Terms of Use & Disclaimer. Amazons relentless anti-union campaign will likely play a central role in union messaging on the PRO Act now that they have gotten the countrys attention. 651-675. A union flyer was posted on one of your facility's employee bulletin board last night. We estimate our team has helped manage hundreds of union organizing attempts and/or campaigns, and our clients have obtained favorable results in more than 96% of the campaigns in which we have been involved. Using this proven process, our experienced union relations consultants meet with small groups of employees, where they can talk freely and share their opinions about the company. A second lawyer, a partner at one of the nation's leading anti-union law firms, also insisting on anonymity, said that workers' smart use of social media has undercut union avoidance efforts. 2021 Hutchison Group Inc.. All Rights Reserved. Russ Brown also runs the North American Transportation Employee Relations Association (NATERA), an organization dedicated to weakening union influence in the transportation sector, on which Rebecca Smith serves as a board member. With 30 years of experience as union avoidance consultants, we know what it takes to avert a disaster for your business. The most important point is to practice good employee relations, Davis said. November 4, 2021. following terms. . Union avoidance cannot be done haphazardly, part-time, or after other "more pressing" matters are complete. Unions have filed OECD complaints during several global organizing campaigns, including those at Nissan, T-Mobile, DHL, and Ikea. The benefits of this program include: Again, supervisors are in the best position to create and maintain a positive work environment; helping to reduce the frustrations and resentments that often lead to union activity. The company claims it can't afford to raise workers' pay but spends millions on anti-union consultants. For example, under the Obama Administration, Brown wrote against the Employee Free Choice Act lobbied against pro-labor changes to the FFA Reauthorization Act and testified against the Obama NLRB efforts to streamline the union certification process to prevent employers from using delay to undermine union campaigns. Labor rights is an issue whose time has come. Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like 1) The term labour-management relations refers to: A) the process of labour- management contract negotiations and . Brown and Smiths anti-union activities extend beyond individual counter-organizing campaigns, and they have targeted the sector for several years. The right mix. Littler attorneys have argued that, under international law, employers not only have a right, but also have an obligation to oppose unions: ILO jurisprudence requires them to speak out against unionization, otherwise workers will be denied access to information they need to make an informed choice: [I]t may be a violation of international law for employers to be limited in their right to freedom of expression and opinion . The federal PRO Act, which passed the House this month, would prohibit captive audience meetings. Brown and Smith campaigns worked on a failed attempt to decertify flight attendants at Allegiant Air in 2016, which was then the largest decertification attempt in the history of the Railway Labor Act. Like Smith and Brown, Brock has a long-time association with Oklahoma-based LRI, and he includes Teamster Avoidance in his areas of expertise. It is extremely important to stay ahead of the tide in order protect your Union-Free Privilege. . The refusal was no surpriseemployers have turned down the NCP in every U.S. OECD complaintbut Nissan invoking the ILO was surprising. 317-231-7433, F According to Motherboard, leaked polling spreadsheets from one of the most prominent union avoidance firm, IRI Consultants, show how anti-union consultants profile and essentially characterize . Whether you choose one-on-one mentoring, group training, or The Union-Free Privilege Academy, our union avoidance management consultants tailor seminars and workshops to meet the specific needs of your organization. Chaired by Jackson Lewis attorneys and headquartered in Brussels, L&E Global now has over twenty partner law firms and offers services in over 25 jurisdictions spanning six continents, including the European Union, Australia, Brazil, India, and China. union suppression approach union substitution approach reactive human resources approach union avoidance strategy union acceptance . Smith and Rock Creek have been involved in several other anti-union campaign at hospitals a specialty for several union avoidance consultants including St Joseph Regional Medical Center and Mad River Community Hospital. As an added benefit, these labor relations training efforts help to reassure the Board of Directors and Shareholders that management has been proactive in identifying and addressing areas of concern, as unionization can negatively impact stock price and company valuation. In 2019, Google hired IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, "amid a wave of unprecedented worker organizing at the company," as Vice's Motherboard put it in January 2021, while reporting on leaked files from IRI that provided a disturbing picture of how far Google may have strayed in its . For this to happen, much depends on the employees day-to-day relationship with their immediate supervisor. With the assistance of Ogletree Deakins, it resisted union campaigns in 1989, 1998, 2000, and 2001. #7. Brown has used CIE to promote decertification campaigns in the airline and other industries, as discussed below, which are campaigns in which he is not being paid directly by the company involved with the decertification effort. 404-264-4033, F Despite switching sides on union campaigns, Smith claims she wants to support and give a voice to working people. Through overseas offices or strategic alliances, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Jackson Lewis, and Fisher Phillips have expanded their reach to Latin America, Europe, and Asia. . Follow us on Facebook page to receive the latest updates. John Logan is Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University and a visiting scholar at the University of California-Berkeley Labor Center. [i] https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=740712&rptForm=LM20Form; https://theintercept.com/2021/02/10/amazon-alabama-union-busting-koch/, [ii] https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloomberglawnews/daily-labor-report/XDO8UHS0000000?bc=W1siU2VhcmNoICYgQnJvd3NlIiwiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxvb21iZXJnbGF3LmNvbS9wcm9kdWN0L2JsYXcvc2VhcmNoL3Jlc3VsdHMvYzk5NGZkYWY2Njk3ODRlZWY1ZWMwNDFmNTU4N2I1MWIiXV04b7364334cc7ae9ee73746b2a39fefa3bcbfd714&bna_news_filter=daily-labor-report&criteria_id=c994fdaf669784eef5ec041f5587b51b&search32=z06D2qAaUyOlZ5RoTngirA%3D%3DAFxBuzXRrdQ1eS8JhXb75fLUkPDQjTdd3oCq3KwQ-HHDP0xweicPLMSsdCqq59RV_jlTjPNdfq8FAgUVzbrDJ7Oc9jwyLuv_QVo0oiA1us7ZhFnB13ZPEVTUhGezjqnjtiFX8AfvZ8tlbvpuSJmU_A%3D%3D, [iii] https://files.epi.org/uploads/LM20_C525_01_28_2013_525631-copy.pdf. Her Reliant bio page states: As a consultant, Rebecca has led numerous anti-union campaigns, resulting in a winning record for the companies with whom she partnered, including but not limited to government, non-profit, and for profit organizations within airline, transportation, healthcare, hospitality, energy and retail industries. In what they called a fresh perspectives from the ILO, Littler attorneys (who have represented Delta on labor issues) wrote that the Delta decision was of tremendous significance and the first definitive statement by the ILO to confirm that the right of employers to express their opinion about labor unions trying to organize their employees under U.S. law is consistent with international law. Jackson Lewis concluded that, with the Delta decision, the ILO had effectively endorsed employers use of third-party persuaders or management consultants to communicate directly with employees about managements opposition to unionization.20 International labor organizations protested their interpretation of the Delta decision, but union avoidance law firms have continued to cite it in policy briefs, newsletters, conference presentations, blog posts, and at every other opportunity. In addition, consultants such as Brown and Smith script anti-union messages for corporate clients, such as the texts that Amazon has been sending to the phones of Bessemer workers several times per day, the anti-union billboards that Amazon has displayed around the Bessemer facility, or the anti-union flyers it has put up inside the stalls of the restrooms in Bessemer. Union Organizing Efforts and Membership are on the Rise. Other anti-union consultants claim years of experience working for organized labor, including for the Teamsters, steelworkers, laborers and AFL-CIO. As a result of the growing importance of MNCs, both in the United States and worldwide, American unions such as the Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers and others have participated in global organizing campaigns.2 Conducted with the assistance of UNI Global Union, International Transport Federation, and other global union federations, these multifaceted campaigns have stressed corporate violations of core ILO conventions and have utilized soft law instruments such as the United Nations Global Compact and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) Guidelines for Multinational Corporations. We will work to guide you in the best ways to educate your employees about the dangers and problems of unionization and address underlying issues in your workplace. It is also helpful for the entire company to nourish a sense of community and make everyone feel theyre on the same team. You might hear your bosses call this "union avoidance," but it basically just means "Union busting, in a suit." Three: Delay, delay, delay The autonomy to run your business as you desire is paramount to the success of your business. Don't wait to take back the control you've worked so hard to achieve. Prior to conducting the first session, Hutchison Group will meet with senior management to discuss the process, answer any questions, and identify areas of particular interest that should be explored during our employee relations sessions. Opera. This report was originally published in the New Labor Forum and was written byJohn Logan,Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University. With centuries of combined labor relations experience, our consultants equip you with the knowledge you need. 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