These numbers represent just the tip of the iceberg during the Trump administration, officials at the Department of Labor stopped requiring companies to disclose how much they spend on union avoidance consultants. to be confidential until the attorney verifies that the firm does not represent other The right mix. . 9.The Federalist Society, Harold P. Coxson Bio, available at https://fedsoc.org/contributors/harold-coxson. Training and Strategy Tracking the union avoidance firms behind anti-union campaigns is intentionally made difficult by firms that subcontract out work to other firms that hire independent contractors to avoid federal reporting requirements laid out by the Department of Labor and shield themselves from public scrutiny. Fortunately, you don't have to know the answer -- because we do. Union avoidance law firms have grown increasingly concerned that unions have used International Labour Organization (ILO) conventions and other international labor standards to advance organizing campaigns. One leading union avoidance law firm likened unions to a "virus" and recommended anti-union actions to "inoculate" new employees against the threat of unionization. Despite switching sides on union campaigns, Smith claims she wants to support and give a voice to working people. Here is a sample of what we found: Amazon. . We know why employees turn to unions, how unions organize employees, and how to minimize the threat of union interference. He has published widely on employer opposition to unionization and on anti-union law and consultant firms. Our team has also helped companies avoid hundreds of campaigns across the country, including UAW, Steelworkers, Teamsters, CWA, IBEW, UFCW, UNITE-HERE, IAM, AFTRA, SEIU, The Laborers, GMPP, Sheet Metal Workers, 1199, just to name a few. Like Smith and Brown, Brock has a long-time association with Oklahoma-based LRI, and he includes Teamster Avoidance in his areas of expertise. Amazon Campaign Demonstrates Urgent Need for PRO Act. During the winter, The Hershey's Company hired six union-avoidance firms to block organizing efforts at its chocolate factory in Stuarts Draft, Virginia. This report was originally published in the New Labor Forum and was written byJohn Logan,Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies at San Francisco State University. Assess Your Vulnerability to Union Organizing. © 1998-Present LAWCHA. Sources. Araby is all too aware: "Union avoidance firms are a growing presence in the cannabis industry; the big union-busting law firms like Morgan Lewis and Littler Mendelson, as well as others, see . In 2018, Littler employed over 1000 attorneys in the United . The same site advertises a JacksonLewis seminar titled "War is Helpful: Union Avoidance Training." For a fuller description of the firm's work, see John Logan, "The Union Avoidance Industry in the United States," British Journal of Industrial Relations 44, no. Equip your managers with the skills they need. The result is a more capable management team and a more effective workforce. According to The Pew Research Center, 92% of Millennials owned , Adams Nash Haskell & Sheridanis a group of labor professionals , HELP WANTED!!! The firm also provides comprehensive counseling related to drafting, review and revisions of employer handbooks and manuals. Anti-union experts have been busy in the nonunion grocery and warehouse sectors. After leaving the Teamsters reportedly fired for gross incompetence Smith started working as a anti-union consultant. Consider offering benefits like vacation time, compensation packages, and tuition reimbursement, and be sure to communicate the value of these offers. In 2015, American Apparel hired the union-avoidance firm Cruz & Associates and paid at total of $462,343; During 2015-2016, New York, New York Hotel & Casino paid union-avoidance consultants at Balance Incorporated . 101. Opera. Your employees are, too. None of these global union federations comply with the requirements of the LMRDA [Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act].16 Thus, union avoidance law firms have opposed using the 1959 LMRDA to require financial reporting from union avoidance firms and employers that hire theman original intent of the lawbut support using it to regulate global union federations, over which U.S. law has no jurisdiction. Labor Relations Training for Supervisors (best way to reduce your risks). recognized by the ILO, that is, its right to campaign vigorously against the union.21. Brown has used CIE to promote decertification campaigns in the airline and other industries, as discussed below, which are campaigns in which he is not being paid directly by the company involved with the decertification effort. Our team at Adams, Nash, Haskell & Sheridan will work with management to help your organization achieve the best possible outcome. After orchestrating hundreds of anti-union campaigns for some of the nations largest companies, LRA was effectively forced out of business due to the negative publicity from the high-profile McClellan Committee hearings, after it detailed LRAs complicity in corruption. Other large law firms specializing in union avoidance, such as Jackson Lewis and Fisher Phillips, have internationalized operations through alliances with overseas management law firms. Two: Your employer hires fancy anti-union firms, lawyers and consultants. Even with taking these steps, employees might still erroneously think a union is a viable solution to their issues. Mission nurses encountered relentless and aggressive consultant anti-union tactics during the campaign, including mandatory captive audience meetings and one-on-one anti-union meetings, which kept them from their patient care duties. Looking to kill organized labor in aviation: Brown and Smith have consistently attempted to expand their anti-union crusade into the still heavily unionized airline sector. Undeterred by this setback, Brown and Smith were involved in a bitter decertification campaign involving pilots at Flexjet LLC in 2018. April 21, 2021. In the end, youre not the only victim of a labor relations conflict. He also lobbied to make union decertification easier under the Railway Labor, promoted union deauthorizations, advocated for easier union decertification on the Grover Norquist Show, and testified before the Labor Department on regulations that threaten the stability of American Businesses. Brown and Smith, along with Russ have also testified in favor of easier decertification under the airline industry. In what they called a fresh perspectives from the ILO, Littler attorneys (who have represented Delta on labor issues) wrote that the Delta decision was of tremendous significance and the first definitive statement by the ILO to confirm that the right of employers to express their opinion about labor unions trying to organize their employees under U.S. law is consistent with international law. Jackson Lewis concluded that, with the Delta decision, the ILO had effectively endorsed employers use of third-party persuaders or management consultants to communicate directly with employees about managements opposition to unionization.20 International labor organizations protested their interpretation of the Delta decision, but union avoidance law firms have continued to cite it in policy briefs, newsletters, conference presentations, blog posts, and at every other opportunity. [i] https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=740712&rptForm=LM20Form; https://theintercept.com/2021/02/10/amazon-alabama-union-busting-koch/, [ii] https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloomberglawnews/daily-labor-report/XDO8UHS0000000?bc=W1siU2VhcmNoICYgQnJvd3NlIiwiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxvb21iZXJnbGF3LmNvbS9wcm9kdWN0L2JsYXcvc2VhcmNoL3Jlc3VsdHMvYzk5NGZkYWY2Njk3ODRlZWY1ZWMwNDFmNTU4N2I1MWIiXV04b7364334cc7ae9ee73746b2a39fefa3bcbfd714&bna_news_filter=daily-labor-report&criteria_id=c994fdaf669784eef5ec041f5587b51b&search32=z06D2qAaUyOlZ5RoTngirA%3D%3DAFxBuzXRrdQ1eS8JhXb75fLUkPDQjTdd3oCq3KwQ-HHDP0xweicPLMSsdCqq59RV_jlTjPNdfq8FAgUVzbrDJ7Oc9jwyLuv_QVo0oiA1us7ZhFnB13ZPEVTUhGezjqnjtiFX8AfvZ8tlbvpuSJmU_A%3D%3D, [iii] https://files.epi.org/uploads/LM20_C525_01_28_2013_525631-copy.pdf. The decision involved an anti-union campaign at Delta airlines in which the company advised employees to destroy their ballot papers (shred it!) because under the Railway Labor Act, non-votes were counted as votes against the union. Union avoidance firms, which exploded in the U.S. in the 1970s, have played a key role in reducing the proportion of private sector workforces that are unionized today. These firms have perfected union avoidance techniques that make it extraordinarily difficult for unions to organize in the private sector.1 In recent years, several firms that specialize in union avoidance activities have extended their activities globally: Littler Mendelson and Ogletree Deakins employ attorneys in multiple countries, provide union avoidance advice to a growing number of MNCs and have annual revenues in the hundreds of millions of dollars. And that's made employers extremely vulnerable to unionization. 4 Issues In Play As New Biden . Consultants . Amazons Huge Expenditure on the Bessemer Anti-Union Campaign: Amazon is paying a small fortune for its anti-union consultants. Littler attorneys have argued that, under international law, employers not only have a right, but also have an obligation to oppose unions: ILO jurisprudence requires them to speak out against unionization, otherwise workers will be denied access to information they need to make an informed choice: [I]t may be a violation of international law for employers to be limited in their right to freedom of expression and opinion . She spent the first half of her organizing life . The Burke Group [TBG], established in 1982, is the international leader in guiding management during union organizing (recognition) and union card signing campaigns. . Union avoidance law firms have advocated using the OECD Guidelines on Multinational Corporations to attack global union federations, cautioned corporations against signing international framework agreements that limit their union avoidance options, and argued that, under ILO jurisprudence, employers have not just a right but an obligation to campaign against unionization and collective bargaining. Global Services - General Co-Chair, Global Services - Japan Co-Chair. Labor History for the Classroom and the Public, The Radicalism of Working-Class Americans, activities of Labor information Services elsewhere, and LRA served as a breeding ground for several future superstars of the union-free movement, a barrage of anti-labor tactics and intimidation, https://olmsapps.dol.gov/query/orgReport.do?rptId=740712&rptForm=LM20Form, https://theintercept.com/2021/02/10/amazon-alabama-union-busting-koch/, https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/blaw/bloomberglawnews/daily-labor-report/XDO8UHS0000000?bc=W1siU2VhcmNoICYgQnJvd3NlIiwiaHR0cHM6Ly93d3cuYmxvb21iZXJnbGF3LmNvbS9wcm9kdWN0L2JsYXcvc2VhcmNoL3Jlc3VsdHMvYzk5NGZkYWY2Njk3ODRlZWY1ZWMwNDFmNTU4N2I1MWIiXV04b7364334cc7ae9ee73746b2a39fefa3bcbfd714&bna_news_filter=daily-labor-report&criteria_id=c994fdaf669784eef5ec041f5587b51b&search32=z06D2qAaUyOlZ5RoTngirA%3D%3DAFxBuzXRrdQ1eS8JhXb75fLUkPDQjTdd3oCq3KwQ-HHDP0xweicPLMSsdCqq59RV_jlTjPNdfq8FAgUVzbrDJ7Oc9jwyLuv_QVo0oiA1us7ZhFnB13ZPEVTUhGezjqnjtiFX8AfvZ8tlbvpuSJmU_A%3D%3D, https://files.epi.org/uploads/LM20_C525_01_28_2013_525631-copy.pdf, https://www.amazon.com/Union-Hypocrisy-Organized-Standard-Business/dp/1478275162, https://tunein.com/podcasts/Conservative-Talk/The-Brenner-Brief-w-Sara-Marie-Brenner-p514156/, https://www.rwplabor.com/consultant-bios/rebecca-smith/. Our site is to attack global union federations by making their financial records publicly available. We have an extensive team of legal professionals that offer creative solutions and innovation, aimed at engaging clients in union avoidance activities prior to the formation of an actual campaign. Littler attorneys have proposed filing an OECD complaint against global union federations and establishing and funding a group to process and publicize the case. This interesting idea would put labor on the defensive and provide corporations targeted by unions with a tool to respond to criticism.15. Google's Union-Busting Methods Revealed. 14.Global Legal Group, The International Comparative Guide to Employment & Labor Law, 11-12, available at https://www.hoganlovells.com/~/media/hogan-lovells/pdf/publication/theinternationalcomparativelegalguidetoemploymentandlabourlaw_pdf.pdf. Chicago, IL 60611. Union-Free Strategies and Considerations In the 'New Normal', Federal Court Orders Starbucks to Re-Hire Terminated Union Supporters, The Price for Refusing to Bargain May Soon be Going Up for Employers, Say It Aint So (Trader) Joes: Grocery Chain Workers File Union Petition, NLRB General Counsel Takes Aim at Employer Free Speech, Supreme Court Favors Employer Property Rights Over Union Access To Employees, Goodbye NY: No Union For Uber DriversFor Now, $250,000 in Grants Awarded to Five Nonprofit Organizations, Illinois Employers on Notice: BIPA Claims Accrue With Each Scan or Transmission, Court Says. Her Reliant bio page states: As a consultant, Rebecca has led numerous anti-union campaigns, resulting in a winning record for the companies with whom she partnered, including but not limited to government, non-profit, and for profit organizations within airline, transportation, healthcare, hospitality, energy and retail industries. 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