Management Email Indicates Union Buster Is On Their Way To Savannah
Your organizing campaign will get loud now that management has shown they plan to take an active stance against your efforts to improve things at Flight Safety. The morning of April 30 management sent an email to all Pilot Instructors. It was a boilerplate email we see at almost every union organizing campaign across the country and a strong indication that Flight Safety headquarters has hired a professional persuader (AKA union buster). Management will claim this is someone who is here to explain the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) election process and answer your questions about unions. The union buster’s real agenda is to attack and mislead workers. Don’t be fooled. The high-priced union buster is here with only one goal: to keep you from forming a union at Flight Safety. Their true intent can be seen in the boilerplate anti-union topics and tactics in the email which was supposedly written by management. These include:
Promises & Guarantees: This never happened and never will happen. The negotiation process is your true opportunity to place the legal obligation on the employer to work with you on proposals you present as a collective group. Once you sit down and negotiation with management over the issues that matter to you, the onus is on the employer to provide you a best and final offer to collectively vote on. Time and time again, union members are able to make substantial improvements on the job through these efforts. Economic facts regarding union members are available on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS.gov).
“Collective Bargaining is Risky”: The idea here is to make it appear that the union can lose. The fact is collective bargaining appears to work just fine at the other Flight Safety sites that are unionized. The buster will also try their best to make it appear you lose your voice and that you can’t work with management. Union or no union – working with management is a necessary daily event to keep Flight Safety successful. To use the threat that somehow you can no longer speak with management if you are a union is laughable. You do not lose your relationship with management everyone’s goal will be to continue to keep Flight Safety successful.
“The union calls a strike”: Be ready to hear this over and over. They will use the word strike but never explain how the process works. This is an important responsibility that is never taken lightly by either side. The balance of power is equal during negotiations. If something is so fractured that the group elects to withhold their labor, it will take 2/3 of the group to authorize a strike if a contract is rejected by 50% plus 1 vote. The subconscious effort by the union buster here is to make it appear one individual, not the Pilot Instructors as a collective, can impact your decision to accept or reject a contract. This is false.
Teammate vs. Opponents: For the next few weeks, you will hear the union is a third party or an outsider. The fact is when you form a union – you are the union. I wonder if management at the other Flight Safety union sites call Pilot Instructors opponents?
During next weeks scheduled meetings, management will come across as extremely sincere about your issues and will let you know they respect your right to form a union. Remember, companies hire a union-busting consultant 99% of the time. You may not hear from the union buster in the first round of meetings, but soon enough they will be introduced. The union buster will imply they are just here to educate and don’t have a dog in the fight. Some go as far as saying they understand why unions exist. Some desperate union busters even try to imply they are an attorney – all to build fake trust.
Take a moment to watch the video below for some first-hand Insight into the aggressive anti-union program.
Martin Levitt – confession of a union buster