Emboldened Unions Boon for Internal Communications

What’s scarier for C-level executives than talking to employees, letting them talk back and addressing their concerns? Unionization.

Senior executives have kept employees at arm’s length over fears about what they might say about the company inside and outside of the firewall. But, now that Congress is on the brink of passing legislation that would embolden unions–the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA)–labor lawyers have joined public relations and human resources in counseling companies to engage, embrace and empower employees. While C-level executives might choose to ignore the advice of HR and PR, they are more likely to listen to their lawyers.

Pundits predict that union leaders will succeed in convincing legislators to compress the amount of time that companies have to respond to a union push to organize employees. Currently, after employees express their interest in unionizing, which most do when presented with the opportunity, companies have over a month to make their case for a union-free environment. That could shrink to five or 10 days. Since companies can’t change the culture on the fly, labor law firms are advising companies that the most powerful preemptive strike against unions post-EFCA is an unbreakable bond with employees.

Give employees the information they want about the business, create an atmosphere of openness and make employees feel like they don’t need a union because they are already being heard and helped is what labor lawyers are saying. Internal communications departments are positioned to help C-level executives heed the call.

The impending strength of unions is building the strongest business case for internal communications the public relations industry has ever seen. Executives and employees who are united cannot be divided and authentic communications is the bridge that will bring them together.

keyword Communication Recommends

some comments

There are currently 1 of them

keywordcommunication.com