A specialty clinic, with four unions represent-ing 40 percent of the employees, has learned that the Teamsters Union has been contacted by an employee group to conduct a unioniza-tion campaign to represent some of the em-ployees, including service workers, clerical workers, and all levels in the accounting de-partment. The clinic’s labor-relations philoso-phy would be characterized as traditional and noncollaborative. It has decided to resist the union’s attempt to organize the employees.The four groups of employees who are currently represented by unions include: technical employees, registered nurses, pharmacists, and maintenance workers. Some 70 employees are repre-sented by the current contracts. The reg-istered nurses constitute 40 percent of the 70 union members. The group that has been proposed in the organizing attempt includes 45 employees, and the service workers (housekeeping, food service, and nursing assistants) constitute 75 percent of the proposed members.Management is concerned about the organizing campaign. Relationships with the current unions have not been very pro-ductive, and further unionization will lead to more distrust between management and employees. Management is concerned about the union’s ability to call strikes in the future, which may require the organization to severely limit services and could greatly affect its financial stability.Management must decide whether to mount a campaign to prevent the union from organizing. If it decides to mount a campaign, management must develop a strategy to present arguments to the employ-ees for not having union representation.
Questions
1. What steps must the Teamsters Union follow to cause an election to occur?
2. During the union campaign, how should the managers conduct themselves toavoid being accused of committing unfair labor practices?
