As a life-long employer advocate, I have to admit to the feeling of schadenfreude when I hear of the always sanctimonious unions getting caught violating the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) with their own employees. Unions love to catch and hold employers up as unfair when they allegedly violate labor law so it’s somewhat satisfying to see them reap what they sow.

What is “schadenfreude”? It is pleasure derived by someone from another person’s misfortune. Second unions can be unionized? Of course. They are employers too, after all.

At ASE we watch what organized labor is doing. It’s mostly organizing activity but also other labor developments. While doing so, we have noted that a number of unions have unions themselves. Their own employees organized against the union. Many unions have their own collective bargaining unit. This includes the UAW, SEIU, UFCW, Teamsters, and IBEW to name a few.

What is interesting to watch is that these big unions often break the law when dealing with their “poor, oppressed workers.” They do so when a group of their employees try to organize. They do so when bargaining with their employees, and they do so when their employees try to engage in a strike against them.

Let’s look at some recent reports about unions violating their union employees’ rights.

Last year the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) held that the United Food and Commercial Workers union (UFCW) engaged in “almost every tactic” employers use during contract negotiations to undermine support for the employees’ union as well as engaging in bad faith bargaining. This was not an allegation. This was the determination by an NLRB Law Judge when she found Local 7 of the UFCW had unilaterally changed working conditions and retaliated against its own unionized employees.

Let’s take a look at the Service Employees International Union (SEIU). SEIU employees, while trying to settle a labor contract with the SEIU, authorized strikes three different times from 2019 and struck at least one time with its national headquarters. The strike in 2022 was because the employee union accused the SEIU leadership of unfair bargaining. One union activist claimed the SEIU was attempting to intimidate striking employees.

In a strike against the SEIU back in 2018-19, the SEIU reduced staff pay unilaterally and misclassified employees in order to avoid them being eligible to join a union.

These actions were called “union busting” by the union’s own staff.

And what about Detroit’s own United Auto Workers (UAW)? Recently the UAW allegedly fired one outspoken union member during negotiations by deciding not to renew their contract for employment with the UAW when it came up.

Another recent example of the union becoming the big bad union busting employer involved the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW). As that union was being organized by its own employees, it violated multiple provisions of the NLRA and was found guilty of unilaterally changing the organization’s bargaining unit vehicle usage policy against its unionized employees. It also initiated strict 7 am work starting time without bargaining and fired an employee that had organized the internal union and discriminated against that employee by doing so. The union also made coercive statements against the employee and delayed responding to legitimate information requests by the employee union about the terminations for nine weeks.

The Administrative Law Judge in that case reinstated the fired employees and rescinded the unilateral policy changes.

So the next time you hear the media take up a union’s “whine” that an employer is being unfair to a union, remember, unions also practice the same unfair labor tactics when dealing with their own organized employees. If you are in management, take time to enjoy a little schadenfreude.

As a management rights organization and employer advocate, ASE is a union avoidance organization. We provide market compensation data to our members that help employers attract and retain employees and pay competitively. This takes away most of a union’s argument that an employer does not pay fairly. Also, ASE trains managers and supervisors to properly do their job, thereby avoiding causing employees to seek out the protection of a union. ASE helps employers better communicate with their employees to understand how the employee views the employer and to avoid potential employee relations problems through its engagement survey tools. We also offer a myriad of union avoidance information as well as education classes. Get ahead of the worry about being organized and use ASE resources and tools.

Source: Wikipedia definition of Schadenfreude. Labor Law Reporter. International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, Local 111, JD(SF)-09-25, 27-CA0 391386 (ALJ Decision) and other articles.