A Tale of Two Campaigns or DejaBlog

Read my last blog to follow along...

Today's News reads: "By a more than 2 to 1 vote, faculty members at Tallahassee Community College have said no to union representation. In the first union election in the college's history, the Union was rejected by a 113 to 49 vote."

Hold the phone---two colleges, same organizing Union and way different results! Again, dare I ask the question, "Why?"

At FSU, 3,000 eligible voters but only 588 voted and the union won 448 of those votes. The lesson learned--apathy killed FSU's chances of winning as only 20% of the workforce choose to exercise their right to vote. Now, the other 2,552 have to leave with the decision of the minority. Remember the Union spin was that "Graduate Assistants voted overwhelmingly (76.2%) in favor of joining a union."

At TCC, 183 faculty members were eligible to vote and they won big. Why? Because 90% or 162 participated in deciding their future. And they chose their own destiny rather go union.

FSU was a 17 month campaign. TCC was a 5 month campaign.

Obviously the management team at TCC communicated to their employees, at a minimum, the importance of participating in a secret ballot election to decide their own fate.

Union spin: Tom Waziavek, Union liason to TCC, "I think the administration did a pretty effective job of intimidating people, implying that things were going to change drastically and not for the better if they voted for a union. In one year we'll come back and try it again."

Ah, unions they take losses so well...

Imagine how both of these campaigns might have gone if the EFCA were enacted. Makes you wonder if the Union would have ever gotten 50% plus 1 at FSU. That would have been 1,501 cards signed and since only 448 voted for the union... interesting FSU would be union free. And over at TCC, you got to wonder if an early underground campaign would have netted 92 signed cards to declare a Union without a vote...TCC would be unionized.

Either way, communicate your union free philosophy to your employees in advance of any card signing activity. Treat the Unions like a pandemic and be proactive in your response, do not wait and become a victim of unionization.

Labor 101-School is in Session

Today's News reads: "Graduate assistants at Florida State University have voted overwhelmingly (76.2%) in favor of joining union."..."This was a totally grassroots effort."..."We talked to thousands of graduate employees over the past 17 months. We wanted to improve our working conditions."..."To have this historic moment is just amazing."

This is a going to be a costly lesson for FSU, one from which all companies can learn. FSU Provost Larry Abele said, "Negotiations can prove costly for the university, depending on how long it takes to come to terms."

Could this all have been avoided? More than likely, and here's why: What originally led to the organizing drive, I do not know and it doesn't really matter, because the university failed to communicate it's union-free position to the Graduate assistants. Or at the very least, provide any education on how important their votes were in the election, regardless of which way they would have voted. You see, the "overwhelming" majority that voted for the union, the 76.2%, was only 448 Graduate assistants. The 140 that voted against the union make up the balance of those that actually voted... out of 3,000 eligible voters.

Are you with me? That's 2,412 that didn't vote. That's 2,412 that woke up today-- unionized and unaware of what just happened. What happened was that 448 decided the fate of 3,000. Congratulations Union, you won because of apathy, no one cared enough to vote. If a majority of the Graduate assistants actually cared "overwhelmingly" about the union, they would have gotten out of bed and actually cast a ballot for that union. But the reality is that 2,412 either a) didn't know about the vote, b)didn't understand the seriousness about the vote, c) didn't know the voting procedures, or d) did not care enough about the university or the union (or their own happiness on the job) to actually vote.

So, the reality is that less than 20% of the eligible voter pool decided the fate of everyone. That means that 15% of the Graduate assistants voted for the Union, 5% voted against unionization and 80% just let it happen to them. FSU management missed an opportunity to communicate to it's employees and put themselves in the driver's seat. The Union seized the opportunity and won, making it look "overwhelmingly" easy.

Remember that this is how you become unionized under today's rules. Tomorrow's rules could be EFCA-driven and these Grad Assistants wouldn't have even had an election. Union pressure to sign cards combined with employee apathy and lack of labor education will again put Unions in the driver's seat.

So what can everyone learn from FSU's all-around lack of awareness? Companies with a union-free philosophy must develop a labor communication strategy to communicate, BEFORE the union ever comes calling. Don't let fewer than 20% of employees decide the fate of your company and their fellow workers.

Wanna Get Away?

A U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington just wiped out over 300 decisions made last year by the National Labor Relations Board. "All decisions handed down in 2008 by the NLRB are invalid because they were made by just two members of the board (out of 5)" and apparently 3 were needed to make a quorum. Who's mad at the democrats now for not confirming any of President George W. Bush's nominees?

In reality, the courts made two rulings that actually conflict with each other. In Chicago, the court said that a vote by the two members was appropriate and binding and then, in Washington an hour earlier, in another ruling, said that all decisions made in 2008 were invalid without a quorum.

Look for the Supreme Court to weigh in fairly soon as everything has now come to a standstill. Over 400 decisions have actually been made with the 2-man board over the last 16 months, so who knows how far this could really reach.

Former NLRB Chairman and Bush appointee, Robert Basttista thinks the consequences may not be too dire. He suggests that once the board has a quorum they may just be able to go back and ratify or otherwise reinstate those opinions decided by two members.

Here's hoping that he's right, what a friggin' mess. How does that Southwest Airlines commercial go--- "Wanna get away?"