A few important tips about Labour Dispute Management for you to consider from The Renwick Group. When your unionized company is the target of a strike or other form of labor dispute, your actions should be guided by two primary business objectives:- To negotiate a fair and workable agreement, that also protects managerial prerogatives to control your workforce
- To minimize immediate and longer-range economic damage
By staying focused on these objectives, your management and security team will be less vulnerable to the legal, political and public relations tactics that have become potent weapons used by labor unions and protesting workers.
A time when friends turn against you:
Supervisors who’ve never gone through a major labor dispute can be caught off guard when formerly friendly subordinates turn belligerent.
Training should ingrain two points:
1. No matter what happens, don’t let your emotions get the best of you
2. Don’t do anything to jeopardize future working relationships.
The days when strikes involved angry mobs of hostile workers battling armed guards are rare in the present, thanks to labor law reform and social conditions, although they still have powerful political connections.
But labor disputes still create tensions – on both sides – so management must be prepared to deal with volatile outbreaks.
There are two kinds of picketing:
Orderly and peaceful informational picketing is intended to make the public aware of union grievances. It usually involves a relatively small number of reasonably well-behaved pickets.
Mass picketing has a very different purpose: to use sheer numbers to intimidate and otherwise discourage workers, truck drivers, customers and the general public from crossing the picket line.
Such picketing may be legal, if orderly, peaceful and it does not block ingress and egress to the facility, but large crowds and strong emotions frequently lead to threats and violence, and thereby become illegal.
For the best protection against work disruptions, management must:
- Create and maintain detailed contingency plans
- Establish a detailed labour dispute management plan
- Establish effective means of internal and public communication involving all affected parties, and
- Prepare for the proper documentation of strikers, union officials and others when they improperly interfere with company operations or engage in intimidation or outright attacks against people or property.
We recommend management plan ahead not only for strikes but also to other potentially damaging situations, such as,
- Plant closings
- Workforce downsizing
- Union representation drives or boycotting of non-union operations
- Acts of coercion, violence and destruction by disturbed individuals
- Floods, fires and other events that jeopardize plant operations
- Generalized riots that may effect company facilities
- Terrorist threats and attacks
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