Have you ever worked in a call center? I have; it is a life-draining and soul-sucking experience that earns you the princely sum of $9-$16 an hour. When I worked in a call center some ten years ago my starting pay was about $11 an hour at the time so wages have stayed about the same over that ten year period.
Now, imagine you are a woman working in a 600 person call center and 150 women have to share one bathroom:
About 60 employees signed a protest petition saying more than 150 women had to work in a facility with only one toilet, and they began discussing forming a union to address that and other concerns...
How did Sitel, the company that ran this call center, respond?
Company officials responded to the employee petition with implied threats of firing or other reprisals, according to the complaint [to the National Labor Relations Board]
John Murphy, a spokesman for the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, told the Greensboro News-Record that the union has been working with call center workers, and pointed out that "Federal law protects workers' rights to discuss joining a union."
I hope that the NLRB comes down hard on SITEL for their actions (although I am not holding my breath). No company should be allowed to threaten people with their jobs because they are attempting to organize. I for one would love to see legislation that would put managers who use this tactic in jail; however, it is unlikely that anything like that would ever come to pass. Barring my pipe dream of jailing anti-union thugs for their illegal actions I would like to see unions start an education campaign. I still remember the "Union Label" commercials of my youth:
For too long we have allowed the right to define union labor. It is time that the unions define who they are and what they stand for, it is time to undo the damage and educate the American public—so that the 60 women who signed a petition to get more than one bathroom for 150 women won't be threatened with their livelihoods.