Comment with new terms or suggestions for how to improve existing ones. Let's put together a post with terminology for organizing.


AGENT; BARGAINING AGENT
A person acting for an employer or a union; a labor organization that is the exclusive representative of all employees in a bargaining unit, both union and non-union members.

BARGAINING UNIT
A grouping of employees that a union represents or seeks to represent and that is "appropriate" (criteria include being a community of interest, not including supervisors) for collective bargaining purposes.

CAPTIVE-AUDIENCE MEETING
Meetings employers often force workers to attend during the workday with the express purposes of communicating anti-union propaganda.

CHECK-CARD NEUTRALITY, CARD-CHECK ELECTION/AUTHORIZATION
Provision that an employer will recognize a union without an election if the majority of workers sign a petition or authorization cards indicating their support of the union.

CHECKOFF
A provision, generally found in the collective bargaining agreement, that allows union dues, assessments and initiation fees to be deducted from the pay of union members who decide to use the check off. The employer then transfers the payments to the union on a scheduled basis.

COLLECTIVE BARGAINING; COLLECTIVE BARGAINING AGREEMENT (CBA)
A method of mutually determining wages, hours and terms and conditions of employment through negotiations between representatives of the employer and the union. The results of the bargaining are set forth in a collective bargaining agreement, or CBA.

GOOD-FAITH BARGAINING
The duty to approach negotiations with a sincere resolve to reach a collective bargaining agreement. This includes sending properly authorized representatives to bargaining sessions and meeting at reasonable times and places and as frequently as may be necessary to avoid major delays.

GOON
Derogatory term for a union activist.

GRIEVANCE, GRIEVANCE PROCEDURES
A formal complaint usually lodged by an employee or the union alleging a misinterpretation or improper application of one or more terms in a collective bargaining contract. The method for dealing with grievances is through a grievance procedure negotiated in the union contract. If a grievance cannot be settled at the supervisory level, it can be appealed to higher levels of management, and finally to arbitration if so provided.

LANDRUM-GRIFFIN ACT
Passed by the U.S. Congress in 1959 and officially known as the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, it resulted from improper relationships between management leadership and labor leadership. The act provided for the regulation of internal union affairs, including the regulation and control of union funds; it also restricted certain external union activities and authorized states to process cases that fall outside the jurisdiction of the National Labor Relations Board.

LOCKOUT
Shutdown of a worksite by the employer to discourage union membership or activity or to force employees to meet the demands or economic terms of the employer.

MEDIATION
The attempt by an impartial third party to bring the parties in a dispute together and assist them in reaching settlement. The mediator, however, has no power to force or award a settlement but works instead to persuade the parties to reach agreement.

MOHAWK VALLEY FORMULA
This is basically the union-busting template still in use today. Thought to have been used first by the by the Remington Rand corporation in Ilion, New York during a strike in 1936-1937, the plan includes discrediting union leaders, frightening the public with the threat of violence, using local police and vigilantes to intimidate strikers, forming puppet associations of "loyal employees" to influence debate, fortifying workplaces, employing large numbers of replacement workers, and threatening to close the plant if work is not resumed.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT (NLRA)/WAGNER ACT
A 1935 United States federal law that limits how employers may react to private-sector workers who work to organize unions, engage in collective bargaining and take part in other activities in support of their demands. The key principles are encouraging collective bargaining, protecting workers' exercise of freedom of association, self-organization, and designation of representatives of their own choosing for the purpose of negotiating the terms and conditions of their employment.

NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS BOARD (NLRB); NLRB ELECTION
The NLRB is an independent agency of the United States government charged with conducting elections for labor union representation and with investigating and remedying unfair labor practices.

OUTSOURCING, CONTRACTING OUT, SUB-CONTRACTING
Sending jobs that used to be completed by employees of a company out to vendors for completion and/or using vendors overseas to do certain jobs rather than American workers.

PICKET
A form of protest in which people congregate outside a place of work or location where an event is taking place to draw attention to a cause (sometimes called an informational picket) or dissuade others from going in.

PREVAILING WAGE
The hourly wage, usual benefits and overtime, paid to the majority of workers, laborers, and mechanics within a particular area.

PROHIBITED PRACTICES
The NLRA established things employers may not do related to union organizing:

  • Interfere, restrain, or coerce employees against union or collective activity
  • Dominate the union
  • Discriminate against employees who take part in union or collective activities
  • Retaliate against employees who file unfair-labor-practice charges or cooperate with the NLRB
  • Refuse to bargain in good faith with union representatives

"RIGHT TO WORK"
Refers to laws in some states that allow non-union employees to work at unionized workplaces without joining the union or paying regular union dues. These employees sometimes, but not always, have to pay unions for the portion of dues spent representing them, such as pursuing grievances on their behalf.

SALTING
A labor union tactic involving the act of getting a job at a specific workplace with the intent of organizing a union. A person so employed is called a “salt”. (via Wikipedia)

Alternative: getting a pro-union worker to play the part of a snitch to the boss, then using that position to rat on actual anti-union workers as supposed pro-union workers and getting them fired, making unionizing easier.

STEWARD
Union representative of a group of fellow employees who carries out duties of the union within the workplace. The steward is usually either elected by other union members or appointed by higher union officials.

STRIKE
A work stoppage used as a last resort when labor and management cannot reach an agreement.

TAFT-HARTLEY
The Taft-Hartley Act (also known as the Labor-Management Relations Act) was passed over then-President Truman's veto in 1947. The act limited employees' ability to unionize by putting additional requirements on them for doing so and forbidding certain kinds of support from other unions. It also forbade unions from contributing to political campaigns and enabled the U.S. Attorney General to prevent strikes if they believed one "imperiled the national health or safety."

TWENTY-FOUR HOUR RULE
Employers and unions are prohibited from making election speeches on company time to massed assemblies of employees within 24 hours before the scheduled time for conducting an election.

UNFAIR LABOR PRACTICES (ULPS)
A violation of any of the provisions of the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statute. The most common employer ULP violations are in the categories of "duty to bargain" (usually failure to give the union notice of proposed changes in conditions of employment and/or engage in certain types of bargaining), Weingarten ULPs (see below) and failure to provide information

WEINGARTEN RIGHTS
The right of an employee to have union representation when being examined or investigated by their employer, under three conditions: 1) the examination is being conducted by a representative of the employer, 2) it could result in disciplinary action, and 3) the employee asks for such representation.

WILDCAT STRIKE
A spontaneously organized strike triggered by an incident, usually unauthorized by the union leadership and of short duration.

  • FidelCastro [he/him]
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    3 years ago

    After we workshop this into a first draft, I'll make another thread with some cool banner art.

  • Budwig_v_1337hoven [he/him]
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    3 years ago

    SALTING
    Salting is a labor union tactic involving the act of getting a job at a specific workplace with the intent of organizing a union. A person so employed is called a "salt". (via Wikipedia)

    [But I've also heard it used differently: getting a pro-union worker to play the part of a snitch to the boss, then using that position to rat on actual anti-union workers as supposed pro-union workers and getting them fired, making the whole thing easier]

    • FidelCastro [he/him]
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      3 years ago

      Great suggestion, thanks. I've added it to the post.

      :fidel-salute-big:

  • FidelCastro [he/him]
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    3 years ago

    Source for this first draft: https://unionbustingplaybook.com/#glossary