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I don't understand: Nathan: "Would not voluntarily recognize a union even if the vast majority of workers signed in support of one." The CEO's statement he re

by theamk 7y ago

I don't understand: Nathan: "Would not voluntarily recognize a union even if the vast majority of workers signed in support of one." The CEO's statement he referenced: " If a majority of the staff in an appropriate bargaining unit votes in favor of a union in an NLRB election, we will fully respect that choice and negotiate in good faith toward a collective bargaining agreement." Those statements seem to be opposite of each other?

Mathnerd314 7y ago
NLRB elections have a lot of requirements. E.g. the NRLB has been back and forth on whether graduate students can form a union: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/20/nlrb-reverses-course-graduate-students-right-organize-employees/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/20/nlrb-rev... If everything goes smoothly it takes a month or two: https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2015/03/articles/collective-bargaining/nlrb-quickie-election-rule-accelerates-the-union-organizing-process/ https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2015/03/articles/coll... NRLB elections are legally binding, so the CEO statement there is basically "we will follow the law". The process Nathan is referring to is something a lot less formal where they pass around a petition to form a union and it gets a bunch of signatures. Not recognizing such a petition is consistent with Kickstarter's stance of not supporting unions. Apparently there's also a 50% rule where if 50% sign authorization cards for the union then they can ask to be recognized directly (https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/authorization-card/ https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/authorization-card/), but nobody seems to be discussing that, probably because actual support for the union is low and getting even the 30% for an election will be difficult. In May there were 28 public supporters (https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/evjb47/workers-accuse-kickstarter-of-union-busting-in-federal-complaint https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/evjb47/workers-accuse-kic...), but KS has 152 employees so they'd need 18 more employees just for an election.

by theamk 7y ago

Mathnerd314 7y ago

NLRB elections have a lot of requirements. E.g. the NRLB has been back and forth on whether graduate students can form a union: https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/20/nlrb-reverses-course-graduate-students-right-organize-employees/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/education/2019/09/20/nlrb-rev... If everything goes smoothly it takes a month or two: https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2015/03/articles/collective-bargaining/nlrb-quickie-election-rule-accelerates-the-union-organizing-process/ https://www.laboremploymentlawblog.com/2015/03/articles/coll... NRLB elections are legally binding, so the CEO statement there is basically "we will follow the law". The process Nathan is referring to is something a lot less formal where they pass around a petition to form a union and it gets a bunch of signatures. Not recognizing such a petition is consistent with Kickstarter's stance of not supporting unions. Apparently there's also a 50% rule where if 50% sign authorization cards for the union then they can ask to be recognized directly (https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/authorization-card/ https://definitions.uslegal.com/a/authorization-card/), but nobody seems to be discussing that, probably because actual support for the union is low and getting even the 30% for an election will be difficult. In May there were 28 public supporters (https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/evjb47/workers-accuse-kickstarter-of-union-busting-in-federal-complaint https://www.vice.com/en_ca/article/evjb47/workers-accuse-kic...), but KS has 152 employees so they'd need 18 more employees just for an election.