Here’s another story from the Niagara area which caught my attention. Here’s another union organizing story which is costing everyone time, money and some negative PR for the employer.

The end of the story could be that the employees voted 35 to 1 against joining the union. Pretty decisive. However, like the TV ads say “but wait, there’s more!”.

Just before the vote the main organizer was fired:

A few days into the union drive, Barnim, who had been working at the hotel for five years with a strong employment record, was fired, according to labour board filings.

Unite Here contends Barnim was “blatantly” let go because of her leading role in attempts to unionize workers.

John Nitsopolous, the hotel’s general manager, alleges Barnim was caught going though personal pay stubs discarded in a wastebasket in his office, which led to her termination.

Now, it may very well be that the employee was fired for a valid reason. However during an organizing campaign this is an invitation to pay much money to lawyers all around to argue the validity of the firing. The union is wisely trying to get a second chance:

The union claims hotel management used intimidation and fear tactics to dissuade employees from unionizing.

…

The union will be seeking automatic certification — or the right to represent workers without a vote — at the Holiday Inn, Dagg said.

My point is not whether the union or management is wrong or right or whether the vote speaks for the employees or the union should be automatically certified. My point is that this is now a mess for the employer with billboards and a website giving them bad PR. Could this have been avoided? Perhaps.

Addressing a union organizing campaign before there even is one is the best way to avoid a union. Treating employees fairly and equally makes for satisfied employees and futile union organizing campaigns.

This article from the US side of the border is a pretty straight forward look at a union organizing campaign going on at Fallsview Casino in Niagara Falls, Ontario.

Lets look at some of the comments:

“Unions are looking for new revenue streams. Our workforce must look very attractive to them,” Medulun said. “Unions are like any other business. Business has to turn a profit. Profits are generated through the collection of union dues.”

Sure, that’s true but union’s don’t say to employees “pay me so I can make a profit”.

Casino management would prefer to deal with its employees directly than to negotiate through a union said Niagara Casinos spokesman Greg Medulun.

No doubt that’s true. Could it be that the union orgazing drive has come about specifically BECAUSE the management has been dealing “directly”?

Now, here’s the BEST line ever:

“Generally speaking, it’s something we’ve been anticipating for some time,” Medulun said.

What can I say?

• Company has employees
• company deals directly with employees
• employees feel they need union representation
• company wants to remain union free
• union has enough signed cards to have a vote

So, instead of addressing the situation and making the union irrelevant to the employees, the company just sat there and watched it all happening. They’ll get the union they deserve.

I help employers to assess their companies relationship with their employees. The time to build a solid, union free relationship is BEFORE the organizing campaign starts. I’ll bet that no union would disagree with this.

From BC comes this article about a first contract between the UFCW and a local Shoppers Drug Mart store. The first line is very telling:

UNIONIZED WORKERS at the Lakelse Ave. Shoppers Drug Mart have overwhelmingly accepted a first contract their negotiators recommended they reject. 

It seems that after 10 months of labour negotiations the union was able to achieve “Wage parity with union members at other Shoppers Drug Mart stores represented by UFCW Local 1518″. Wow…

Two points come to mind:

1. What the heck took the union 10 months to negotiate something the company was likely to offer at the outset of collective bargaining?

2. Could the company have avoided a union by proactively offering conditions similar to its other unionized stores. There is no greater way to avoid a union in your business than to make a union irrelevant to your employees.

“Labor Relations” in the US is often a different animal than “Labour Relations” here in Canada or, more specifically, Ontario. However, there are some items that transcend borders and make one ask “huh?”.

Take for example the pending certification of the Smithfield Packing Company plant in North Carolina. This little snippet nicely sums up the situation for me:

The two sides had spent 16 years, ever since the plant opened in 1992, wrangling over whether and how plant workers would decide on whether they wanted a union.

Through 16 years and 2 failed certification attempts the union finally prevailed in organizing employees. I can only assume that the executives at Smithfield failed to get the message that their employees had issues. It has oft been said that “you get the union you deserve” and I think it applies here. When faced with a union organizing drive, its far more productive to have your labour relations consultant work to analyze WHY your employees want to organize than to aggrivate the situation.

After 16 years and likely large legal bills, Smithfield no doubt found this out the hard way.

Recently the Ontario Court of Appeal gave agricultural workers in Ontario the right to unionize. I won’t argue  whether this is a good or bad thing, but this will put both large agribusinesses and small family farms in the sights of union organizers.

Interestingly, the Elmira Independant came down on the side of unionization.

While this decision may cause farmers concern, it is long overdue.

This is particularly true for migrant farm workers, who come to Canada each year for seasonal labour — doing the jobs that Canadians do not want to do.

When they come to Canada on a temporary visa, they are restricted to working on the farm indicated on their documents — which means that any migrant worker who is facing harsh, unreasonable working conditions is essentially stuck in the job until they return home.

While many migrant workers are treated fairly and equitably by their employers, there are many who are not.

Witness the case that led to this historic decision.

Xin Yuan Liu, one of three former mushroom plant workers who joined forces with the United Food and Commercial Workers Union to challenge the law, found working conditions at his plant so harsh that he sought to form a union — at which point his working life was made a “misery,” according to published reports.

Note to farmers: union avoidance is easy! Treat your workers with respect. Treat then as YOU would like to be treated. If you don’t have a union in your workplace and you give your workers an excuse to organize they will. Keeing union free begins BEFORE a union organizing campaign. Any fighting you do after that point – while it may be temporarily successful – will be like closing the gate after the cow has escaped.

Lets get this straight. In Hamilton, Ontario the city has outsourced its garbage collection to a company called National Waste Services who have outsourced their actual workers to a company called “Erie Personnel Corporation”. Whoever the employer is, it seems that they’ve given their employees the need to unionize with the Canadian Auto Workers.

The CAW, which is organizing the employees, has taken National Waste Services Inc. to the Ontario Labour Relations Board. The company has refused to recognize a union vote.

In labour board documents, National Waste contends it is not the employer of the workers.

Employment agency Erie Personnel Corporation claims it employs the workers, documents say.

The Hamilton Spectator has the complete story HERE. These companies have been at the Ontario Labour Relations Board about half a dozen times to argue their case no doubt with excellent legal representation which doesn’t come cheap. The company (companies?) may win the first battle against the union but they’ll likely lose the war. At some point, National Waste Systems will either directly or indirectly have unionized employees.

In my talks to non-unionized companies we carefully review my four indicators that a company ripe for a union organizing campaign. If National Waste or Erie Personnel had paid attention to transparancy, fairness, consistency and vigilance, they likely could have saved themselves not only thousands in legal fees but also the need for a unionized work force.

Union Avoidance 101 happens every day with employers who are proactive enough to give their employees a decent working environment and make unions irrelevant.