Keep Your Union-Free Advantage

Sponsored by Park Avenue Presentations Tuesday,  January 15, 2013. Time: 1:30 pm ET (12:30 pm CT, 11:30 am MT, 10:30 am PT). Length: 90 Minutes. Registration – Session Only: $198.00. Registration – Session Plus CD Recording: $298.00

WEBINAR DESCRIPTION

This webinar will cover the following areas:
•    Create your union-free action plan:  Once a Union drive begins, you cannot make changes.
•    Prepare for a Union drive: a recent NLRB rule will reduce your response time to less than 20 days.
•    Know what to do to avoid NLRB Unfair Labor Practice Charges.
•    Why do employees vote for Unions?
•    Special Feature:  Take a labor relations IQ quiz.

AGENDA

What it costs employers to have a Union:  Union free workforces save more than 30% in operating costs. Collecting union dues, paying labor attorneys during labor negotiations, grievances, professional contract administration, higher benefit costs. Having to fire employees who won’t join the union. Losing customers who worry about strikes, slowdowns, and sabotage.

The Labor Law- how the NLRB establishes unions without elections:  Your Labor Relations IQ; questions you must answer. Union campaign tactics and strategies.

The NLRB’s certification election process. What you should and should not do: management’s election campaign. Labor law violations which certify a union without an election. Unfair labor practices.

Why employees vote for Unions:  How employers usually get the unions they deserve. What employees want from their jobs. What specific employment policies compete with union promises.

Positive Employee Relations and Making Unions Unnecessary.  Establish policies to discourage unionization- become super competitive. How to communicate your position on unions. Employee safety, health, and environmental programs. Compensation and benefits. Employee handbooks and just cause employment.

FACULTY

Thomas Fredericks is an attorney in Williamston, Michigan, specializing in labor and employment law.  Tom is a professor of labor and employment law at the Thomas Cooley Law School of Central Michigan University.  Tom has ten years of public and twenty years of private sector experience in labor and employment law, representing management. Tom has litigated over 200 labor and employment law cases, written 355 employee handbooks, and negotiated collective bargaining agreements with the UAW, Teamsters, Steelworkers, AFSCME, SEIU, and UFCW unions.

A Special Note regarding EMPLOYEE HANDBOOKS

Every employer wanting to remain union free should have a properly-drafted employee handbook.  The handbook is essential during union organizing campaigns.  Your employee handbook addresses pay, benefits, job security, and other key items promised by labor unions. Become super competitive.

Related employee handbook issues:  Electronic Mail, the Internet, and Computers. Employees are protected under the 4th Amendment from employer intrusion into their work computers and electronic data unless your employee handbook specifically allows employers to monitor those systems. Protect your trade secrets, too.

To get started on your new employee handbook: send Tom your employment policies, fringe benefit summaries, summary plan descriptions, work and safety rules, employment memorandums, and policy letters.  Or, if you already have an employee handbook, please send Tom your existing draft and all of the above, in “Word” to:

tomfredericks@cablespeed.com

Let’s get started now, before the union drive begins because once the drive commences, you cannot make changes!   Call Tom at (517) 525-1413 with your questions.