. Hotel Information. Unless otherwise agreed in advance, all unsolicited A union flyer was posted on one of your facility's employee bulletin board last night. November 4, 2021. October 15 - 16, 2019. Smith has an extensive background in conservative political circles: she has published an anti-union book, Union Hypocrisy, which is written in the nature of [right-wing] political authors Laura Ingraham and Michelle Malkin and she has been a Contributor to the ultra-conservative Brenner Brief podcast. There seems little doubt that when the campaign at Bessemer is finally over, Amazon will have paid millions of dollars to its law firm and its union avoidance consultants. Copyright document.write(/\d{4}/.exec(Date())[0]) by LaborLab | All Rights ReservedCreated with NationBuilder, https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/10377.pdf, https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2019/04/11/strong-demand-fuels-growth-for-big-four-labor-and-employment-firms/?slreturn=20191021070945, https://ogletree.com/solutions/practice-areas/cross-border/, https://www.jacksonlewis.com/media/pnc/0/media.1230.pdf, https://www.fisherphillips.com/services-international-employment, https://www.littler.com/files/ms_region_downloads/international_practice_group_brochure_english.pdf, https://fedsoc.org/contributors/harold-coxson, https://ogletree.com/solutions/practice-areas/traditional-labor-relations/, https://www.acc.com/sites/default/files/resources/vl/membersonly/ProgramMaterial/1303944_1.pdf, https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.jdsupra.com/0d5fdc2e-10a9-4dbe-b379-c416b499d0bf.pdf, https://www.hoganlovells.com/~/media/hogan-lovells/pdf/publication/theinternationalcomparativelegalguidetoemploymentandlabourlaw_pdf.pdf, https://www.slideserve.com/sean-fox/stefen-marculewicz, https://edlabor.house.gov/imo/media/doc/Marculewicz%20Testimony.pdf, https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/the-littler-report-the-2011-global-empl-95500/, https://www.uscib.org/docs/090317_marculewicz_article.pdf, littler.com/publication-press/publication/employer-freedom-opinion-and-expression-within-context-union. IKEA, for example, turned to Ogletree Deakins, one of the largest law firms that specialize in so-called union avoidance activities, to help it crush unionization efforts in Stoughton, Massachusetts, in 2016. One of the best ways to determine a companys vulnerability to union organizing is to conduct onsite employee relations assessments. 2.Michael Fichter and Dimitris Stevis, Global Framework Agreements in a Union-Hostile Environment: The Case of the USA, Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, November 2013, available at https://library.fes.de/pdf-files/id/10377.pdf. Benefit from our Employee Relations Assessment, or choose our exclusiveVIEWPOINT Survey, which features a database compiled over nearly four decades. In June 2020, after widespread criticism of its lackluster response to the Covid-19 pandemic, Amazon hired two corporate health and safety experts from one of the country . Study with Quizlet and memorize flashcards containing terms like 1) The term labour-management relations refers to: A) the process of labour- management contract negotiations and . The full picture of Amazon's spending isn't expected to come to light until well after the election has ended, but two union-avoidance consultants have already filed forms describing some of the work their firms are doing for Amazon. Often, its your efforts that can protect them from unwittingly putting everything on the line. Through overseas offices or strategic alliances, Littler Mendelson, Ogletree Deakins, Jackson Lewis, and Fisher Phillips have expanded their reach to Latin America, Europe, and Asia. After all, you cant lose a union election that doesnt happen. 3.Meredith Hobbs, Strong Demand Fuels Growth for Big Four Labor and Employment Firms, LAW.COM Daily Report, April 11, 2019, available at https://www.law.com/dailyreportonline/2019/04/11/strong-demand-fuels-growth-for-big-four-labor-and-employment-firms/?slreturn=20191021070945. Why Cant College Coaches Embrace the Reality of Players Being Paid Through NIL? 2013-2023 Adams, Nash & Haskell, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Leaked files from IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, obtained by Vice's Motherboard show the disturbing lengths to which companies will go in order to derail workplace organizing. inquiries or information received by Barnes & Thornburg LLP will not be regarded These strategies can include active intimidation and surveillance of union supporters, exploiting divisions within the workforce to stir up opposition to the union or spreading misinformation about the . Often the easiest way to solve a problem is to avoid it entirely, and avoiding a union is no different. After leaving the Teamsters reportedly fired for gross incompetence Smith started working as a anti-union consultant. She's fourth generation union, raised in an activist-union household. Brown, Smith and James Edwards, general counsel of both CIE and RWP, were deeply involved in the anti-union campaign (After the Flexjet decertification election, the chairman of Cleveland-based carrier, Ken Ricci, stated: This is a historic moment not only for our company but also for the industry as a whole, since no other pilot group has elected to remove representation by organized labor. Brown also celebrated the historic election as the first time in the 80-year history of the Railway Labor Act that pilots have chosen a direct relationship with their employer rather than have a labor union interfering as a third party., Union activists agreed that Brown and Smith had played a critical role in the decertification campaign. 12. Once again, communication is critical here, and your first line of defense is managers handling of employee concerns. Union-avoidance specialists, and the employers that hire them, must disclose their arrangements to the Labor Department. 4 (December 2006): 651-75; John Logan, Consultants, Lawyers and the Union Free Movement in the United States since the 1970s, Industrial Relations Journal 33, no. to attack global union federations by making their financial records publicly available. If employees have trust and a connection to the team, they are less likely to feel unhappy and seek out a third party. Between 2000-2009, he was an assistant and associate professor of comparative employment relations at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Avoid a 32% Increase in Your Labor Costs with ANHS' Union Avoidance Training Services. IRI Consultants, a union avoidance firm, noted in one publication that unions in some industries, particularly high tech, have drifted toward capitalizing on demands that employers do a better job . Labor relations consultants specializing in union avoidance activities have been operated in the United States since at least the 1940s. Training and Strategy With 1400 clients in 50 industries and 10 countries (including the United States, E.U., Canada, Mexico and China), we have participated in over 800 elections and employees in 96% have have either voted no, decertified or . Even before it engaged the services of these two anti-union consultant firms, Amazon had hired Morgan Lewis, one of the nations largest law firms specializing in union avoidance activities. Among other campaigns, while working under LRI, Brock helped defeat a union campaign at the Trump International Hotel in Las Vegas in 2014 and is currently running a major anti-union campaign at the largest hospital in Maine. We know why employees turn to unions, how unions organize employees, and how to minimize the threat of union interference. 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. One major difference between union avoidance law firms such as Morgan Lewis and consultant firms such as Road Warrior Productions and Labor Information Services is that consultants conduct so-called "direct persuader activity" - i.e., they have face-to-face contact with employees while the law firms generally avoid this. [U]nion avoidance firms have consistently opposed union access to the workplace in order to make the case in favor of unionization. These employee relations assessments are almost always appreciated by the employees, and the insights derived from these conversations provide management with a valuable opportunity to address areas of concern in a proactive manner. For example, under the Obama Administration, Brown wrote against the Employee Free Choice Act lobbied against pro-labor changes to the FFA Reauthorization Act and testified against the Obama NLRB efforts to streamline the union certification process to prevent employers from using delay to undermine union campaigns. They face highly motivated, well-resourced "union avoidance firms" that deploy any means possible to prevent workers from organizing. February 26, 2023 by Sara Blackwell. 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. Documents show Johns Hopkins Hospital hired a union-busting firm that frequently hires consultants from another union-busting firm with alt-right sympathies. An Amazon-sponsored billboard urging employees to return their unionization ballots is seen on March 28, 2021, in Bessemer, Alabama. . By agreeing to remain silent, an employer effectively may deny workers information, opinions and ideas they have a right to receive . 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 . Littler opted for overseas offices rather than forming international alliances with overseas firms in order to provide clients with a coordinated service. The U.S. branch operates as a separate financial entity, but Littler Global is really trying to be one firm.3. The New York Times profiles union-avoidance firm Jackson Lewis and exposes the lengths an employer will go to, at the advice of a unionbuster firm, to attack workers who attempt to form unions. 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. . to be confidential until the attorney verifies that the firm does not represent other 13.Donald C. Dowling, How to Align an International Labor Strategy for Overseas Unions, Works Councils and Other Workers Representatives, Littler, September 2017, available at https://s3.amazonaws.com/documents.jdsupra.com/0d5fdc2e-10a9-4dbe-b379-c416b499d0bf.pdf. One major difference between union avoidance law firms such as Morgan Lewis and consultant firms such as Road Warrior Productions and Labor Information Services is that consultants conduct so-called direct persuader activity i.e., they have face-to-face contact with employees while the law firms generally avoid this. Flexjet is just their first target.. Kara Fox-LaRose, president and general manager of ilani, a casino . Many of the early studies suggest that union members are less satisfied than nonunion . Framework agreements, the firm cautioned, are especially problematic for public-facing retail brands.14, Union avoidance attorneys have advised employers to deploy global standards offensively against labor organizations. Both Russ Brown and Rebecca Smith have worked for LRI directly, and continued to do so, even after establishing their own anti-union consultant firms. 317-231-7433, F . Rebecca Smith: A second consultant working with Russ Brown at Amazon, Rebecca Smith, claims to have worked for unions 20 years, 16 years with the Teamsters, including as Executive Director of Training for Southern Nevada. Prevent Costly and Disruptive Union Organizing Campaigns. Brown and Smiths anti-union activities extend beyond individual counter-organizing campaigns, and they have targeted the sector for several years. 15.Littler Mendelson, The U.S. NCP and Developments on Extraterritoriality, available at https://www.slideserve.com/sean-fox/stefen-marculewicz. We will work to guide you in the best ways to educate your employees about the dangers and problems of unionization and address underlying issues in your workplace. 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 . Several states have tried to outlaw them in recent years, and Russ Brown actively opposed Connecticuts 2019 anti-captive audience bill. Equip your managers with the skills they need. 616-742-3999, F In 2019, Kumho workers voted for the steelworkers, after the NLRB ordered a rerun election, and after numerous company efforts to delay, the labor board finally certified their victory in 2021. "A lot of the money companies spend on this kind of activity isn't disclosed." Since Littler was founded in San Francisco in 1942, union avoidance has been a major area of its expertise. Select a quiz below to take the Union Vulnerability Quiz that best matches your organizational structure. . [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 nations third and fourth largest management-side law firms specializing in union avoidance, Jackson Lewis and Fisher Phillips, have adopted a different model of international expansion. The key to any union avoidance plan lies with front-line supervisors and their ability to deal with issues immediately and constructively. Along with the AFL-CIO, the Association of Flight Attendants-Communication Workers of America filed a complaint with the CFA stating that the policy on non-votes enabled hostile employers to manipulate the process to defeat union campaigns. Even with taking these steps, employees might still erroneously think a union is a viable solution to their issues. The federal PRO Act, which passed the House this month, would prohibit captive audience meetings. April 21, 2021. Two: Your employer hires fancy anti-union firms, lawyers and consultants. With 30 years of experience as union avoidance consultants, we know what it takes to avert a disaster for your business. Amazons relentless anti-union campaign will likely play a central role in union messaging on the PRO Act now that they have gotten the countrys attention. The "Big Four" Union Avoidance Law Firms Go Global. In 1984, Japanese auto manufacturer Nissan started making cars in the United States at a plant in Smyrna, Tennessee. Labor rights is an issue whose time has come. 6.Fisher Phillips, International Employment Practice Group, available at https://www.fisherphillips.com/services-international-employment. Faced with a wave of worker activism in its warehouses last year, Amazon paid anti-union consultants roughly $4.3 million in an effort to beat back union organizing campaigns, according to new filings with the U.S. Department of Labor. . Terms of Use & Disclaimer. In common with LRIs Phil Wilson and several other prominent consultants, Russ Brown has repeatedly opposed policy initiatives designed to limit prolonged anti-union campaigning. The autonomy to run your business as you desire is paramount to the success of your business. Follow us on Facebook page to receive the latest updates. The union avoidance industry continued to grow, and LRA served as a breeding ground for several future superstars of the union-free movement. For example, evidence reviewed by Motherboard . Direct persuader activity triggers the reporting requirements (Section 203a) of the Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA), which means that corporations and their consultants are required to report their financial arrangements to the Office of Labor-Management Standards at the Department of Labor, although the requirement has been poorly enforced for several decades. In 2018, Littler employed over 1000 attorneys in the United . Don't forget to like us! Reassure the Board of Directors and Shareholders. Union membership in the United States has declined dramatically over the last several decades, with just 6.2% of private sector workers belonging to a union in 2019, compared to 16.8% in 1983. These firms include IRI Consultants, recently hired by Google, and the anodyne-sounding Labor Relations Institute, which the report says is one of the nation's largest union-avoidance firms. This guy, Russ Brown, is looking to. 3. A proposed rule change would expose such anti-union expenses the last thing the union busters themselves want. 8.Littler Mendelson, International Practice Group, available at https://www.littler.com/files/ms_region_downloads/international_practice_group_brochure_english.pdf. In May 2010, the ILOs Committee on Freedom of Association (CFA) issued a decision that the U.S. employer community has interpreted as an endorsement for American-style anti-union campaigns. Information is found on slide 7. 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. According to its annual reviews, cross-border trade union actions including corporate union campaigns are one of the alliances main areas of expertise.5 Formed in 2013, Fisher Phillips International Employment Practice Group has established strong relationships with local counsel on six continents. The International Practice Group helps its multinational clients address international labor issues involving unions around the world.6, Union avoidance firms have sought to counteract the unions use of international standards to advance organizing, warning that corporations must own the debate on global labor standards or the unions will define it for you.7 Littler attorneys have helped MNCs formulate and implement strategies to respond to efforts by labor unions . A viable solution to their issues passed the House this month, would prohibit captive audience meetings Extraterritoriality available...: //www.slideserve.com/sean-fox/stefen-marculewicz overseas offices rather than forming International alliances with overseas firms in order to make the case in of. That hire them, must disclose their arrangements to the workplace in order to make the case favor. In order to make the case in favor of unionization anti-captive audience bill at the London School Economics... Have tried to outlaw them in recent years, and the employers that hire them, must disclose arrangements! The sector for several future superstars of the early studies suggest that union members are likely! Firm with alt-right sympathies thing the union avoidance industry continued to grow, and Russ Brown opposed. At least the 1940s Go Global Japanese auto manufacturer Nissan started making cars the! 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