Feasting on FEAR - UNION Busting Tactics

October is here and with that comes the spooky season. So, let's talk about what goes hand and hand with Halloween, FEAR. Fear is a primal emotion and triggers an emotional response. Which is why companies use FEAR to bust unions. Union-busting is a practice that is undertaken by an employer or their agents to prevent employees from joining a labor union, or to disempower, subvert, or destroy unions that already exist. These agents have many titles and general fall under the Labor Relations umbrella. Labor relations is a sub-function of the human resources umbrella that is focused on preventing and resolving employee-related problems, usually with regard to employees covered by a collective bargaining agreement or union contract. Companies will also hire labor relations consultants

also known as persuaders to thwart union organizing campaigns. They provide misleading information to promote FEAR to trigger an emotional response. "Union busting is a field populated by bullies and built on deceit. A campaign against a union is an assault on individuals and a war on truth. As such, it is a war without honor. The only way to bust a union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten, and always attack". - Martin Jay Levitt, 1993, Confessions of a Union Buster. The only way to combat these tactics is to seek out the truth. By fact checking the information being presented to you about a union. Whether you

are part of an existing union or a new campaign to organizing your coworkers. Do not be misled by information being presented to you about a union from labor relations consultants or management. Companies want to have all the control on what goes on in the workplace. They do not want you the employees to have any control or input. Otherwise, why would they spend so much money and time to BUST. Amazon alone spent more than $14 million on consultants (LM10Form (dol.gov) in 2022 to defeat organizing campaigns. The only weapon UNIONS have is the truth. You can combat this FEAR by armoring yourself with TRUTH.

Happy Halloween

Solidarity -

Jimmy Yeager, DL 70 Organizer.

316-744-5303 jyeager@d70iam.org