Day Three: Rules of the Election Campaign

Today, the petition-to-election timeframe is about 24 days.  This means that in about 3 weeks, your company can go from operating union-free to having to sit down and bargain with a third party about everything that affects working conditions.

> Here's that BONUS video I promised you: a refresher on what the "Ambush Election" rules mean - in under 10 minutes.

For the sake of your Labor Relations Communication Strategy, we are going to look at winning an organizing campaign by educating the employees.  Why?  Because, the company's fate truly rests in the hands of those in the voting unit. 

During a campaign, you'll find that the employees are divided into three groups. 

Group One – Company Supporters is hopefully a bunch of employees that are for the company but at least 50% and more likely over 75% of them did sign a union authorization card that led to a petition for an election.  I’ll let you take a moment to let that fact sink in…

Group Two are the union supporters who are unlikely to change their minds. Ever.  The reality of this group is that it is usually smaller than Group One.  How is that?  Card-Signing is never what it seems, for the union it is a way in and for many employees it is a way out.  Ironically, the out is not in a bad way as many employees sign cards under duress and sign to simply get the union off their backs.  And still others, just simply do not know or understand the value of their signature and what signing a card meant in the first place.

Water under the bridge.  Why?  Because it’s done, an election date has been set.  What’s that?  Group Three? 

Yes, Group Three is what’s known as “fence sitters,"  those employees who are not sure of the “union thing” and not a “big fan” of the company either. This is your target audience. Hoping that the percentages already work in your favor, Group One, the Company Supporters is your largest or at least equal to Group Two, Union  Supporters.  You already have the YES votes of Group One and Group Two is a lost cause.  All focus must be on the fence sitters in group three to guide them into supporting the company's union-free philosophy.

The winner of the election is 50% plus one.  Remember this equation “50% plus 1”.  It is CRITICAL that EVERYONE vote in the election.  Not voting is like voting “for” the union.  If you have 100 employees in the voting unit and only 80 vote and apply the “50% plus 1” rule to win, then only “40 plus 1” or 41 votes for the Union will win the election.  You just lost with 59 votes sitting out there.  You had 39 “for” the company but the other 20 chose not to “get involved” and now 41 have decided the fate of 100.  Read it again, slowly.

So here we go, how do we get the fence sitters on board and at the same time get EVERYONE to vote? By educating and engaging the audience on powerful topics that have a very high success rate in what is called “captive audience meetings”.

First, before you do anything else, it's vital to educate employees on their rights under the National Labor Relations Act. Why? Because they need to know they have a right to organize - but they also need to know they have a right to actively object to unionization!

Next, using your Election Calendar, work backward from the Election Date and schedule 5 captive audience meetings in 30 minutes or less for all employees and shifts as needed.  Take extra time or needs for ADA requirements/closed-captioning or secondary languages such as Spanish. 

5 minutes:  Have the Supervisor or Executive team leader introduce the topic
15 mintues: Discuss or show the topic (video, powerpoint, sock puppets)
10 minutes: Always allow for employee Question and Answers. Go overtime if you can as getting any conversation about these topics is excellent.

What are the topics?

Organizing
Expose the tactics paid union organizers use to gain support from employees and how those tactics of half-truths can harm employees and their future.

Collective Bargaining
Educate employees on the process of contract negotiations.  Bargaining means they could get more, they could get the same as what they have now or they could get less.  Understanding these choices provides them with the education they need to make an informed decision about unionization.

Job Security
Simply put job security cannot be guaranteed by anyone, including the Union (no matter what the Union tells them).

Strikes
Seeing and hearing the realities and risk of a Union strike will educate and impress upon employees that the best way to avoid a strike is to avoid a Union.

And the day before, 24 hours before the election show:

Union-Specific Video and/or live speech by a prominent member of the management team (commonly referred to as the 25th Hour video/speech).  This is the last critical message the employees will see before voting.  There is no better way to expose the truth behind a union, share everything you share on the Union with the employees with this last critical message.  Cover membership to bargaining, elements of the union constitution, even strikes and finances, provide employees with enough information to make the right choice and hopefully they will VOTE NO.

I forgot to tell you about Group Four.  Perhaps the most important audience there is that can assist you in convincing your employees to make the right choice.  The families and spouses of the employees. Once this group gets the inside scoop on what is going on and how it will effect the entire family, you will see the tide start to turn. How can you reach Group Four, the Family?

Thanks to the internet, a website is the quickest and most efficient way to reach an audience that is spread out geographically. There are Union-Specific 25th Hour style websites for practically every Union, in English and Spanish.  These website can be placed online anytime during the campaign right up to the election.  Now, it is easy and economical to reach inside the homes, right to the families and spouses (the true decision-makers as we all know).   All you have to do is let them know the URL - web address.  This could be sent via a letter mailed to the homes, printed on paychecks, posted on bulletin boards, printed in newsletter, special business-size cards, use any and all communication methods available to you to get the word out.