't believe anyone would disagree

that if we did get a President Bernie Sanders, he would not hesitate to use the Bully Pulpit to activate the American People and put pressure on Congress.

[myohmy2]

14. +1

...

[WhiskeyGrinder]

11. I don't care how many Democrats we get in Congress, I'd be very surprised to see legislation undoing

the concept of at-will employment pass, much less hold up in the courts.

[brooklynite]

13. Another visionary proposal that he'll have no ability to implement.

[ehrnst]

18. Bernie and organized labor.

"It does bother me that people are going outside of the process and going to the media," he said. "That is really not acceptable. It is really not what labor negotiations are about, and it's improper."

Sanders said, ahead of a weekend Iowa campaign swing: "We are disappointed that some individuals have decided to damage the integrity of these efforts. We are involved in negotiations. And some are individuals that have decided to damage the integrity of that process before they were concluded."

https://www.desmoinesregister.com/story/news/elections/presidential/caucus/2019/07/19/bernie-sanders-campaign-staff-wage-15-hour-union-elizabeth-warren-campaign-wages/1781159001/

I guess Sanders needs to be briefed about labor law...

According to the NLRB:

“Employees have a statutory right to speak publically about their complaints or concerns with their terms and conditions of employment, including to the press, without employer authorization.”

In other words, employees have a right under the National Labor Relations Act generally to discuss their employment – including with the press. Based on the finding that the policy was unlawful, the NLRB also found that the company violated labor law when it terminated two employees pursuant to the policy for speaking to the media about a workplace issue. A more narrowly tailored policy may have passed muster, but the broad media prohibition, in this case, crossed the line.

https://www.natlawreview.com/article/can-you-terminate-employee-talking-to-press

Interestingly, shortly after campaign staffers talked to the media...

The charge was filed by a former staffer, a campaign spokeswoman told Bloomberg Law. The staffer alleges that the campaign retaliated against certain workers for engaging in protected labor activity, according to redacted copy of the document.

Campaign leaders “retaliated against me when I organized the bargaining unit and sent an email requesting compliance with the” collective employment contract, the anonymous staffer wrote in the charge. The staffer also said that at least three campaign workers were fired in retaliation for their organizing and union activities, among other allegations.
......................................................

The staffer alleged that the campaign “failed to notify us upon hire that we had a” collective bargaining agreement and “maintained that we were ‘at-will.’” At-will workers generally can be fired at any time and for any reason the employer deems appropriate.

The staffer said campaign management promised “some employees housing, and not others,” despite that paid housing and expenses are required under the collective bargaining agreement. The Sanders campaign also broke the terms of its collective bargaining agreement by making staff work additional days and failing to provide days off, according to the charge allegations.
........................................................................................................................................
The allegations come shortly after a tense period in the relationship between the Sanders campaign and the union representing its staffers was recently made public. The internal disagreements sparked some criticism of the White House candidate—who has made worker rights a central part of his pitch to voters—from conservatives and Republican politicians.

https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/sanders-campaign-complaint-alleges-retaliation-for-unionizing