Mission Statement: Staying Union Free

We believe that positive employee relations can best be measured as being "union free." " Union free" is a state that is attained by effective leadership through programs and actions that both recognize and nurture the dignity of the individual. Leadership earns this workplace climate by:

• Treating employees with respect and consistency,
• Encouraging employee participation in decisions that impact their work lives,
• Providing caring, thoughtful management that appropriately advocates for the individual and recognizes employees' needs for an appropriate work/family balance.
• Communicating openly and honestly with employees
• Resolving workplace concerns and issues in a timely and equitable manner,
• Compensating employees according to the marketplace.
• Evaluating, recognizing and rewarding individual performance.

One of the challenges we have faced within organizations is that front line supervisors or leaders either don't know or can't articulate the value to the organization and therefore employees, of staying union free.

Staying "union free" is of great impact to successful organizations and their human resources efforts, but understanding "why" is the issue. The following is a list of what supervisors have said is at risk if an employer loses its union free advantage:

1. Loss of flexibility to respond quickly to an increasingly changing world.
2. Recruitment - Inability to attract some of the best talent who refuse to work in a union environment.
3. Changes the relationship between the supervision and employees.
4. Communication becomes slanted and generally controlled by the union officer and stewards.
5. Introduces the possibility of interruption of service or production due to work stoppage.
6. Protects poorest performers because of the grievance system and shop stewards; roles the union protects the poor performers and most negative employees.
7. Many times after a union gets in, a significant number of the best workers are either forced or choose to leave.
8. Unions are typically resistant to operational changes.

-top of page-