We are only 2 weeks away from what at this point looks like a big win for Barack Obama and a substantial – perhaps filibuster-proof – Democratic majority in the Senate. Many people we’ve talked to over the last several months about the Free Choice Act have told us they are waiting until after the elections before they do anything. I have a feeling many of those will say that they are going to wait until the legislation passes before they take action after the election.
These “conservative” strategies seem logical. After all, why prepare for a change in the laws when you don’t even know what the rules are going to be? But the strategies are not logical. And they’re not conservative. They are reckless. Companies who aren’t fully engaged in developing an action plan and educating new and incumbent employees right now about union cards are going to be sorry.
Recently I read a blog post by Mickey Kaus – an Obama supporter and political commentator for Slate. He predicts that the EFCA will get passed very early in an Obama administration – well within the first 90 days. And that is only one of the major labor and employment law changes on the horizon. As an employer there will be very little time to react once the ball gets rolling. Which is why it is so important to action plan now.
How well do first level leaders recognize the early signs of card-signing? Who do they report it to? Who inside your organization is prepared to deliver your message? What exactly is your message? How will your company respond if multiple locations are hit with cardsigning at the same time? What tools will you use to educate employees? These questions are literally just the tip of the iceberg.
The companies we’ve worked with to custom-tailor their EFCA communication plans have taken months to get everything in place and communicated. There are a lot of moving parts, and typically these communications need to be looked at and approved by stakeholders inside and outside the organization. I’m not saying the process can’t be fast-tracked a little, but it will take time.
The biggest problem with the “wait and see” approach is that it assumes that there will be time to respond once the smoke clears. While it is possible that it will take a while for things to change it is far from certain. Employment legislation will be a layup compared with passing complex healthcare reform, tax policy, energy plans or dealing with Iraq. It will get a key constituency – unions – solidly behind the new Administration and Congress (remember the FMLA was passed very early in the Clinton administration). The EFCA is likely to pass quickly, possibly along with other employement law legislation.
Let’s also not forget that we are heading into a pretty deep recession and are in the middle of one of the biggest financial crises in memory. This will further increase the appeal of unions to uneducated workers. There will be much more to react to than just the EFCA. And by then it will be too late.
If you haven’t put your EFCA game plan in place at this point please start on it now. You literally have no time to lose.
Regarding preparation for EFCA, I see this as a near absolute certainty at this point. With a democratic president and democratic controlled Congress, they'll get what they want, and EFCA is one of them. Big Labor has spent in the neighborhood of $1 billion (estimates using hard & soft dollars) to get their candidates elected, and if elected – as they look like they will be – they're going to expect pay-back very quickly. Employers have played the waiting game too long and need to get their plan in place and kick it off. It's amazing to me the number of management people who continue to have little to no knowledge of this piece of legislation.
Phil Rasnick
PML Programs
http://www.pmlprograms.com