Union raid

A union raid is when a challenger or outsider union tries to take over the membership base of an existing incumbent union, typically through a union raid election in the United States.

Raids can be informal through campaigning/soliciting an incumbent union's member or more direct by calling for a decertification election in a bid to take over an incumbent union's membership. Between 1975 and 1989 over 1414 multi-union raid elections were documented by the NLRB.[1]

Union raids have been criticized by the labor movement, because they do not grow the movement and promote rivalry between unions, instead of organizing the largely non unionized workforce in the United States.[2]

History

CIO

After the Taft-Hartley Act in 1947, a number of union raid elections were enacted by the CIO[note 1] against the recently expelled left wing unions, accounting for almost half of all union raids in the year 1950. The majority of these raids were between the independent United Electrical Workers and the newly formed anti-Communist International Union of Electrical Workers of the CIO, though its debated whether those should be considered union raids. Many locals were effectively voting on which faction of the old "United Electric Workers" they wanted to affiliate with.[3]

AFL

Raiding by the Teamsters was such a serious issue that it prompted the AFL[note 1] and CIO, which had attempted to sign a no-raid agreement for years, to finally negotiate and implement such a pact in December 1953.[4] President Beck initially refused to sign the agreement, and threatened to take the Teamsters out of the AFL if forced to adhere to it.[5] Three months after the pact was signed, the Teamsters agreed to submit to the terms of the no-raid agreement.[6] Shortly thereafter, the AFL adopted Article 20 of its constitution, which prevented its member unions from raiding one another.[7]

AFL-CIO

In 1968 the Alliance for Labor Action made up of United Auto Workers and the Teamsters offered the AFL-CIO a no-raid pact as a first step toward building a working relationship between the competing trade union centers, but the offer was rejected.

Since 1992 the AFL-CIO's constitution has a clause called Article XX in their constitution forbidding union raids among its affiliates, with various remedies for resolving inter-union conflict.[8][9]

Notes
  1. In 1955 the AFL and CIO merged to form the AFL–CIO

References
  1. Arnold, Edwin; Scott, Clyde; Rasp, John (April 1, 1992). "The Determinants of Incumbent Union Victory in Raid Elections". Labor Law Journal. 43 (4): 221 – via ProQuest.
  2. Scott, Clyde; Arnold, Edwin; Odewahn, Charles (1992-12-01). "Raid Elections: Another Problems for Unions?:". Public Personnel Management. 21 (4): 555–564. doi:10.1177/009102609202100410.
  3. Krislov, Joseph (1955). "The Extent and Trends of Raiding among American Unions". The Quarterly Journal of Economics. 69 (1): 145–152. doi:10.2307/1884855. ISSN 0033-5533.
  4. Raskin, "A. F. L. Drafts Plan for Ban on Raiding," The New York Times, December 11, 1953; Loftus, "Labor Still Seeks Union Raiding Ban," The New York Times, December 15, 1953; Loftus, "A.F.L. and C.I.O. Sign No-Raiding Accord," The New York Times, December 17, 1953.
  5. Raskin, "Teamsters Gird for A.F.L. Battle," The New York Times, February 14, 1954; Raskin, "Teamsters Reject No-Raid Pact," The New York Times, February 19, 1954; Raskin, "Beck Hints Move to End A.F.L. Tie," The New York Times, February 20, 1954; Raskin, "Beck Bars No-Raiding Pact," The New York Times, February 21, 1954.
  6. Raskin, "Plan to Aid Peace in A.F.L. Advances," The New York Times, May 14, 1954; Raskin, "Labor Unity Pacts Sealed By Unions," The New York Times, May 15, 1954; Loftus, "Unions Will Sign Non-Raiding Pact," The New York Times, June 7, 1954; "94 Unions Accept No-Raiding Pact," The New York Times, June 10, 1954.
  7. Levey, "Union Raiding Ban Drafted By A.F.L.," The New York Times, August 14, 1954.
  8. Petruska, Brian (2003-01-01). "Choosing Competition: A Proposal to Modify Article XX of the AFL-CIO Constitution". Hofstra Labor & Employment Law Journal. 21 (1).
  9. Vaughn, Lea (1990-01-01). "Article XX of the AFL-CIO Constitution: Managing and Resolving Inter-Union Disputes". Wayne Law Review. 37: 1.
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