Understanding issues can thwart union efforts - management technique

Healthcare Financial Management, August, 1991 by Edward A. Kazemek, Don R. Marshall

The need to develop a management style and work environment where employees feel they do not need a union to represent them was discussed in July's installment of "Management Issues." This month's column looks at what an organization's managers should do if employees show a serious interest in joining a union.

In April, the Supreme Court upheld the National Labor Relations Board's (NLRB's) authority to define bargaining units for the healthcare industry. By establishing eight distinct collective bargaining units, the NLRB's action could bring a significant increase in union organizing efforts and elections at many hospitals.

Chain of events. If an organization's employees lose confidence in management and call in a union representative to help, or if employees are approached by a union representative, the following chain of events could occur:

* The union authorizes card signing;

* The union petitions the NLRB for a representation election;

* The NLRB schedules an election;

* The union and the organization's management campaign to win the election;

* The election is held; and

* If management loses, negotiations occur.

During the initial stages of employees' interest in a union, managers must get several general messages across to employees. First is that employees do not need a union to represent their interests. How successful managers are with this message depends to some extent on how employee relations have been handled up to this point.

Second, employees need to know exactly what they are signing when they put their names on authorization cards. They are, in most cases, giving up their right to deal with managers independently.

Third, employees must be reminded that, by law, unions can promise everything while management cannot promise anything. Because management simply could promise to alter wages, hours, or working conditions to defeat an organizing attempt, that right has been taken away from management as soon as union interest surfaces.

Communications. The card-signing stage is a key part of a union organizing effort. Although unions need signed cards from only 30 percent of a bargaining unit to warrant an NLRB election, they often wait until they win support of 50 percent or more of the employees and then demand automatic union recognition without an election. If managers do not respond correctly, automatic recognition could be granted by the NLRB. If employee relations are not firmly established as open and cooperative, a union may win 50 percent without much trouble. Employees tend to sign cards much more readily than they vote for a union in an election. As a result, it is to an organization's advantage to have an election no matter how many cards were signed.

Union organizers sometimes call on management to shortcut an election. If a union organizer makes such a call, a manager should not spend time on the matter. The manager should ask that the organizer put in writing what he or she has to say. If presented with a stack of signed authorization cards, managers should not handle or look at them to avoid later accusations that management singled out card signers.

Managers should express their doubts about union claims of a majority and insist that the organization's legal counsel be involved. Managers also should stand firm for an election. They are entitled to one regardless of the number of signed authorization cards. Management also should request an NLRB hearing to confirm that the barbaining units are appropriate and to determine the validity of authorization cards.

Campaign issues. If an election is scheduled, management will need to develop its campaign around certain key issue. Management generally sees issues in more philosophical, policy-oriented items often related to economics. Unions, however, generally focus on day-to-day practices of implementing policies and supervisors' handling of individual employees' issues.

Managers who blame polices for employee relations problems often make a fatal error. A union will seize upon how policies are implemented. Unions run interference for employees. What management often ignores is what unions "sell."

Finally, managers should remember that the National Labor Relations Act and the NLRB exist to promote unions and to encourage collective bargaining. Managers should not expect any help from them.

Educard A. Kazemek is chairman and chief executive officer of ACCORD Limited, a healthcare management consulting firm in Chicago, Ill. Don R. Marshall is a principal of ACCORD Limited and specializes in human resource matters, including labor relations. Readers' comments and questions are encouraged and, whenever possible, will be addressed in future articles. Address to Edward Kazemek, ACCORD Limited, 919 N. Michigan Ave., Suite 1200, Chicago, IL 60611.