Assume that you are the proprietor of a well-established business that manufactu
ID: 384551 • Letter: A
Question
Assume that you are the proprietor of a well-established business that manufactures specialty castings for a variety of upstream customers. You employ a total of 250 full time employees from different cultural and ethnic backgrounds. 215 of your employees are skilled blue-collar workers from varying generations; and the remaining 35 employees are administrative and support personnel. You average about 5% turnover each year and your employees are non unionized. One morning upon arriving at your office you are approached by a trusted employee that quietly informs you that union authorization cards are being actively distributed within your company by several other employees—one of which is an exempt (salaried) supervisor. Your position as CEO is ‘pro-company’; you do not want unionized labor within your company. Based on what you know so far (above) what do you do next? What more would you want to know? How do you respond?
Explanation / Answer
Like each and every organization, the objective of the business is to generate the maximum revenue and incur profit based on the resources available to the organization. The average turnover is around 5% and being the CEO of the organization I am satisfied with th perofrmance because in order to expect more I need to improve the resources and plan accordingly. Around 250 employees work for the organization out of which 215 are responsible in producing the best quality products and the rest 35 are responsible in looking after the administration and provide support in need. The employees are satisfied and happy working in the organization because I have always tried to reach out to them and solve the issues experienced by them personally or professionally, I have tried to be easily available to them so that they do not feel left out and may be that is the reason the employees are not unionized and this has helped me solve grievances on a personal level more easily. At present I come to know that several employees are looking to form a union and thet have also started distributing authorization cards, from a trusted source it is known that a supervisor in the organization is active in the process. My attitude has always been positive toward sthe organiation and its stakeholders and I have always given priority to the employee's needa dn wants therefore I don't think that there is any need of an Union because the news and updates that I hear about unions in other organizations gives me a negative feedback about the term and system.
As I am against the formation of the union I would try to dissolve the idea and the very grass root level because if it starts growing it will be tough to eradicat the system and once implemented the thing will go on for years. I form a small and trusted team who will be responsible for gathering information about the union that the employees are forming so that the basic objective of the union is known by me so that I can take steps accordingly. The objective, number of employees interested and the functioning and way of work has to known because based on such data I will be taking my steps against the union. I would also like to get knowledge about the employees who are very much active in the process because talking to a few is easy rather than talking to the whole mass. I would like to adopt a very transpearent policy regarding the issue and will convey that such activities will not be entertained by the management and this will actually not help their cause.
I will communicate to the mass that the organization does not support such activities and will expect that the employees will be diligent enough to take decision regarding the same. The organization has been supportive enough till date and has looked after the issues and grievances experienced by the employees so instead of getting influenced by others the employee should think that personally if he or she is experiencing any issues against the organization and if yes, then it should be communicated to the concerned team or directly to me. The objective of a union is to communicate the decision of the mass to the management and that too where the number of employees are huge, this organization does not need a union because in order to manage 250 employees, union is not necessary.