A new study by the Center for Economic and Policy Research estimates that one out of five union organizers and activists are fired for their organizing work. The statistic was published earlier this week in a study titled “Dropping the Ax: Illegal Firings During Union Election Campaigns” and is based on numbers prepared by the National Labor Relations Board. The report describes that employers are more likely now than in the past to break the law in firing union organizers facilitating union campaigns, as the penalties for breaking the law are “slight” and are no deterrent to employers seeking to stop unionization campaigns (back pay for fired workers minus any earnings fired workers make after being fired). The probability of workers being fired for union activity has increased significantly since the 1990s, with employers frequently targeting union activists and firing them at critical points in unionization efforts. The study argues that the findings fit into a systematic attack by employers on existing unions and efforts to organize new unions that accelerated in the 1980s and has used legal support and coverage to undermine unions. The study’s authors suggest that this attack has been responsible in part for the decline in union membership in the United States.
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