12142: Labor relations take odd twist (fwd)

[Bob Corbett <corbetre@webster.edu>]

From: leonie hermantin <lhermantin@hotmail.com>

Posted on Thu, May. 23, 2002

Labor relations take odd twist
By Fred Grimm -- Commentary

Fistfights and gunfire, I understand. But black candles? Rows of pennies?
Lavender perfume? A woman's slow, bending, turning ritual dance? Half-filled
cups of water? A union war turned peculiar after festering in the
subtropical sun.

My idea of union intimidation was formed in the Appalachian coal fields,
where the United Mine Workers and their nonunion opponents hunkered down
with semiautomatic rifles and 75 years of accumulated blood debts.

But National Labor Relations Board Case No. 12-RC-8749, originating in Miami
Shores, a place not known for fearsome labor fights, has expanded old
notions of union head-knocking.

VODOU SYMBOLS

David Weitzner, an NLRB hearing officer, was faced with a complaint filed by
management at Mount Sinai-St. Francis Nursing and Rehabilitation Center that
the pro-union forces had swung a union election there on Feb. 28 by
employing some . . . well . . . otherworldly tactics. Weitzner considered
``whether the union had, through its agents and supporters, engaged in the
use of Vodou symbols, rituals and discussions to terrorize the electorate.''

The alleged Vodou vote had gone 49-37 in favor of joining the Service
Employees International Union. But management complained that the pro-union
forces had threatened to summon unsavory Vodou spirits if the vote went the
wrong way.

An NLRB hearing in March added new vocabulary to American labor relations.
Anti-union employees told Weitzner of finding rows of coins on the nursing
home floor and half-filled water cups on the shelves -- both, they said,
harbingers of a Vodou curse. A union supporter was accused of performing a
ritual dance, doused in lavender Vodou water, and grasping mysterious black
beads on the day of the vote. The nursing home complained that a union
supporter tried to obtain a list of employees -- so she could scribble down
their names and put the scraps of paper in her shoes or burn them in the
flame of a black candle.

`PERVASIVE FEAR'

The nursing home brought in Dr. Terry Rey, an assistant professor of African
and Caribbean religions at Florida International University, who testified
that while most of this evil Vodou stuff was bunk, ''many Haitians who do
not practice it, fear it.'' He described a ''pervasive fear'' in the
culture. About half the 105 employees are Haitian. Most of the others also
are from Caribbean nations.

The union was outraged. Monica Russo, president of Local 1199 and a veteran
of brutal, but not nearly so strange, organizing battles in Southern textile
mills, said she was shocked by ``a blatant, bizarre attack on religion and
culture.''

But the nursing home's own witness undid its case. Rey recognized the Vodou
rituals of coins and cups but testified that it was impossible to discern
whether the intent was good or evil. Besides, as Weitzner noted in his
decision last week upholding the election, Vodou signs had been popping up
at the nursing home for years without keeping ``employees from engaging in
their normal daily activities of patient care.''

Anyway, no employee claimed that Vodou signs influenced their vote. One
woman said it was easy to undo a curse -- put salt on the pennies. But I
wonder whether salt would work on a mine workers picket line.



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