ith card-check legislation on the horizon, employers need to open up communication
with their workers now more than ever, says Bill Adams, CEO of labor management
consultancy Adams Nash Haskell & Sheridan in Fort Wright, Kentucky.
Letting problems and grievances fester, he says, is a good
way to drive workers to unionize.
"The bottom line is, if the issues are common and fixable
and they’re not addressed, they’ll soon be sitting down with a union. It’s that
simple," Adams says.
Some employers assume they’ll never have to deal with a union.
Others panic at the first sign that workers are organizing. Both reactions can lead
to painful and costly mistakes, Adams says.
Ignoring the possibility
Many business owners adopt an "ostrich" mentality and assume their workers will
not seek union representation, says Stephen Cabot, chairman of the Cabot Institute
for Labor Relations Inc. in Pennsylvania.
"They think, ‘It won’t happen. I’m a good employer. Everybody
loves me.’ But waiting is a death knell," Cabot says. "If you don’t step back and
find out how your employees feel and get addressing those concerns now, you’re dead
in the water."
Employees are particularly tuned in to issues of fairness,
especially regarding pay, and discrepancies over time do not go unnoticed, he warns.
Wise employers seek feedback and try to resolve problems.
Tolerating lax, inept or corrupt behavior from supervisors
or managers
Employers that overlook bad seeds among management ranks leave themselves vulnerable.
Accepting or ignoring malevolent behavior from supervisors kills morale and breeds
resentment, Adams says.
"If you have allowed a supervisor to behave in that way, you
must fire him or get him out of there," he says.
Look for clues in body language.
"Pay attention to your employees. Do they look you in the
eye, or are their eyes downcast? You can tell when something’s wrong," he advises.
"Get to the root of the issue."
Assuming executives can freely discuss union matters
with employees
There are rules about what employers can and cannot say to employees, especially
to those who are attempting to organize or are in the process of reaching their
first collectively bargained contract. In particular, asking questions about a worker’s
interest in union representation is off limits.
Become familiar with acceptable discourse.
"A useful general rule is that an employer can be a dispenser
of information, but not a collector," according to the nonprofit National Federation
of Independent Business, which has published a guide for small-business owners facing
organizing efforts on its Web site:
www.nfib.com.
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