Day Two: Your First Line Of Defense

Think employees are the only ones that need to be educated and trained on your union-free philosophy? No. Way. Providing managers with the right training is vital to keeping that message consistent.

The next element of your labor relations strategy is to prepare your supervisors and managers to answer questions and respond to employee concerns regarding unions.

I'm not talking about giving them a crash-course in labor law, but giving supervisors and managers the tools they need to effectively maintain your union-free environment.

If one of your managers heard this from an employee:

"My neighbor Joe works down the street at Competitor Co., and he's in a union making $1.20 an hour more than I do. I think there might be something to being a union member..."

Would they know how to respond?

Ignoring or "not burdening" supervisors with labor relations information is like sending a top-notch runner to compete barefoot. He may be the best athlete out there, but without the proper tools, there's no way for him to succeed.

And while it may sound good in theory, having a team swoop in the instant an employee asks a question like the one above is unrealistic for most companies, particularly in today's environment.

Supervisors need some preparation. The knowledge they need can be defined as:

1. Awareness - the abiilty to recognize potential union organizing or employee dissatisfaction
2. Action - the ability and knowledge to effectively answer basic questions and address concerns
3. Alarm - observing the warning signs of union organizing activity, and knowing when it's time to alert their superiors

A great way to kick off your supervisor training is to introduce your union-free philosophy and promote an understanding of positive employee relations that removes the apprehension managers often feel when confronted with employee questions regarding unionization. It is a far better strategy to communicate something rather than avoiding the conversation.  After all, an employee, just opened a great opportunity for you to engage!

Supervisor training has a lot of layers and understanding the bigger picture is important in raising the labor relations awareness of managers. One method of training is to provide a real-world view of what having a union could be like, a sort of “day in the life of a manager”.  Following that manager as he or she goes through the entire process: life-with and life-without a union is an eye-opener and easy for the viewer to supplant themselves in that manager’s shoes.  In this type of role-play, if you will, your Supervisors will grasp fundamentals such as the history of unions, modern organizing tactics, better understanding the employees perspective, stopping card-signing, better communication skills and educating employees right up to the vote.

TIPS? FOE? Are these acronyms familiar to you?  They're critical for managers to know.  Connecting TIPS with “what Supervisors should avoid saying” and FOE with “what Supervisors can say” empowers your managers to act.  They learn to take awareness and turn it into action.
   
Remember the employee question I posed, above? If the manager in question had TIPS and FOE training, he or she would know that the question has a “Conversational Catch Phrase,” involving an answer centered around "more-same-less" with regards to collective bargaining.  He or she would be 100% confident in his or her ability to answer the question.

So, now you've got the next step of your Labor Relations communication Strategy: Training your first line of defense, the Supervisor.

Tomorrow's step is: "something wicked came this way anyway” or how to“Survive the Ambush."