OPINION: The new face of union busting

Employers have new ways to keep workers compliant, non-union

By LEE FANG

John Merrell, speaking in a southern drawl, apologized for presenting over Zoom in such casual attire. The lack of a jacket and tie, he said, was intentional. He was on-site with a client.

“I figured this group would appreciate – as much as any that you know – that when you’ve got a lawyer in your facility, you usually don’t want them to come in looking all lawyered up,” said Merrell, a management Labor attorney for a South Carolina-based law firm that specializes in closely advising businesses on how to counter union organizing drives. “I’m trying to be somewhat incognito.”

The group had gathered to speak candidly about creative new ways in which employers can subtly counter union organizing. There’s a “huge uptick in activity,” Merrell began, not just at name brand companies like Starbucks, but union drives “even in the Carolinas where I am based, we’re seeing a lot of an uptick of activity in some kind of unexpected places, unexpected industries, not the industries that you typically think of as being your unionized industries.”

NEW APPROACH
In the “heyday” for union organizing, “we just thought of them as seeking better wages and working conditions for their workers,” he said.

Now, workers were agitating for respect and in opposition to “harassment, bigotry, discrimination and retaliation,” said Merrell, quoting a mission statement from the Alphabet Workers Union, which secured bargaining rights for a small group of Google Fiber workers in Kansas City in March.

Corporations, advised Merrell, should be ready to pivot and respond quickly to these “social justice-driven” campaigns.

CHANGING FACE OF UNION BUSTING
Merrell’s presentation was just one in a two-day April conference that showcased the changing face of union-busting.

Over a dozen other presenters who work in “union avoidance” gave talks during the virtual conference, sponsored by a group called CUE, on the latest trends in organizing, strike-breaking, and how to get ahead of changes in the law and political environment that could provide an edge to the Labor Movement.

In the new environment, businesses facing worker uprisings are attempting to co-opt the language of social justice movements and embrace trends around self-growth and positive lifestyles to counter demands for unionization – a far cry from the old days of union prevention, a history that featured employers routinely threatening workers with private guards and violent clashes on the picket lines.

BEYOND WAGES
Leny Riebli, vice president of human resources at Ross Stores, noted that given “what’s happening at Amazon and Starbucks,” her company had retooled its training to remain union-free.

“We really had to redouble our efforts,” Riebli said. The company, she said, closely monitors employee concerns that might spill over into support for unionization, so managers have been trained not only to spot potential “card check” organizing, but also to listen for issues around safety, scheduling and respect in the workplace.

“This relates to our diversity, equality and inclusion efforts,” explained Riebli, noting that the company sought managers who can be approachable to an array of worker issues.

NEW ‘TITLES’ FOR UNION BUSTERS
Virtually none of the presenters identified explicitly as anti-union agents. Many described themselves or had professional biographies emphasizing their role as DEI experts, developers of “human capital,” and champions of workplace “belonging.” The industry has undergone something of a rebranding, with many labor relations executives now identifying as “people experts” and diversity executives.

Even the host of the conference was camouflaged.

The conference was organized by a group called CUE, which bills itself publicly as simply, “a community for positive employee relations.” But that sunny image belies its true agenda. Founded in 1977 by the National Association of Manufacturers, as part of a sweeping crusade against Organized Labor, CUE is formally known as the Council for a Union-Free Environment. The organization provides research and training for union suppression tactics, an estimated $340 million annual cottage industry of lawyers and consultants who specialize in assisting corporations with mitigating the threat of Organized Labor.

So-called union avoidance consultants, also known as persuaders, work in a specialty profession that has been honed in recent decades. They are hired by corporations to train managers to spot union sympathies or to lead “captive audience” lectures – where attendance is mandatory – to pressure workers against voting for a union.

FIND THE UNION SUPPORTERS
These seminars can involve threats of retaliation, warnings that a union will force the company to close down and claims that union dues will negate any benefits of a union contract.

But the most important aspect of these meetings, experts say, can be collecting information to identify union supporters within a workplace so that they may be sidelined or fired before they gain influence with their co-workers.

Major corporations are at once under pressure to appear sensitive to employees from marginalized groups and eager to blunt unionization efforts that would hurt their bottom lines. Thanks to consultants like Greer and others, these companies can sometimes kill two birds with one stone by wrapping anti-union talking points into a patina of racial sensitivity and commitment to diversity. Greer’s company advertises “labor relations” alongside “diversity training.”

Greer and his team are paid as much as $2,000 a day to pressure workers not to join a labor union.

‘WORK FOR MONEY, DIE FOR RESPECT’
Employees, said Greer, fundamentally want respect and dignity on the job.

Listening to worker demands, he explained, can prevent workers from drifting toward a third party, such as a labor union. In some cases, that means providing seminars on leadership and understanding, or creating employee resource groups that provide special recognition to marginalized communities.

“People will work for money, but they will die for respect and die for recognition,” Greer said. “If your employees are talking about wanting diversity and inclusion practices, don’t shut your eyes and, you know, shut your ears to that.”

(Excerpts from Lee Fang’s article in The Intercept. Fang is the publication’s investigative journalist.)