US Department of Justice - Request for Comments re Criminal History Background Checks

Background: The Attorney General is requesting public comments on an agency draft of a major report to Congress focusing on criminal background checks in employment.  In this report, the Attorney General makes recommendations to Congress regarding statutory authorizations, programs and procedures on criminal history background checks. The Attorney General must consult with various groups such as the National Crime Prevention and Privacy Compact Council as well as representatives of private industry and labor during the development of this required report.  Click here to read the Federal Register notice for more information.

PAST Due Date: All comments must be received by AUGUST 5, 2005. Comments can be sent by mail or e-mailed to the Justice Department's Office of Legal Policy at olpregs@usdoj.gov. The sole heading in the subject box must include "OLP Docket No 100."

Other resources: 
Click here for the final NELP comments letter.
Click here for the NELP press release of August 8, 2005.

Organizing Hurdles

A SHORT COMPILATION OF RESOURCES ON THE HURDLES FACED BY WORKERS TRYING TO ORGANIZE

Check out these informative reports on what workers face when they try to organize.  (A compilation of statistics from all of the below is found in the AFL-CIO's "The Silent War: The Assault on Workers' Freedom to Choose a Union and Bargain Collectively in the United States" (September 2005)).

From the internationally recognized Human Rights Watch, a scathing report on what is wrong with the NLRA representation process; includes case studies of a variety of campaigns.  2000 Human Rights Watch Report: Unfair Advantage, Workers' Freedom of Association in the United States Under International Human Rights Standards.  [This is a HUGE download, about 300 pages.]

Cornell Professor Kate Brofenbrenner has studied and reported on employer campaigns and campaign tactics.  This presents the facts and figures on what workers face when they try to organize: "Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing," U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, 2001. 

A more recent report that follows Brofenbrenner's methodology on employer campaigns and tactics (for the Chicago area only) is:  Mehta, Chirag and Nik, Theodore.  "Undermining the Right to Organize: Employer Behavior During Union Representation Campaigns," report for American Rights at Work" (December 2005).

An excellent report on the million-dollar industry of anti-union consultants is:  Logan, John.  "Consultants, Lawyers and the ?Union Free' Movement in the USA, 1970-2000," Industrial Relations Journal, Vol. 33, Issue 3, pp. 197-214 (August 2002). 

American Rights at Work sponsored an analysis by political scientist and University of Oregon professor Gordon Lafer comparing the NLRB representation process with internationally recognized standards for fair and free elections.  His report is "Free and Fair: How Labor Law Fails U.S. Democratic Election Standards," (June 2005). 

Port Security

March 5, 2006
San Francisco Chronicle
Open Forum:  PORTS DEBATE - When ?port security? targets workers
Jack Heyman 
        At the start of the war in Iraq three years ago, several hundred demonstrators protested at the Port of Oakland. Oakland police officers opened fire on the protesters and longshoremen going to work with so-called "less-than-lethal" weapons, injuring dozens and arresting 25. Then-Police Chief Richard Word said the riot-gear clad police force was deployed at the behest of the maritime companies. The California Anti-Terrorism Information Center had warned police that "terrorists" could be in the demonstration.       
        A port safety and security plan for the San Francisco Bay, crafted primarily by the U.S. Coast Guard, didn?t distinguish between terrorists, workers or anti-war protesters. The ACLU, the National Lawyers? Guild and even the U.N. Human Rights Commission condemned the action directed at people peacefully exercising their First Amendment rights. Now the Oakland City Council, without acknowledging any wrongdoing, is reaching out-of-court settlements with the longshore union and the 59 injured plaintiffs who sued. The settlements in the case, known as ILWU Local 10 vs. City of Oakland, have already reached nearly $2 million. The Oakland Police Department is revising its crowd-control policies, but few believe that will change anything.

Public Sector Bargaining Rights

April 3, 2007
The International Labor Organization (ILO) issued an unprecedented call for the United States to "promote the establishment of a collective bargaining framework in the public sector in North Carolina," and called specifically for the repeal of a state law that prohibits public employee collective bargaining. - click here for the press release and click here for the ILO decision.