How do you know if a union is trying to organize your
employees?
Speaking at BLR’s National Employment Law Update in Las Vegas (Oct. 27-29, 2010) attorney Mark Ricciardi, managing partner of the Las Vegas office of Fisher & Phillips, LLP, gave attendees a checklist for identifying the signs of an organizational
campaign:
•
Employees unusually busy and excited
•
Group stops talking or breaks up when supervisor
approaches
•
Employees request information about policies &
benefits
•
Employees’ behavior, attitudes, attendance or work
change
•
A new “spokesperson” emerges
•
Attempts to defy or irritate supervisor
•
Strangers appear outside the premises
•
Literature, buttons, shirts, cards
•
Employees who typically talk to supervisors no longer
do so
•
Increased turnover among high performers
•
Employees will no longer look you in the eyes
•
Employees questioning managerial authority
•
New employee alliances forming
•
Change in nature/frequency of employee complaints
•
Increase in argumentative questions at meetings
•
Increase in unauthorized “group” complaints
•
Employees seem increasingly divided
•
Poor performers begin to show improvement