The unions are not blind to the business principles of cost-effectiveness. For years they have focused on larger businesses, businesses with multiple locations, and most recently, businesses with jobs that cannot be outsourced (such as the service industry targets of SEIU, and the recent rash of attacks against casinos). Because of the effort it takes to secure approximately 50% of employees support prior to the secret ballot election required to secure union representation, it made sense to focus on large, employee-dense targets. However, this all changes under the misnamed Employee Free Choice Act. Those of you who stay abreast of current business books and trends should be familiar with the concept of The Long Tail proposed by author Chris Anderson. The idea is that with current search and online organizational tools, customers can demand more niche products and find them, and it thus becomes cost effective for suppliers to produce those products. This is the “long tail” of smaller quantity but greater variety. Retired patent attorney Vincent Gioia presents a well-reasoned description of the Long Tail threat to small business – I would advise any of you who are small business owners to read the entire post. Here’s a quote: “As bad as the Employee Free Choice Act is for large employers, it may be fatal for small businesses. Under current law, organizing small employers is not very cost effective – small employers are rarely worth the effort and expense given the number of new members the union will get. However under the EFCA only a few organizers will be needed so many employers who were previously ignored by unions will now be directly targeted.” Under EFCA, small businesses better practice their “deer in the headlights” stare! Large businesses have the manpower and resources to counter union attacks, and even then they are successful only about half the time. A full-blown campaign designed to defeat an organizing attempt can run into the tens of thousands (and in come cases – hundreds of thousands) of dollars. How many small businesses have such resources? “The Employee Free Choice Act will have devastating affects on our economy as small employers are driven out of business leaving employees with the only free choice they have; finding a new job if they can.” There are two things that small business owners can do. One is to communicate to their staff and employees the importance of this election to the potential survival of their business. The other is to become a “hard target” to union organizing attempts. Learn more about the EFCA, and what you can do about it. NOW!
