Former Union Organizers Say Tactics Induce Psychological Trauma
In a shocking expose of union culture, former union members speak out against years of psychological abuse they endured while working for Unite Here. Unite Here organizers said they were pressured to reveal intimate details of their lives to union bosses who then recorded and filed the information, a practice called pink sheeting.
The New York Times uncovered union pink sheets that were indicative of this practice:
“Her childhood was a mess. Her mother was extremely passive aggressive. She would stop speaking to her children sometimes.”
“Has social anxiety disorder. She should have been on medication or in therapy but her parents refused.”
“Mom was not around growing up. She’s heard from her twice. Once to ask for money.”
Once collected, pink sheets, named after the color they are recorded on, are uploaded to a database where they are accessible to supervisors. A despicable practice, pink sheeting, exploits the insecurities and suffering of members to further union goals. Organizers who refused to reveal personal information were met with threats of termination. Julia Rivera, a former organizer for Unite Here said, “I was scared not to do what they said.”
The NYT continued:
“Several Unite Here organizers described high-pressure meetings where they were brought to tears as supervisors pushed them, sometimes in front of a dozen colleagues, to divulge personal information in what several organizers said was an effort to break their will and ensure their obedience.”
There are two reasons that unions employ such dehumanizing tactics. The first is to build reliance on the union; it is a form of brainwashing. Members are made to believe that they cannot leave the union or stray from its goals. Secondly, the categorizing of personal information allows union bosses to pressure organizers to share personal stories when recruiting new members. Workers being recruited are told that the union can fix all of their problems, after all, this organizer was sexually abused, this organizer had self-esteem issues, and so on.
Even in the face of criticism Unite Here has the audacity to downplay the practice.
“Lorena Lopez, a Unite Here lead organizer in Los Angeles who began working for the hotel employees union a decade ago, said that she never witnessed any pink sheeting and that any criticisms were ‘a pathetic attempt by S.E.I.U. to discredit our union.’”
How unions continue to claim they are worker advocates is baffling. It is increasingly clear that union bosses could care less about their workers. Did Unite Here pressure its members to confess their deepest secrets and then spread them around the union so they could help their members? No. It truly is a tragedy that the “unions are champions for Americans” sentiment has not been completely delegitimized. Until that happens, everyday workers like Julia Rivera will remain pawns in big labors egomaniacal game.
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What's more baffling is that people still believe the claim that unions help workers. Everyone knows unions are corrupt and use intimidation to expand their power. Most even understand how unions ultimately hurt workers by destroying productivity and jobs. And yet, many still think that unions are some kind of "necessary evil" or that they are good in theory but some bad people have corrupted them or something. Unions are just bad. You can try to make the argument that they were necessary at one time (an argument that I don't buy) but that is irrelevant now. Unions cause more problems than they solve and hurt workers while increasing their own political power.
>> TCH November 19, 2009 19:13 pm
Market power on one side is just as bad as another, and people will abuse it. Monopolies tend to do evil things because they can, and what is a union but a monopoly on sale of labor? The way this could have been fixed in the 20s is to have everyone individually contract with their employer. This improves efficiency (as an economics issue) by allowing better workers to be paid more. It provides better incentives for lower-skilled workers to move up. And, primarily, it forces big businesses to offer good wages and working conditions, or risk losing their work force.
>> Jeffrey Hosten November 19, 2009 19:53 pm
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