Union-Busting Glossary
Captive audience meetings
Delay tactics
Love offerings
Majority sign-up
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
One-on-one meetings
"Secret ballot" elections
Union-busting and union-busters
So-called 'captive audience' meetings are held for employees during work hours to disseminate propaganda against union representation and to attempt to discredit the union. Employees are almost always required to attend, but workers who are union organizers may be intentionally disinvited. Often, the meetings are rigged so that workers who are already against the union are assigned to ask questions to sow misinformation. ("Seven Sophisticated Unionbuster Techniques," American Rights at Work)
The only limitation on captive audience meetings is an NLRB rule prohibiting such meetings within 24 hours of the election. The board has ruled that the "mass psychology" and "unwholesome and unsettling effect" of captive-audience meetings tend to "interfere with that sober and thoughtful choice which a free election is designed to reflect." It is not clear why 24 hours is an appropriate number, or why the same concerns do not apply when management holds repeated captive audience meetings up to the 24-hour deadline with no opportunity for union advocates to have equal access to communicate with workers. ("Unfair Advantage: Workers' Freedom of Association in the U.S. under International Human Rights Standards," Human Rights Watch)
Unions have no such ability to force workers to attend meetings--and certainly have no right to equal time at a company-sponsored captive audience meeting. "In a typical campaign, most employees never even have a single conversation with a union representative." Even pro-union workers can only talk about the union on non-work time. (U.S. House Report 110-023 - Employee Free Choice Act of 2007)
Unionbusters often attempt to delay union representation elections by legal maneuvers so they have more time to implement other tactics needed to increase tension, dissension and the employer’s chance of winning the election.
In order to convince employees that they don't need a union, unionbusters may advise clients to provide indirect bribes, like unexpected increases in wages or benefits or 'feel good' measures like free food and lottery tickets. ("Seven Sophisticated Unionbuster Techniques," American Rights at Work)
Under majority sign-up, a union is formed only if a majority of all employees signs written authorization forms. Employees vote to have the union represent them by signing the forms. Any employee who does not sign a written authorization form is presumed not to support union representation.
Many responsible major companies, such as Cingular Wireless, have agreed to recognize a union when a majority of employees signs up. They have found majority sign-up to be a free and fair way to assess workers’ choice—and it results in less conflict between employers and employees.
Federal agency that can to hold union elections, to certify unions to represent employees, and interpret and apply labor law prohibiting certain employer and union unfair practices.
Management can also force employees to attend one-on-one supervisory meetings against the union, under threat of discipline if they do not attend.
During organizing drives, 78% of workers are forced to attend closed-door or isolated meetings with supervisors. These aren't friendly impromptu chats, but well-planned meetings to decipher employees' feelings about the union and persuade them against the union. (American Rights at Work, citing Kate Bronfenbrenner, "Uneasy Terrain: The Impact of Capital Mobility on Workers, Wages and Union Organizing," U.S. Trade Deficit Review Commission, 2000.)
"Secret ballot." Sounds fair, right? But in reality, so-called secret ballot elections don't allow employees a free and fair opportunity to make their own decisions about unions.
By the time employees get to vote, the environment has been so poisoned that free and fair choice isn't an option. People call the current National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election system a secret ballot election—but in fact it's not like any democratic election held anywhere else in our society. It's really a management-controlled election process because corporations have all the power. They control the information workers can receive and routinely poison the process by intimidating, harassing, coercing and even firing people who try to organize unions. No employee has free choice after being browbeaten by a supervisor to oppose the union or being told they may lose their job and livelihood if workers vote for the union.
Union-busting describes a planned course of action to stop workers from organizing a union or to destroy a union already in the workplace. Union-busters are professional consultants or lawyers who advertise their ability to manipulate labor law and specialize in advising employers on how to thwart union organizing drives or how to decertify unions. Unionbusters usually call themselves ‘union avoidance firms,’ ‘management consultants,’ or ‘labor consultants.’ Learn more: "Unionbusters 101."
