How Can ASE Assist Your Organization to Become The Toughest Union Target It Can Be?

ASE has many important union avoidance resources to assist its members to
remain union free:

Employee Opinion Survey Tool:
Our Employee Opinion Survey provides members with comprehensive and
accurate data on employee beliefs and perceptions, to quickly identify weak
areas in an organization’s employee relations. This information covers these
subjects and more:

• Credibility of Supervisors and Managers
• Competitive Pay and Benefits
• Communications
• Effective Leadership
• And more.

Knowing how your employees look at the organization is critical to fighting off a
union organizing attempt. Make sure to keep your finger on the pulse of your
employees’ perspective and respond quickly to anything that affects that pulse.
Rumors and perceptions, even false ones, must be taken seriously. Remember,
under EFCA, you may not even know a Union campaign is taking place!

Wage and Benefit Data:
Our compensation studies keep its non-union members abreast of the labor
market. When employees are confident they are being paid fairly and that their
benefits are competitive, this removes a very valuable tool from the union
organizer’s tool kit.

ASE can provide information on the following:

• Skilled, semi-skilled and production job wage data
• Extensive information on the entire range of benefit programs
• Union and union-free data cuts from surveys (upon request)
• Other pay practice information, such as shift premiums and merit pay projections

Supervisory Training:
Your first line of defense is always your corps of Supervisors and Managers.  What will they say and do when confronted with a union organizing drive? Will they effectively respond and represent management, or will their responses cause the organization more grief? Make sure they are ready to effectively answer the tough questions from employees as well as avoid committing a costly unfair labor practice.

Developing Supervisory and Management Staff through education and training ensures managers understand and apply positive employer employee relation’s principles that make unions unnecessary.

ASE can Train your supervisors and managers on their role during a union organizing drive.  Our “Maintaining a Union-Free Workplace” training program, and other training programs, can give your supervisors the knowledge and the skills they need to deploy under those circumstances. Ensure they understand the rules for organizing and know what “TIPS” means.

Since an organizing campaign may be invisible under the EFCA, it is important to provide ongoing education on how to manage employees through effective communications techniques, coaching and counseling approaches, conflict resolution, and the importance of treating employees with dignity and respect.

Policy Development:
Make sure the organization’s employee handbook is up to date, and that it effectively communicates policies, pay practices and benefits to employees.

As stated above, the handbook contains various policies that address the organization’s position regarding unions. Make sure the policies are up to date and do not lead to unfair labor practice charges, or that they unduly restrain management from doing what it has a legal right to do.

ASE can do the following:

• Review the existing handbook document to ensure it is up to date, legally compliant, and clearly states the organization’s employee relations philosophy.
• Ensure that pertinent union avoidance policies are in place and the handbook content contains any necessary policies to that effect. 
• Develop an employee handbook that contains all necessary policy statements that support a culture of positive employer-employee relations.