Study: Employer Intimidation on the Rise
May 29, 2009
 A new report confirms that employer threats against workers who want a union are more the norm than the exception – and they’re on the rise.
In “No Holds Barred: The Intensification of Employer Opposition to Organizing,” author and Cornell University professor Kate Bronfenbrenner outlines the strategies that employers use to break unionization, including threats to shut down worksites, cut wages and benefits and terminate pro-union employees. She reports employers are now more than twice as likely to use intimidation tactics against workers than in the 1990s.
Bronfenbrenner collected data on more than 1,000 organizing drives over a five-year span to examine the depth of bosses’ anti-union actions. Some of the more damning evidence includes:
- 63 percent of employers interrogate workers in mandatory one-on-one meetings with their supervisors about employee support for a union
- 57 percent of employers threaten to shut down the jobsite
- 47 percent of employers warn that they will slash wages and benefits
- 34 percent of employers fire workers
“These alarming figures clearly illustrate why Congress needs to pass the Employee Free Choice Act,” said IBEW International President Edwin D. Hill. “We need stiffer penalties against employers who harass and intimidate workers. Our current laws are clearly no deterrent.”
To learn more statistics outlined in the report, or to read the whole study, click here.
Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user Paul Kehrer
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