5 Steps to Prevent Unionization: The New Department of Labor is Coming!
by Richard D. Galbreath, SPHR
President
Obama has recently announced his pick for the Secretary of the Department of
Labor - four term, California Representative Hilda Solis (Democrat).
If
you aren't immediately mesmerized by the choice of Representative Solis as
Labor Secretary, please understand that much of organized labor is almost giddy
with excitement over her selection.
Service Employees International Union (SEIU) President Andy Stern, for
example, is "thrilled."
President
Obama says it best, "I know that Hilda will show the same kind of leadership
as Secretary of Labor that she showed in California and on the Education and
Labor Committee by protecting workers' rights - from organizing to collective
bargaining, from keeping our workplaces safe to making our unions strong" (emphasis added by author).
Get
ready for change; it is coming. There
will a lot of changes. Many employment
law changes are already in the pipeline; others will follow in due course over
the next several months. Few will make
it easier for American businesses to be nimbler and better able to successfully
compete in today’s fast moving, global marketplace.
The first truly major change will be the
passage and implementation of the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). Its final
contents aren't certain at this time but it is certain to pass in one form or
another very early in the 111th Congress.
Under
the most recent draft of Employee Free Choice Act legislation, all union
organizers will have to do is to get a simple majority - one person over 50% - of
your employees to sign a card, called a card check process, indicating that
they would be interested in having a union represent them. Once that is done, you will be
unionized. It is that simple and that
quick. You may not even know that you have a unionization campaign in progress
before you are unionized. No secret
ballet election monitored by the National Labor Relations Board; you may not
even have any opportunity to state your side of the issue.
Further,
if you are unionized and fail to negotiate a contract with your workers within
90 days, the matter can be submitted to binding arbitration. Yes, this means
that you could very well have a contract between you and your employees decided
upon by a third party.
Take no chances! Here's what to
do NOW:
1.
Do a high quality employee survey immediately. Make sure it is
a good one. Cheap and easy don't necessarily make for good information. If you don't really find out what people think about important issues, you'll
have no chance to be proactive in making any necessary changes. Look for a survey that can be customized to
your specific needs, that sells confidentiality (I strongly suggest that you
have a third party do your surveys for you) and one that is put together by
experts in the field. Most importantly,
look for a survey vendor who can interpret results based upon their
understanding of the real world of work.
Make sure that whoever does your surveys has a lot of hands on
experience dealing with and fixing employee problems. Performance Growth Partners Inc. (please see
our employee survey website at www.happyemployeesurvey.com ) for more information about our process. There are other providers – pick a good one
and get going today. Surveys aren't as
expensive as you might think. They are
certainly less expensive than the cost of problems caused by not knowing what
your employees are thinking.
2.
Do focus groups. Once you have your survey completed and
analyzed, you should dig in an find out specifically what concerns people have
with particular policies and practices and what you can do to fix them. The more information you have, the
better. You want to ensure that you are
fixing the right thing. Again, I would
suggest that you outsource this to ensure that you have someone with the
expertise and credibility (primarily, again, perceived confidentiality) to get
you the real information you need.
3.
Open communications. It is never convenient to do
quality employee communications. You
will always be too busy doing other things if you allow yourself to be. Quality
two way communications is one of the best ways to improve productivity,
quality, morale and to avoid unionization.
I suggest that you start scheduling time to communicate with your
employees.
4.
Fix Toxic Terrys. Many workforces have
supervisors, sometimes even co-workers, who drive people away or make life
difficult for others. These Toxic Terrys
are often great employees; often fun to be around if you are their boss, but
not so much fun to be around if you work for or with them. Your employee surveys, focus group and
employee communications will help you find out who your Toxic Terrys are. You
can also generally find evidence of them in turnover data. Once you find them, you can orient them more
properly, provide needed supervisory skills training and monitor their
behavior. Often Toxic Terrys are easily
fixed.
5.
Do Good Supervisory and Union Avoidance Training. You pay for
supervisory training one way or the other.
Ignorance doesn't promote professionalism and optimal results. Determine what training is needed and select
a provider that is both a good trainer and someone with real world experience
supervising others.
Doing
these things will help you avoid unionization, many other legal problems,
unnecessary turnover and unemployment costs and help you get better
productivity, quality, morale and customer satisfaction.
If
you want to talk about union avoidance, employee communications, employee
surveys, focus groups, supervisory training or other topics, please call or
write us today.
Rick Galbreath, SPHR, is president and founder of Performance
Growth Partners Inc., a full service organizational improvement firm
specializing in HR audits, employee surveys, corporate outplacement services,
customer service assessments, customer service training, supervisory training,
employee handbooks, teambuilding programs and team training, on-call and
project-based HR consulting services, employee retention programs, performance
improvement programs, executive coaching, manufacturing process and operations
improvement consulting, training and programs, strategic planning, employee
retention program, performance improvement programs, interim executive
placement, conference speaking, keynote addresses, business turnaround
consulting and a wide range of other services. Contact Rick toll-free at (877)
739-4747 or e-mail him at rick@performtogrow.com.
©
2009 Performance Growth Partners Inc.
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