Businesses Shutdown – Union Organizers Did Not
The third week in March the roaring American economy screeched to a halt. A novel coronavirus was sweeping around the glove despite early efforts to prevent its arrival in the U.S. This virus was completely unknown to scientists and it was wreaking havoc and death upon China and Europe. In a drastic move to prevent the same here, the President, at the behest of CDC and NIH experts, Dr. Anthony Fauci and Deborah Brix, slammed the brakes, cut the engine, and deployed the emergency parachute on the economy. At this writing, the number of displaced workers stands at thirty-six million.
Union organizers didn’t get the message. Instead of standing down and allowing those who were essential workers in public health, safety, food distribution, and others to focus on engaging in their crucial functions, the organizers went on the offensive. Notwithstanding a temporary cessation in election case processing from the NLRB, Big Labor would not be dissuaded. Unions filed hundreds of representation petitions and countless essential businesses have reported active card-signing campaigns during the crisis.
Union Organizing – Essential?
Religious worship has been restrained and curtailed during the crisis as public health mandates for social distancing were implemented. Freedom of religion is a main pillar and component of the Bill of Rights. Interstate travel, another constitutionally protected right has also been curtailed during this pandemic. The freedom to peaceably assemble, the right to engage in interstate commerce, the list goes on of the liberties that courts have allowed to be restricted in the interest of fighting this pandemic. All these curtailments of fundamental rights are temporary, hence the acceptance of the infringement by the courts and the public.
But what about union organizing? In true fashion, unions do not believe the rules apply to them. One prominent pro-union advocacy group dedicated massive resources to take advantage of the pandemic. The President and every state governor ordered the shuttering of all non-essential businesses that were not “life-sustaining” businesses. Under what bizarre theory is union organizing life-sustaining?
What Can a Business Do?
Shuttered non-essential businesses had no access to employees. They were unable to address these union organizing efforts during this pandemic. Even more disadvantaged have been the essential businesses under union attack during the crisis. Because their functions are so vital to the public health and safety of the nation, those businesses have rightly focused on the tasks at hand. Ensuring the safety of their workforce, the coordination of the supply and demand pressures, and maintaining business viability consumed all the available attention and resources. Therefore, the unions had carte blanch to distract workers from their functions, stir up strife, and jeopardize the important mission of these heroic essential workers.
Focus on Reopening
Businesses must carefully plan and focus on the reopening process. Special attention must be paid to worker concerns and needs to maintain the trusting relationships between the company and its workforce. It is understandable that business leaders are consumed with the effects this crisis has had on the business. But it is incumbent upon those leaders to recognize and show sincere empathy for the detrimental effects of the shutdown on individual workers. This was terribly painful for most of them.
Gather a Union Organizing Response Team
It is unwise for a business to handle union organizing as a do-it-yourself project in the best of times. Certainly, it is obvious that during the reopening of the entire economy that a business cannot effectively focus on that vital task and fight a union organizing campaign. Assemble a team even if no evidence currently exists of an organizing drive. This restarting of the economy demands an “all hands-on deck” approach. If a union organizing drive pops up, you must quickly act to snuff it out, and that will only be possible if the team is already teed up.
The Team Composition
Experienced Labor Attorney
You need an experienced labor attorney. After a Covid-19-forced delay in implementation, the NLRB election rules are changing on May 31, 2020, and the changes benefit employers. The Board restored important employer rights. Employers may once again challenge which employees vote, election date, manner of voting, and more. Therefore, you will need an experienced litigator to take that fight to the union on your behalf. If you don’t have a labor attorney, contact us for a referral in your area. NLRA has worked with hundreds of attorneys across the country and we would be happy to point you in the right direction.
Experienced Labor Relations Consultant
You need an experienced labor relations consultant. Labor relations consultants are experts at fighting card-signing and election campaigns for employers. Your consultant will conduct a thorough audit of your workforce, identify vulnerabilities, and develop a plan to address the issues. If you find yourself in a campaign, an experienced labor relations consultant works closely with your attorney. Coordination of the fight in the trenches and the legal fight places the company in the best possible position to win. Finally, the consultant will conduct training with supervisors on the rules of conduct and the best practices for these battles.
Designated Company Liaison
It is crucial that someone within your organization has the responsibility of leading this effort. Your attorney will fight tooth and nail at the NLRB. You labor relations consultant will take the fight to the employees on the front lines. They will be directing the supervisory team on what, where, and how of the front-line fight. Someone must be the general of the entire process, and this general must be a company leader. It must be someone who can communicate to all parties the company’s position, needs, and desired courses of action.
Temporary versus Long-Term Pain
Temporary Pain
Covid-19’s impact on the population in terms of loss of life will be the subject of debate for years to come. Did governments do enough to protect their citizens? Was the reporting accurate? Did we act fast enough? Did we do enough? But one thing that no one is debating or questioning throughout – the temporary nature of this threat. Medical science will get ahead of this, and all of us carry that confidence forward. Covid-19 remains a threat at various levels for all businesses as of this writing, but soon the portions of this article dealing with Covid-19 will lose relevance and become a historical footnote.
There exists little doubt when historians put pen to paper about the Spring of 2020 it will declare the economic impact to individuals and businesses a catastrophe. Certainly, there will be several businesses that simply will not recover from this forced shutdown. But no business simply wants to survive. Businesses by their nature seek to thrive, and that should be the goal of every leader.
Long-Term Pain
A union is forever – at least according to their message. I can assure you that they are not. However, once you have one entrenched, the process of freeing yourself from their damaging effects is arduous, long, and requires an expenditure of energy, human capital, and money that will exact a toll on the business. The answer to the implied question of the subheading – long-term pain is much worse. Having a union get a grip on your workforce is long-term pain.
I know that Covid-19 is the loudest squeakiest wheel and will get most of your attention – rightfully so. But, if you have a union organizing threat or a pending election, you must address it with at least equal attention to Covid-19 or the disease you will be fighting will not be fixed by a 14-dat quarantine, but will be chronic, oppressive, and potentially fatal.
NLRA has a multitude of resources and is always available for a free consultation to assist. Ben Franklin’s words ring true, especially in this context – ” An Ounce of Prevention Is Worth A Pound of Cure.”
