I thought it might be of interest to have a thread comparing some of the legal and other challenges facing union organizing drives in the U.S. with those in Canada.
I'm linking to a story about a particular drive in California. It also describes the "Employee Free Choice Act" now working its way through Congress. Despite the anti-union-sounding name (remember "right to work" states?), it's apparently the opposite. Maybe they packaged it to sound more libertarian.
It looks as if the main reform would be to introduce access to "first-contract arbitration". We have that in most jurisdictions in Canada, but it's not always easy to access. Its aim is to address one of the chief fault lines in organizing a new workplace - management's attempt to break the new union within the first 12 months by simply doing "surface bargaining" rather than trying in good faith to reach a first collective agreement.
Anyway, here's the rather lengthy article:
[url=http://news.newamericamedia.org/news/view_article.html?article_id=395553... Aid Workers Stymied by Weak Labor Law[/u][/color][/url]