It makes me sick that these union thugs forced their job creators to waste 500,000 dollars on anti-union lawyers. Hot And Crusty Bakery Employees Go From Lockout To Victory In One Week - New York - News - Runnin' Scared In one of the most remarkable underdog stories in recent labor history, 23 low-wage restaurant workers at a Hot and Crusty Bakery location on the Upper East Side have won a surprising victory. The bakery's owners closed it August 31after the workers successfully formed a union, but the workers fought back, briefly taking over the bakery on its last day and maintaining a 24-hour picket and street cafe through the following week. Saturday, it was announced that new owners had taken over the bakery, and had signed binding promises to reopen the bakery within 15 days, rehire its workers, recognize their union, and institute a hiring hall, giving the workers control over the hire of new employees. "It's a victory," said Mahoma Lopez, a seven-year bakery employee outside the Hot and Crusty yesterday afternoon. "I wasn't expecting for so much." He's hardly alone. No one was expecting a tiny handful of mostly undocumented workers to win such concessions from a powerful ownership team led by Mark Samson, a managing partner at the private equity firm Praesidian Capital. Workers say management used their immigration status to threaten them, and spent more than $500,000 on a union-busting consultant and lawyers. "It's historic. It's pretty much unprecedented," said Nastaran Mohit, an organizer at the Laundry Workers Center, which helped train and support the bakery workers. "The depth of support really helped, but the other thing that made the difference was the willingness of the workers to escalate." It probably didn't hurt that Samson lives around the corner from the bakery. Workers say throughout their week of picketing, local residents often said they knew Samson personally, and promised to speak to him. "We weren't just shaming him in front of his customers, but in front of his neighbors," Mohit said. Organizers say the success is largely attributable to the support of allies, ranging from much larger unions like SEIU 32BJ to student groups and Occupy Wall Street activists. They also the credit the support of people in the neighborhood, many of whom have been buying bagels from the workers for years. The bakery employees approached the Laundry Workers Center for help last year, complaining about unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, intimidation, chronic wage theft and sub-minimum-wage compensation. The Laundry Workers Center, a tiny operation working on a shoestring budget with unpaid organizers, put the workers through an eight-month training course, teaching them about labor law, organizing, and tactics. "The idea is to empower them to be their own organizers," Mohit said. "To make sure that they're leading, not being led. It's very different from the top-down approach of a lot of the big unions." It's an approach that could prove powerful in other shops as well. There's already a push to organize among some workers at other Hot and Crusty bakeries elsewhere in the city.
I have no problem with Unions striking they just should not be aided by the state just like the business should not be aided by the state. If the Union can get the business to bow down to its demands without using violence then fine by me. Libertarians are not against Unions, we are against the government granting unions special privileges, just like we are against the gov granting big business special privileges.
I'm against unions just because of the harm they cause economically, but also because of their partnership with the state. Labor unions, if successful in pushing up wage-rates, result in unemployment, dislocation of labor, and lower wage-rates in non union fields, or fields that are unionized, but are unsuccessful at pushing up wages.
You cannot prevent unions from forming except through force which is against NAP. So while you may not like unions and I agree they do have negative effects on the economy sometimes they are here to stay. Business and unions should be completely separate from the state, the gov should have no say in any disputes.
The Union didn't force the owner to spend any money on lawyers/consultants. That was entirely his choice. I guess he wanted to keep the conditions mentioned; last year, complaining about unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, intimidation, chronic wage theft and sub-minimum-wage compensation. The Laundry Workers Center, a tiny operation working on a shoestring budget with unpaid organizers, put the workers through an eight-month training course, teaching them about labor law, organizing, and tactics. Good for them. Hopefully they also will work to terminate any lazy workers too.
Unions are bullshit. Safety net for lazy people who want to put forth as little effort as possible while still making decent money.
Nothing...when you earn it. Unions (whether intentional or not) support laziness and punish hard work.
Wow. There are some seriously ignorant answers here. Full of stereotypical bullshit and misconception. Edit: like that ^. That's a load of shit. There are lazy people anywhere you work.
Well actually no it's really ignorant because my dad had a job and worked tons of overtime and worked hard and kept getting pay increases in addition to the overtime and then he was unionized and couldn't get any more raises and was making the same money as younger, newer kids that didn't work nearly as hard or have the experience he had. True, there are lazy people anywhere...the difference is lazy people end up getting fired or stay where they are and the hard working people keep their jobs and even have the ability move up positions more easily without unions. Do you realize how hard it is to fire a public school teacher? lol
I don't know what to tell you...it's the truth. Maybe some are different than others? Why the fuck would I make this up? It's one of the main reasons I'm completely against unionization.
[quote name='"craigd89"'] I smell bullshit, seniority is a big deal in unionized work-places.[/quote] No its not! It is for equal pay for employees. It may fluctuate a little depending on seniority but has little to do with who is doing there jobs better which should be the determining factor for wages earned. It establishes a abouve minimum wage (which is also bs) and increases the cost of things for all especially hurting the poorer classes. The cost of production is always passed to the consumer so next will be price fixing then shortages. It's that simple. People should be fighting for cheaper things to better all of society and that is done through cheaper more efficient labor and production cost. The reason people have lost sight of this is because people don't understand money and how its purchasing power is being robbed from you daily to fund this corrupt mob we call a democracy. True libertarians don't oppose unions but we do not like what they stand for. It is a group of people demanding what is not there's. If you don't like what your paid work somewhere else you don't like that start your own business. If you start your own business you'll soon find your biggest obstacle is thd state and there rules and regulations and permits and hoops you have to jump through and the hands you have to grease to even get it off and running let alone keep it going. This country is absolutely turn upside down economically when it comes to business and labor and wage laws. And it seems to stem from lack of understanding of money and how to store and keep your value of labor and production and how to facilitate trade in the best way possible to use limited resource that are at hand. the purpose of society which is a direct result of economics is to produce more stuff not to create jobs. jobs are easy there's always work to be done and want is unlimited there is no end to it. what does have limits is the resources that we have to work with.
Employers don't exploit workers. Also higher wages, increased pensions, etc., the stuff unions fight for, are not rights. There is no class struggle between capitalists and the proletariat (I'll use words you are familiar with). The real class struggle is between the state (and those who live off of and use the state for power and coercion) and free people. It's the same struggle that has existed for thousands of years.
Did you even read the OP? That is a prime example of an employer exploiting it's workers. Here it is again; last year, complaining about unsafe working conditions, sexual harassment, intimidation, chronic wage theft and sub-minimum-wage compensation.
If they don't like the working conditions they can quit. There is no exploitation in voluntary work arrangements. The workers benefit and the employer benefits.
Yeah, and a woman in an abuser relationship can just walk out. Sounds nice but life doesn't always work that way for a lot of people.