Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Hone Your Labor Negotiation Skills: You Are Going to Need Them


If you are in HR and you are reading this I hope you are up on your labor negotiation skills and labor law. You are going to need it. The Employee Free Choice Act, which I have written about before is getting closer and closer to reality. Don't know what the EFCA is? Well you haven't been paying attention to me then. So pay attention this time! Go here and read this article A Career Killer for HR Pros. The author, Kris Dunn, makes it very clear. Then be afraid, very afraid.

If you read all the political pundits the Democrats will have a majority in the House of Representives AND the Senate. This will make passage of this bill a slam dunk (for my foreign readers this means an absolute certainty.) And with a Democrat in the White House there will be no question that the bill will be signed. And then Labor celebrates and companies lose, employees lose and HR deals with the fall out. It has the potential for radically changing the nature of the workplace.

Now don't get me wrong. I am not against people belonging to a union if they so desire. Not my way of doing things, but if people opt to do that after having had a chance to make an informed decision in a secret ballot election then fine. The EFCA takes that away and puts the effect of fear and intimidation on the forefront. Not many of our employees will tell a union organizer "no" to his face in front of others. So they sign a card and you are handed a union.

So brush up on those labor rules, though many are being tossed out, and get ready to negotiate. You can also contact your Congressional representatives and tell them what a bad decision that will be for them to vote for this bill.

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