Introduction

Because unions currently represent approximately 12% of workers in the United States, it comes as no surprise that union leaders have had a primary objective to dramatically increase that percentage during the last twelve years…with little success.  That is likely to change in January 2009.

Since 1935 The National Labor Relations Act has regulated all aspects of union organizing and the manner with which enterprises must deal with unions.  A significant part of the Act mandates secret ballot elections, administered by the National Labor Relations Board, after a minimum 30% “showing of interest” through union authorization cards being signed by prospective members of a bargaining unit.

Without regard to political preferences, if candidate Obama becomes President Obama while Democrat majorities occur in both the U.S. House of Representatives and in the U.S. Senate, the Employee Free Choice Act will be enacted into law during the first four months of 2009 as promised by candidate Obama.  Under this law unions will be able to organize workers, be the exclusive bargaining agent for, AND collect union dues from employees  at the instant that they have collected signed cards from 50% or more of workers in a bargaining unit chosen by the union.  Secret ballot elections will be a thing of the past on the date the Employee Free Choice Act becomes law.

The Significant Danger To You And Your Enterprise beginning January 20, 2009

Union organizers utilize a number of tricks in order to get employees to sign authorization cards.  The most frequently used trick is to position the cards as entries in a drawing for a family vacation, airline tickets, or a new car.  Nothing in the Employee Free Choice Act mandates factual disclosure or ethical performance by union organizers and leaders.

The union election win rate during 2007 was at or above 56% in the retail, wholesale, transportation, communication, construction, financial, hospitality, services, gaming and health care sectors.  Imagine what it will be during 2009 after secret ballot elections are eliminated from the union authorization equation.  In many workplaces under the Employee Free Choice Act unions will become certified before management is aware that union cards are being signed.  Upon certification, the “duty to bargain” with the union will be enforced by the National Labor Relations Board just as it has been since 1935.  Under the Employee Free Choice Act the ability of companies to rightfully question an employee “majority interest” in the union by holding a secret ballot election will be eliminated.  Instead, 50% of employees signing cards IS what will certify the union in the given workplace.

Some Solutions That Work

We strongly recommend that during the next month all companies begin taking the following steps to ensure their ability to operate without the inefficiencies of unions beginning in early 2009:

1.)    Establish effective and responsive communication methodologies to and from employees at all levels of your organization, so that senior decision makers may be aware of and responsive to workplace issues that give rise to organized labor interest on the part of employees and union organizers.

2.)   Thoroughly evaluate, in detail, the competitiveness of your compensation and benefit practices while ensuring that employees at all levels find them to be competitive within the markets you operate.

3.)    Establish tightly enforced and clearly communicated policies prohibiting solicitation of ALL types on company property and during working time.

4.)      Ensure that ALL supervisors, managers and executives are trained and continually updated on how to recognize and respond to union organizing activities, both overt and covert.

5.)      Clearly and continually communicate, both verbally and in writing, the reasons why your organization desires to remain union free in the best interests of customers, employees, and employee family members.

6.)   Union organizers are experts at having cards signed without the knowledge of management.  As a result, the above steps must be taken between now and early 2009 or your unionization risks will increase dramatically.

Conclusion

Being unconcerned about union organization activities has been easy to do during the last twenty years, but that will be changing during early 2009.  Eleven large unions have staked their future on the Employee Free Choice Act and we predict very firmly that union organizers who are desperate to expand both membership and dues collections will resort to coercive measures in order to organize many hundreds of thousands of new members within currently non-union organizations.  We encourage you to not let it happen to your workforce.

Brian Gagan is a partner with Leadership Strategies, LLC and holds management and human resources degrees from the University of Maine and Syracuse University. Some of Brian’s primary areas of specialty are mergers and acquisitions, elimination of organized labor influences, organizational structuring, senior executive performance improvement, board functionality, international expansion, executive compensation and perquisite design, and peaceful elimination of human capital performance roadblocks. Brian can be reached at 480-467-0344 or by email at mailto:bgagan@peopleresults.com.