How To Lose A Union Free Election: Part 2 – Sending the Arsonist to Put Out the Fire

by | Apr 12, 2010 | Union Avoidance

Union free elections are tough to win. Management wins less than 7 out of 10 elections these days. One reason they lose is because of who they choose to deliver the company message. “Never send the arsonist to put out the fire.” That’s one of my Dad’s favorite lines, and it is great advice in a union free election campaign. In almost every case local managers are the reason the union is there in the first place. Yet many clients rely on them to deliver the company message. This is a great way to lose an election. Don’t confuse my advice. There is nothing wrong with asking managers to say they regret the union campaign happened, or that they are want to work directly with employees. This is an important part of any winning union free election. The problem is relying on this group to deliver the entire campaign message. Employees don’t wake up one day and decide that they want a union. Something bad happens before they make that step. Local management is the number one cause, whether by something they did or something they failed to do. It is unlikely that this group, by themselves, will suddenly win the hearts and minds their employees. They are just not credible at this point. The other problem is that local managers usually know very little about unions. Thus they rely on speeches or talking points written by attorneys or consultants. This results in the “white hat, black hat” problem. In political campaigns candidates are told not to talk down their opponent. Instead they are coached to talk about their positive vision for the future. The same is true in union campaigns. Local managers should focus on talking about their positive vision of the future and win back the trust of their employees. Subjects like bargaining and how unions work should be left to a subject matter expert. Our firm has won over 10,000 union elections so we know what works. There are two key ways to overcome the “arsonist” problem: use video and an outside consultant. Our firm introduced the use of videos in union elections over 20 years ago. Even today our videos are used to win hundreds of elections each year. I will admit, however, that even video is not as effective today as it was 20 years ago. Today video is best used to add to your communication tool kit. A complete winning strategy uses on-site labor experts who talk directly to employees. These can be folks from inside your company or consultants. Our “direct persuader” consultants are not only experts, but many of them are former union organizers themselves. They add a lot of credibility to the company’s message. If you don’t rely on both tools to win your campaign you are not running a “full court press” against the union. When you look at the win rates for companies who do not use our strategy, they win less than 25 percent of the time. We win about 8 out of 10 elections with these tools. You should not send company managers in to talk about these issues. Some might say this doesn’t make sense. On the one hand we tell workers they don’t need a third party to represent them. On the other you use an outside person to talk about unions. There’s two reasons this argument always fails. First, our expert does not seek to represent employees. He or she is just an expert on unions, a topic that most people don’t know much about. Second, employees quickly learn that the consultant is a credible source to help them make a good decision about the union. They see that this is very different than the union, who seeks to represent them and speak for them. The bottom line: don’t send the arsonist to put out the fire if you hope to win your union free election.

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