Employees at a Massachusetts-based client of NLRA recently rejected the Teamsters by a comfortable margin. The company with three decades of expertise, is an industry leader in its field. It received all but three votes in the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election. The NLRB certified the result of the election on May 4, 2021.
The company’s workers were deemed essential workers during the pandemic. The critical nature of the company’s services and work earned the designation. However, as with most companies, even essential companies, the pandemic was tough on the business.
Stewardship of Resources
The company decided early in the outbreak to protect and insulate itself as much as possible. It relied on austerity measures and a rainy day fund it had accumulated for just such an emergency. Austerity measures ran the gambit from a freeze on large capital purchases to wage and benefit freezes. Leadership determined to ride out the storm. The goal – to protect the employees, the business, and emerge as strong as ever when science finally beat the pandemic
Workers Reject Teamsters’ Demonization
During the campaign, the Teamsters repeatedly tried to leverage the pandemic-imposed austerity measures the company put into place. The vast majority of workers, two-thirds to be precise, rejected the Teamsters’ attempt to throw shade at the business. These workers proudly cast a vote of confidence in the company. Many workers had worked at the business for many, many years. They trusted the company’s leadership to bring them out of the pandemic in a big bold way. The employees, through their votes, spoke clearly their belief that they worked for a company that takes care of its people.
Campaign Postscript
The employees spoke with a loud voice. Under the direction of its NLRA Campaign Management Team led by Managing Partner Jim Allen, company leadership quickly turned the tide away from what began as a sure union victory. The business possessed a strong history and tradition of doing the right thing, even when the right thing was not convenient or when the right thing was costly.
The company has now turned it sites to improving its communication and employee relations company-wide. It now looks to its operations nationwide with a laser-focus on making itself the employer of choice in every market it has a presence. The payoff is higher morale, which leads to higher productivity, which leads to higher profits. This people-centric approach won’t necessarily prevent another union attack on this strong merit-shop, but it will make for a much easier defense of the merit-shop philosophy. Taking care of those who take care of you is the best union avoidance strategy any leadership team can invoke.
Well done! NLRA is grateful for the opportunity and trust this business placed in it and its advocate team. We look forward to assisting it across the nation as it transforms into THE employer of choice nationwide.
