Why are
you so adamant that non-union companies should always plan pro-actively to stay that
way? MM - Pennsylvania
Why are
you so adamant that non-union companies should always plan pro-actively to stay that
way?
MM - Pennsylvania
The Industry Advisor
LOOK FOR THE UNION LABEL?
By Gene Levine - www.genelevine.com
Their song is catchy, the message clear – buy a union made product. The
union’s song as a television commercial is one more clever tactic to have unions
monopolize and limit the supply of available labor. If the public would only buy union
made products then more employers would "go union." An intolerable threat to
unions is free competition that is based on compulsion. To limit this threat, and to keep
their treasury full, unions sing songs and organize non-union companies.
What does all this have to do with you? Everything. Let me explain why in detail.
I’ll begin by relating that consulting assignments vary in degrees of challenge and excitement. But, no assignment so positively excites me as when I’m asked to assist a company in keeping "the union out" during a union organizing campaign or working with employees during a union decertification effort. My reason for liking these assignments is that in both cases the energy levels of both management and employees are at their highest.
Anyone who has been involved in a union organizing campaign will know to exactly what I’m referring, for example – management reversing its indifferent attitude toward employee relations by embarking on an intensive anti-union "love thy company" communications campaign. Then, employees respond to this management ploy with in fighting, gossip, hostility and bitterness.
Friends become enemies. Emotional decision making replaces rational thinking. All these activities and the others, too numerous to mention, now form a mosaic of intrigue of which anyone who loves challenges would want to be a part.
Occasionally, on these fascinating assignments I work with James W. Wimberly Jr., one of our nation's most distinguished labor attorneys and a senior partner of Wimberly, Lawson, Steckel, Nelson & Schneider, P.C. based in Atlanta, GA. Wimberly believes that if proper management techniques are normally employed in an organization the company need never be a union target.
Once, when he was representing a company during an organizing campaign, he told me, "Now, the company will spend a great deal of time and money to eliminate the union threat. The things the company will do now to defuse the union’s position will be those good business practices that should have been employed anyway. The ounce of prevention would have been worth the pound of cure."
What is the cost of cure? A study by Michigan State University found that a "small" company spends over $2,500 per employee for an NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) election. This figure includes loss in employee productivity and time, loss in executive time, and legal expense. Therefore, a company of 100 employees will incur an expense of over $250,000. Yet, that is still cheaper than having a union.
Wimberly, at a pre-trade Show seminar entitled, "Improving the Bottom Line & Beyond," gave attendees many reasons why they should avoid unions. One of the main reasons was economics. He said, "One company with a plant of 300 employees has estimated the cost of negotiating and administering the so-called ‘language’ items of its union contract at almost $400,000 per year. And this figure does not include the increased cost of wages and benefits in the contract."
A study of NLRB voting by Getman-Goldberg-Herman asked voting employees in 31 union elections why they voted for or against union representation. The following table ( Table 1) clearly details the most repeated reasons for employees voting for union representation. Listed in order are the issues and the percent of employees reporting the issue as a reason for their vote. This list clearly shows the union's biggest wedge is . . .
Table 1. Eleven Major Reasons Employee Vote Pro-Union
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