OPINION
BY DAVE PRICE
Daily Post Editor
News is the unexpected, something unusual. So it was truly news last week to learn that nurses from Palo Alto Medical Foundation’s locations in Sunnyvale and Mountain View voted to dump their union.
If you are even a casual consumer of news, you’d think that union membership was growing. Newspapers love to report on how one business or another formed a union. You’ve probably seen stories about how employees at scattered Starbucks or Trader Joes have formed unions. But those unionization involve so few people that they don’t translate into higher membership rates nationwide.
The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said 10% of hourly and salaried workers were members of unions in 2023, or around 14.4 million people, the Associated Press reported in January. That is an all-time low, down from 10.1% of workers in 2022.
A mere 6% of U.S. workers in the private sector belonged to unions in 2023, the same historically low level as in 2022.
At their peak in the 1950s, unions represented more than 1 in 3 workers in the United States.
One trend the media hasn’t mentioned is that workers are increasingly dumping their unions. According to National Labor Relations Board data, since 2020 the number of petitions filed by workers to dump (or decertify, as the government puts it) their union has increased by over 40%.
Health care workers are at the center of the movement to decertify unions. Last December, employees from St. Christopher’s Hospital for Children in Philadelphia gave the boot to the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees union. Also in December, support staff at Mayo Clinic’s location in Austin, Minn, forced their union officials out of their facility, which followed other union ousters at hospitals in Mankato, Minn., and St. James, Minn.
Locally, the drive to dump the International Federation of Professional and Technical Engineers (IFPTE) union from PAMF was led by nurse Malgorzata Nepali. The union, of course, brought in lawyers to fight the move, but the nurses were assisted by the nonprofit National Right to Work Legal Defense Fund at no charge.
She and other nurses circulated petitions to hold an election on decertifying the union, and then all the workers got to vote on it. Nearly 60% of the workers voted to drop the union during an election on Feb. 28-29.
The election is a remarkable achievement especially considering it happened in California, a state where the government at all levels is on the side of the union bosses and not the workers.
California lacks “Right to Work” protections for private sector employees, which allows unions to impose labor contracts that force workers to pay union dues, even if the worker voted against the union contract.
In a gift to the unions, the San Mateo County Board of Supervisors created an Office of Labor Standards Enforcement, which will go around to employers and make sure they’re obeying labor laws. We already have the state Division of Labor Standards Enforcement, the Industrial Welfare Commission, CalOSHA and OSHA, to name just a few of the duplicative agencies. This new office, I suspect, will be to look for non-union employers that unions can target with organizing drives.
Now is the time for workers to throw off the unions and the local governments who back them. Remember the 1979 movie Norma Rae, about a woman played by Sally Field who organized a union in her cotton mill holding up a sign saying “Union.” In 2024, we need a reverse Norma Rae, with a worker holding up a sign saying “No union.”
Editor Dave Price’s column appears on Mondays. For more information about the National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, call 1-800-336-3600 or go to www.nrtw.org.
I used to be in a union and boy did it suck. It’s like having two bad bosses, your regular boss and a union shop steward, each telling you what to do. When the union came in, the whole place changed. People became very argumentative and quick to complain. Customer service died. The union didn’t care if the business survived. And the raises the union promised never materialized. They negotiated a three-year contract and we got nothing. The union said we should be happy they’re not laying off people. Then, a month later, that’s exactly what they did. I quit and I’m making more money working for a NON-UNION competitor.
“Now is the time for workers to throw off the unions and the local governments who back them.” Mr Price, judging by your comments, which local governments would you like to overthrow, and how would you like to see that take form? Your fatuous anit-union comments read like a Trump-endorsed candidate’s campaign message for office. Is your newspaper now a propaganda mouthpiece for the local right-wing PAC?
Maximillian, it seems you’ve read something entirely different than the opinion piece at the top of this page. The former president has nothing to do with this. Reminder, he was voted out of office three years ago and no longer is in charge.
So deal with the actual issues Mr. Price brings up.
1. Should workers have the right to vote out their union? Yes or no?
2. Are you for or against “Right to Work” protections for workers? Yes or no?
I’m a proud Democrat and a union member of 21 years. If your union isn’t getting the job done, you should have the right to decertify it. A simple majority vote. While I think unions are generally good for workers, they should never be forced upon employees. In other words, no closed shops. If the union benefits an employee, they’ll want to join. But they should do so out of their own free will.
Maximillian (above) doesn’t get it. It’s not about who is president. It’s about the rights of the individual. I shouldn’t be forced to support a union that does nothing for me. If they come up with a lousy contract, then dump them. I applaud the nurses at PAMF. I’m in a teachers union and they spend our dues on political campaigns that most of our members oppose. The union won’t even put their stances up for a vote because they know they’re unpopular. I should have the ability to drop this union and negotiate my own salary. I’m up for decertifying the teachers union in my district.
I applaud PAMF nurse Malgorzata Nepali. I’m sure she faced harassment from the union. That’s probably an understatement. But she should be held up as an example to show what one individual can do to improve the lives of others.
If you’re in a union, you might be surprised to learn that the officials of your Local are getting two paychecks—-one from the company and another from the union. They keep the pay information a secret, but it explains the fancy house, expensive car, bling and other signs of extravagant living.