All Posts by Jennifer Orechwa

One of the mantras of union representatives is, "Union employees earn more." Certainly, the unions eagerly point to various studies that report union wages are as much as 20 percent or more than non-union wages. However, when economics are involved, the real effect unions have on wages is more complex. Wages are subject to labor supply and demand in the marketplace, and arbitrary interference in wage rates has a ripple effect on the number and type of available jobs.

Economists say that unions shouldn't take credit for the higher wages. This statement is backed up by economic research on the real effect unions have on wages, detailed in lengthy reports and papers. Economists, unlike unions, consider the proverbial "big picture." In summary, when wages go up, job availability goes down because employers must control costs to stay in business. Sometimes, employers also lay off workers to cover the cost of wage hikes. Additionally, jobs are frequently restructured so that job responsibilities match the higher pay, making fewer jobs available for lower-skilled workers. Only considering the wage rates distorts the truth because quoting wage rates excludes the people who are priced out of the labor market and unemployed.

Workforce Skill Composition a Major Factor

One Brigham Young University research study found that, after union representation, there was a decrease in payroll and earnings after employees elected to unionize. The decreases were "primarily driven by changes in workforce composition in response to a union victory." Higher paid employees were more likely to find new jobs, leaving younger and lower-paid workers behind. The researchers found no evidence that employees who stayed with the company after unionization earned more. This throws cold water on union claims they raise the wages for all employees. The skill composition of the workforce needs inclusion in calculations in order to get to the truth.

Pepperdine University Professor of Economics Gary Galles offers a different perspective with the same conclusion. Government laws and regulations impact wages, with the unions having special government-designated powers like exemption from antitrust laws. Union contracts prevent the employer from hiring people who can do the work and are willing to accept lower pay. Unions claim this forces the employer to raise everyone's wages in order to retain employees.

Once again, artificially increasing labor costs lead to the employer, in many cases, reducing the number of jobs available. Employers cannot just raise the price of products or services sold to cover the cost of payroll increases. Carrying the impact into the marketplace, the employees that are laid off or unable to get a job must now compete for jobs. Competition drives wages down. Since union members are approximately 6.5 percent of the private workforce, unions are actually reducing the incomes of 13-out-14 workers.

All wage hikes have an impact on employees and the labor market, whether or not they are due to unions. This became apparent in 2018 when some states decided to raise the minimum wage. Washington D.C. voters approved a minimum wage increase to $15. Starbuck's closed 150 U.S. stores, partly in response to the wage hike. Walmart did something similar. On the same day it raised entry-level wages for hourly employees, the company announced it was shutting stores and laying off thousands of employees. Though the employees are not unionized, the unions played a large role in the wage increases by encouraging and assisting labor activists to do things like picketing stores and lobbying state representatives.

Getting Real About Wages

Following are four talking points about the real effects unions have on wages

1. More productive employees earn higher wages - Unions claim they can negotiate higher pay for employees. In reality, higher pay rates are due to the fact that employers in unionized companies are often more selective in the hiring process, needing to hire more productive and higher quality workers. Union contracts make it very difficult to terminate employees, even when their performance is sub-par. Employers have an incentive to pay more to attract, hire and retain productive skilled employees since it's much more difficult to dismiss a unionized worker.

2. Unionization drives out top performing employees - Research indicates the middle class has shrunk because employees are earning more even as union membership declines. MIT Economist Brigham Frandsen decided to explore whether unionizing increased average pay in light of this fact. He learned through research that private-sector employee wages actually fell by 3 percent at newly unionized companies, and the primary reason was that top performing employees often leave their companies.

3. Collective bargaining is a gamble for employees and can lead to stagnant wages - Several studies have compared the wages of workers at companies whose employees vote to unionize with those that remain union-free. More often than not, unionizing didn't raise pay for new union employees. This doesn't prove that unions cannot raise wages. It does show that collective bargaining is a risk with no guaranteed outcome. Some employees may earn more, but some will earn the same or even less after unionization.

Unions don't like to discuss the fact that union contracts set the maximum wage amount for union members. Employers cannot reward high performers with a pay raise, and the ability to promote employees is confined by union seniority rules. Collective bargaining can lead to stagnant wages over time.

4. Unions target successful companies - Unions portray themselves as the defenders of workers at the mercy of small, weak companies. The truth is they seek to organize larger and more profitable companies, as those companies have a greater number of employees and more profits. That equates to more people paying union dues. When a company's workers believe the company is doing well, they're more likely to think they aren't getting "their fair share" of the profits. In reality, larger and more profitable companies often provide better wages and higher incentives, with or without a union presence.

No Proof in the Proving

There are plenty of articles "proving" union employees earn more than non-union employees. It is only a small portion of the story because the full impact of unions on the labor force and the workforce is not included in the discussion. Looking only at gross wages is misleading, but it makes for good union slogans and promises the union is unlikely to keep. Staying union proof is just as important today as it was when union membership numbers were rapidly increasing and unions were more powerful. The proof is in the complex economics of the labor market.

There is plenty of existing content written about employee engagement and how it’s critical for any business to operate effectively. But what about manager and supervisor engagement? Their engagement is just as critical and impacts how their employees behave. Their example sets the tone for the entire organization and builds trust - or destroys it. HR Departments can boost supervisor engagement and create a workforce committed to the company’s success.

Supervisor Engagement: More Than Looking Good On Paper

This isn’t just theory. Studies show that engaged managers create more engaged employees. According to one study, managerial engagement is responsible for 70% of the variance in employee engagement. This environment makes employees feel empowered and supported, which makes them more committed to your bottom line. Engagement is incredibly important and can have far-reaching implications for your business. More engaged employees are more productive and more likely to stay with your organization rather than go work for a competitor.

Get Leaders Involved in Engagement Efforts

There are a number of leadership techniques that companies can use to build a cadre of engaged managers. A great deal of that processes starts from the top. Your firm’s senior leadership must set an example if they want to see greater managerial engagement. Engaged senior executives inspire managers and encourage that culture of engagement throughout the company.

A second strategy is tying engagement to performance objectives. Sometimes encouragement isn’t enough, and tying bonuses and evaluations to engagement goals can provide additional incentives. Engagement can be measured through employee surveys, the quality of meetings with team members, positive feedback, or other specific metrics your team determines to be relevant for the company.

Recruitment And Retention

Those recruitment and retention studies are clear. One of the most common reasons employees leave a company is not because of pay, their role, or growth potential. They leave because they work for a difficult boss. Manager and supervisor engagement and effective leadership are some of the most effective ways to keep employees or, if you don’t encourage them, lose them.

Supervisor engagement is critical to attracting the best talent - and in keeping them. That’s especially important in this job market, where companies are fighting an increasingly aggressive war for top workers. A lack of manager engagement can cost your company the trust and performance it needs to remain competitive.

Engaged Supervisors Create A Union-Proof Culture

Manager engagement builds trust in subordinates. Employees have confidence that they can come to their supervisor with issues or concerns. Employees need to feel that their managers are engaged and will take their concerns seriously. A lack of trust makes it more likely that employees will engage unions or other outside organizations to address their concerns.

A lack of manager engagement can provide an opening for organizers to begin union authorization card signing or other activities. Building a culture where unions just aren't needed begins with company leadership. Do executives encourage managers to be engaged and take an interest in team members needs and concerns? Do they lead by example and engage their own managers? A lack of confidence in leadership is the weak link in a company’s armor that unions will exploit.

Finally, remember that your managers and supervisors set the tone for their departments. If they are disengaged or indifferent, employee morale will suffer. One bad manager can do incredible damage that can’t be easily fixed. Recruiting and retaining a great workforce depends on your supervisors being committed to the organization and engaging their team members. That commitment, and the example those managers set, can help keep your company union-free.

When unions begin targeting employees, their focus isn't on winning an election. At least, not at first - primarily because they can't hold a secret ballot election until and unless they can show that employees are interested in representation. So, really, then, what is a union authorization card? In the beginning stages of a campaign, union organizers' objective is to gather employee signatures, and every time a team member signs a union card, the union is one step closer to that goal.

What Does A Union Card Do?

By signing a union card, individual members of a potential bargaining unit indicate that they are interested in the opportunity to participate in the election process. Once the union representatives have collected signed authorization cards from at least 30 percent of employees, the union can petition the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to hold a secret ballot election.

When interest in unionization is strong, the signed cards can take on an even more critical role in the process. If a union can demonstrate through signed authorization cards that 50 percent plus one member of the potential bargaining unit is interested in a union, an election may not be required. Instead, the Company can expect to hear from union representatives directly, requesting voluntary recognition of the union as the employees' exclusive bargaining representative.

Little Cards, Big Trouble

The issue with union cards isn't immediately apparent, because signing the card does not commit you to vote for the union. However, the fact that there is no commitment makes it far easier for unions to reach the 30 percent mark - and often the 50 percent mark - quickly and easily. The process is even faster now that employees can sign using electronic forms. Through the use of email and social media, unions collect signatures from individuals who haven't yet formed a firm position on the subject, and employers have less time than ever to offer important education and information.

Once a union authorization card is signed, the cards are generally considered valid for approximately 12 months - but there is no firm rule on when your signature expires. Employees do have the right to ask for their card back, and by doing so, they can revoke their signature. However, this process is at best, challenging, and gets even more cumbersome when you sign an authorization card via an online form. If you've signed a card and want to ensure it's not counted, send written notification to the union that you wish to rescind your union card.

Companies can educate employees on union cards by sharing the video, "Little Card Big Trouble."  In just 17 minutes, this video educates employees on the power of their signature and how union organizers get those signatures. "Little Card Big Trouble" is the industry standard in education on the topic and includes powerful role-play scenarios with which employees can identify. Stop card signing by educating employees on the power of union cards and the importance of protecting their signature. Click here to learn more.

How To Build An Employee Relations Dream Team

How would you describe your employee/labor relations team? Is it understaffed, overworked, under-trained or non-existent? In today’s business environment, managing Human Resources has become extremely challenging. Each person in the labor force must be engaged and motivated, as this is the only way to increase employee productivity, satisfaction, and retention rates, and keep your business union-free.

Because they play such critical roles in business sustainability, labor relations and union avoidance are no longer optional principles. Yet, even the most competent business owners may find that they simply do not have time to deal with all the complex intricacies of labor relations. For this reason, every business needs a professional labor relations expert on their leadership team.

Linking Labor Relations and Union Avoidance

Build A Rock Star Employee & Labor Relations Team

This is how you develop a rock star employee and labor relations staff that functions as a coordinated team, with members all moving toward the same goals of developing an engaged, motivated and productive workforce in a union-free organization. Becoming an employer of choice and creating a culture where unions are not necessary takes a serious effort, but the payoff is an organization that has increased productivity and satisfied employees.

When a union initiates a corporate campaign, the costs can be high. A corporate campaign is a strategic effort by a union to put pressure on a company to unionize employees by damaging the company's reputation and relationship with customers and all other stakeholders. Tangible costs are the measurable expenses realized, while intangible costs are the damage done to the brand in the marketplace and to the employer-employee relationship. The success of a union campaign depends on the union creating a negative company reputation. They do this by getting your employees to view their workplace through a toxic lens of dissatisfaction and unjust treatment, as well as by convincing the marketplace that a company is socially and economically unjust.

What Is A Corporate Campaign?

The history of the corporate campaign as a strategic tool for targeting employees goes back at least four decades. The movie "Norma Rae" starring Sally Field is based on the story of the birth of the corporate campaign, generally credited to Ray Rogers who, to this day, runs corporate campaigns. His website explains his company's services. Corporate Campaign does research and strategic analysis, strategy development, media coverage, mobilizing, coalition building, and a lot more. It is a structured approach to organizing, so don't be deceived by employees and others on television claiming to be grassroots demonstrators. If you hear your employees whispering his name, you're about to become a target. The corporate campaign is strategic because there's a calculated plan for achieving a future outcome: unionization.

Think of the corporate campaign as a union battle plan consisting of a series of tactical maneuvers. They include negative media communications, rallies or demonstrations involving employees and community members, websites attacking the employer, filing complaints with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), boycotts, card-check organizing, phone calls to regulatory agencies, soliciting national and local celebrities or people of influence, and walkouts. Card check is a union tactic in which the union secretly convinces a majority of your employees to sign union authorization cards that are then presented to you so that you'll accept the union without putting it to a workforce vote.

Unions will use negative language in all of its communications and gives campaign names that are meant to suggest an employer is guilty of something or that employees are mistreated. The language is meant to inspire emotional responses, like 'Justice for Janitors' and 'Hotel Workers Rising.' The latter is an ongoing UNITE HERE corporate campaign that also uses its website to drive people to unionized hotels, thus trying to steer customers away from non-unionized businesses. It's the equivalent of an endless corporate campaign to cause financial harm to non-union hotels.

Corporate campaigns rely on intimidation to get results. The SEIU (Service Employees International Union) Contract Campaign Manual is a good read for employers because it's a no-holds-barred description of tactics that unions are encouraged to use, including breaking the law under the guise of enforcing social justice in a manner similar to Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King.

Corporate Campaigns Are Usually Built On Lies

The foundation of every corporate campaign is built on financial attacks. Unions will publicly and secretly spread lies about an employer to drive customers away. This has gotten much easier to do with the internet, but a few phone calls can cause a lot of damage. Sutter Health in California had to respond to union-triggered investigations from the IRS, FTC, NLRB, DSHS, DOD, and several other agencies. The union knows you'll have to pay for attorneys to defend your company. The UNITE HERE union had organized Angelica Textile, a Sutter Health laundry supplier. During the Sutter Health campaign, the union mailed out 11,000 postcards to women warning them to not use Sutter birthing centers because they used dirty laundry. This was a direct attack meant to hurt the company's relationship with the community.

The SEIU's Sodexo corporate campaign is another good example of how unions operate and how employers can fight back. In this case, the SEIU launched a campaign called 'Clean Up Sodexo' and attacked the company in several ways. The union claimed the company pays substandard wages and has unfair labor practices. The SEIU arranged protests outside the Sodexo headquarters, but the campaign also used blackmail, extortion, trespassing, and illegal lobbying to keep customers away. Willing to take the lowest road possible, the union threw plastic roaches into food that Sodexo catered and threatened Sodexo USA employees with public exposure for wrongdoing.

RELATED: Union Corruption Today: The Risk to Employers

How To Fight Back Against A Corporate Campaign

You can legally fight back. Sutter Health filed defamation charges against the union and won a jury-awarded $17.2 million. However, it was appealed and sent back to the original court. Sutter Health agreed to mediation, which led to a smaller award and an apology from the union.

Sodexo fought back by filing a lawsuit under RICO (Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act). The lawsuit claimed the SEIU was guilty of extortion by threatening financial damage unless Sodexo agreed to accept the union via card check organizing. The SEIU ended the corporate campaign, presumably because it knew it would lose in court.

The SEIU lost a jury case when the union was found guilty of wrongfully interfering with the business relations of Professional Janitorial Service (PJS) in Houston. The SEIU had filed 25 wage claims with the Department of Labor (only one led to a finding), saying PJS forces employees to work without pay, and 19 unfair labor practice complaints with the NLRB (all were resolved or withdrawn). The SEIU had also distributed handbills, made speeches and organized rallies, all claiming PJS withheld employee pay. The union had caused PJS to lose 12 customers, with one customer saying the union had occupied her conference rooms to object to the company hiring PJS. The company fought the SEIU in the Texas courts for ten years and in the end, the Texas jury delivered a $5.3 million verdict against the SEIU for wrongly disparaging PJS. In light of the extraordinary length of the case, the judge awarded another $2.5 million in interest. 

The Costs of a Corporate Campaign

The lengthy explanation and examples of corporate campaigns help understand the enormous costs that employers incur when a union conducts a corporate campaign. You'll need to dedicate significant resources to defend the company's reputation through various means. Your company will have to pay an outside attorney or commit an internal one to working the case. You'll also need to run an aggressive public relations campaign to address the union accusations, and that can include expensive print and television ads, as well as paying someone to manage social media to ensure the lies do not go viral without a response. You must respond internally via corporate training and development programs that truthfully set the record straight and address your company's stand on unions. Some employers may choose to have employee meetings, requiring employees to stop working to attend. Human Resources staff will need to respond to more grievances.

The employer-employee relationship is damaged. Even if the employer is able to end the corporate campaign, employee engagement is harmed, and you'll need to re-engage the workforce, incurring more union-triggered costs. There is a risk of employees leaving the company, either because the union convinces them they're treated unfairly or because they want to avoid being involved in a workplace that's a union target. During a corporate campaign, the workplace is at risk of developing a toxic culture in which people become angry, defensive, and resentful. Employees who choose to participate in a walkout will lower productivity.

There are intangible costs too. Looking at the big picture, jobs are lost when the company loses customers, impacting the economy. Other intangible costs include the increased reluctance of employees to have an open dialogue with their supervisors, so problems are allowed to fester; lower employee engagement levels; employees proactively looking for workplace issues or problems; and employees telling family and friends, via word-of-mouth and social media, that the company treats employees unfairly. This, in turn, makes it more difficult to attract skilled talent and to engage the community.

What If The Corporate Campaign Wins?

Sometimes employers let the union win out of fear the negative publicity will permanently harm the business. Corporate campaigns can seriously damage a company's reputation and brand. The costs of unionization are even higher than the costs of fighting a corporate campaign.

Once your workforce is unionized, the company must dedicate ongoing resources to adhere to the union contract, while management time must be spent regularly addressing union-inspired grievances. There are many examples of a company that let the union in, and the union became a major contributor to its bankruptcy (think: Hostess).

Is Your Organization Vulnerable to a Corporate Campaign?

Sometimes the corporate campaign can produce positive results. For example, the campaign may bring to light a company's lack of transparency about product content or a subcontractor that's violating environmental sustainability policies. Labor activists contributed to Nike's system of monitoring and remedying factory working conditions. The message is that you, as an employer, must take each union claim seriously and be proactive in making improvements if they are justified. Unions will always look for the vulnerabilities that are the easiest to exploit and will get the public's attention, like safety or family leave policies.

In most cases, the negative results of a corporate campaign far outweigh the positive ones. The key is to identify and address your internal and external vulnerabilities yourself and make improvements. Don't wait for a union to point them out. Developing high employee engagement levels is critical so that employees don't whisper among themselves in the workplace or in the community about unionizing to address what they see as injustices. You want them to feel free to discuss their needs with their supervisors or other leaders as issues arise.

The best way to avoid a corporate campaign is to not, to the best of your ability, give employees any reason to talk to a union representative. If the union does start a corporate campaign, it's imperative to try to convince them to end it by either addressing the issues publicly with an aggressive public relations counter-campaign to lower exposure or to make it so expensive that the union gives up. Other options include using a neutral mediator, leveraging a neutrality agreement by requiring the union to end the campaign to get your signature, or filing a lawsuit and partnering with local support organizations. Nothing involving unions is easy, but keeping it out of your workplace is a lot easier than decertifying it.

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was carefully crafted to ensure that employees can exercise their right to organize - or stay union-free -  without inappropriate interference. Over decades, case law has determined exactly where the right to organize ends and employers' rights begin. For example, employers can create and enforce a non-solicitation policy in the workplace, which prevents unions from coming on-site. However, such policies cannot specifically target unions - they must apply to all forms of solicitation, including fundraisers or charitable requests not sponsored by the business. But of course, union organizers have a remarkably effective method of circumventing non-solicitation policies: visiting employees in their homes.

The Home Visit Strategy

The technical intention of the NLRA is to create a fair, balanced playing field so that workers who wish to organize can do so. However, lawmakers had no interest in requiring employers to permit union organizers on-site. Unions complained that their inability to contact employees put them at an unfair disadvantage, since employers have a "captive audience" in the workplace.

The Home Visit Doctrine was an attempt to return balance. Under NLRB case law, employers cannot visit workers in their homes, but union organizers can. Union organizers usually begin to make home visits after a petition for an election has been filed with the NLRB. At this point, employers are required to provide the union with an Excelsior List, which includes the personal contact information for all employees in the bargaining unit.

Home Visit Tactics

Typically, visits from a union organizer are carefully staged as social calls. Organizers bring along sympathetic co-workers, and perhaps they offer a gift of food or flowers for the home. Under these circumstances, the targeted employees are more likely to allow organizers into their homes for conversation. These "casual" visits can have a powerful influence on employees. Unions gain a captive audience of their own, as the employees don't want to appear rude by turning their "guests" away.

Organizers use this opportunity to their best advantage, gathering insight into individual concerns with the work environment and making promises to resolve these issues once the union is certified. They mirror any perceived problems in the workplace, and they turn the discussion into a miniature rally, stirring the pot and agitating issues that employers may already be in the process of addressing. As an employer, you have good reason to be nervous about home visits, but there are steps you can take to mitigate this risk.

Home Visits: Steps You Can Take

While the NLRA protects workers' right to organize, it also protects their right not to organize - and it does give employers explicit permission to communicate with their staff. These are a few of the points you can and should make during an organizing campaign:

1. Employees who do not wish to receive home visits can put a "no solicitation" or "do not disturb" sign on their doors. This removes some of the pressure to allow "visitors" from the union into their homes. As one Senior HR Manager of Operations at a packaging company told us, "During a recent USW campaign, our employees were receiving home visits and they were very unhappy about it.   Their time away from work is their personal time and they do not appreciate unwanted solicitors.  The employees were coming to us (HR) and asking for assistance. The UnionProof team at Projections was able to provide us with a door hanger which we made available to our employees for their homes. It allowed them a chance to tell the union "no thank you" in a polite manner while maintaining their privacy.  The employees were very appreciative of this."
2. Remind employees that unions are legally permitted to make any promise they please - whether or not they can legitimately deliver on it. Employers are not permitted this same sort of flexibility with the truth. Let employees know that they can trust the information that you provide.
3. Mention that in today's digitally-driven culture, home visits aren't necessarily in-person. Websites like Coworker.org and apps like WorkIt are designed to fan the flames of worker discontent, encouraging employees to organize rather than work with their employers to resolve issues.

RELATED: Union Organizing and Online Safety For Your Employees

The most important point to remember if faced with the possibility of employee home visits is that you can communicate with your staff members about this practice - and you can tell your staff members they have the right to deny union organizers into their homes. Employers who are not proactive in communicating with team members about home visits often find themselves at risk of a successful union campaign.

Companies - both union and union-free - have posed the question, "does a union presence affect employee engagement?" The answer is complex, and not based on any one individual metric. Instead, a variety of factors affect levels of engagement, and of those, union representation can play a role. Generally speaking, union members may remain with an organization longer than their non-union peers, but are less likely to recommend their place of employment to others as "a good place to work" than union-free employees. To make matters worse, research does suggest that unionized employees are less engaged than non-unionized ones.

Employee engagement can be defined as the emotional commitment that employees have towards the organization they work in and its vision for the future. From an employer's perspective, it is using new measures and initiatives to increase this commitment, thereby ensuring productivity and business success. According to the latest Gallup State of the Global Workplace report, only 15 percent of employees worldwide are engaged in their jobs.

Engagement affects employees' perception of compensation. According to Gallup, 29% of union workers and 25% of non-union workers strongly agreed that they are paid appropriately for the work they do, compared to 48% of engaged employees, regardless of union membership.

In a unionized environment, if union representatives perceive the company's employee engagement initiatives and subsequent actions as threatening to their influence, they are less likely to provide unbiased responses. Unions have been know to work to  prevent members from participating in any engagement initiative.

There are three types of employees in any organization: engaged, not engaged and actively disengaged.

Engaged Employees

Engaged employees are faithful and emotionally invested in the company's goals. They don't work just for the money or next promotion, but for the overall betterment of the organization and it's customers. They often emerge as managers and leaders.

Employees Who Are Not Engaged

Those who aren't engaged (67 percent of the workforce) are tough to identify, as they are usually happy and content in their role. However, they do only what they have been told to do and are not committed to the forward progress of the organization. They can be either a threat or a great opportunity -- because they can change into disengaged or engaged employees, according to their experiences. Many factors can influence an employee's engagement at work, however, most often, low employee commitment stems from discord between employer and employee, manager and worker, and leader and team, meaning a company that actively works to engage workers will fare better with these team members, be they union or union-free.

Actively Disengaged Employees

Around 18 percent of the workforce are actively disengaged employees. These workers complain constantly and create a toxic environment, which affects the morale of others around them. This results in lower employee satisfaction and overall disengagement of the workforce, as well as diminished productivity.

As actively disengaged employees express their dissatisfaction, negative sentiment against the organization may spread. Any opposition from you can be misconstrued as anti-employee action and even make union organizing easy. Before you realize what is happening, there might be union card signing and you will have to deal with union representatives rather than your employees.

Good employee engagement programs focus on a common interest rather than the employer-employee difference prevalent in unionized environments. So, all such initiatives may be met with skepticism and suspicion by unions because they worry that they may become irrelevant if these programs succeed. Many employees understand this; however, since unions were formed originally to protect employee rights, they remain loyal to them.

5 Tips For Creating An Issue-Free Environment

You can enjoy the loyalty of employees and ensure that your company pursues an issue-free environment with a great workplace culture, excellent communication and team cohesiveness by doing the following:

• Treat your employees well, listen to them, and give them room to grow not just to make them more productive but because it's the right thing to do, thereby ensuring that they don't turn to an external agency in times of need.
• Understand that employee engagement encompasses all aspects of employee experience: connection, meaning, impact and appreciation, and implement measures to enrich it.
• Remember your "secondary" audience at home  because they also influence the company's reputation. If you are working to become an employer of choice, caring for those your employees care about can go a long way toward true engagement.
• Re-orient and update yourself to keep pace with a changing workforce that consists of millennials and freelancers; conditions such as flexible hours, global markets, telecommuting and flat hierarchies; and the reality that there is no more clear-cut division between worker and management.
• Be ready to engage with employees as a group in whichever form or forum they congregate in, so that you are aware of their collective thoughts. You will thus be able to maintain positive relations with them and ensure that they remain invested in the organization and its goals.

What do Arizona, Florida, and Kentucky all have in common? What about North Carolina, Indiana, and Utah? All of these states, along with 22 others, have right-to-work laws -- statutes that govern security agreements between employers and unions. These laws don't guarantee employment for people looking for work, but they do oversee contractual agreements between companies and workers. This legislation has its proponents and opponents, but do right-to-work laws help or hinder companies?

1. Right-to-Work Laws Boost Local Economies

Research shows that companies prefer to operate in locations that have right-to-work laws -- something which boosts the local economy in these states. This means more job opportunities and a wider range of industries in some towns and cities. These states also have lower unemployment rates than unionized states, according to data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The job market also grew twice as much in these states from 1990 through 2014. It's no surprise, then, that 480,000 people moved to states with right-to-work laws between July 2015-July 2015 alone.

"Most companies want to avoid getting unionized," says the public policy think tank The Heritage Foundation. "Workers in right-to-work states can still unionize. However, right-to-work reduces the financial incentives for unions to organize aggressively: they have less money on the line when workers can opt-out. Consequently, right-to-work causes them to focus their energies on companies with dissatisfied workers. Workers in these workplaces are both easier to organize and more likely to pay dues if the union wins."

2. No Mandatory Union Dues

In unionized states, workers have to pay mandatory dues -- regular payments to fund union activities. Employees have no say in this matter, and these fees often take a chunk out of their monthly paycheck. Average union dues total $400, and unionized organizations cost between 25-35 percent more than non-unionized ones. Expect these fees to rise further as union organizers pay their officers higher salaries in the future.

In right-to-work states, on the other hand, workers have a choice. Employees don't have to pay union dues to keep their jobs, and unions can't use these payments as bargaining chips on behalf of their members. The government of Obion County -- located in Tennessee, lists the benefits of right-to-work on their website. They say employees are "free to decide how to spend their own money" and "free to decide their own representation." As a result, workers experience an overall higher standard of living and better employment opportunities.

RELATED [VIDEO]: "Right To Work... Explained"

3. Right-to-Work Laws Generate Higher Wages

Unionists say that right-to-work legislation lowers wages, but research suggests otherwise. Once Heritage Research Fellow James Sherk adjusted cost-of-living differences, he found private-sector wages in right-to-work states and non-right-to-work states are practically the same.

One study goes even further and suggests that right-to-work laws have provided workers with higher wages. Real personal income in these states increased twice as much as non-right-to-work states from 1970 through 2013, according to economics emeritus professor at Ohio University Richard Vedder.

The right-to-work legislation reduces the incentive for unions to target your company. As a result, you can offer your employees more competitive wages, eliminate mandatory dues and boost the local economy.

Want to find out about this? Check out UnionProof -- positive employee relations made simple. Even better, educate your employees on what right-to-work laws do - for them, and for your company!

By the year 2025, millennials will account for 75 percent of working age people, and some are already eyeing unionization as a means to an end. The "end" is a collective voice in a changing work environment that's defined by contracted labor, temporary positions, 24/7 work due to technology and globalization creating a competitive labor market. Numerous studies have been conducted to better understand the workplace matters of importance to millennials. They include employee rights, shared management, work-life balance, job autonomy, participatory decision-making, changing work and work designs, ongoing communication, adequate training and the social responsibilities of corporations.

Some frustrated millennials have positive opinions about unionization as an avenue to getting these issues addressed by giving them a powerful collective voice in the workplace. Employers must develop the ability to engage employees in realistic discussions concerning the negatives of unions or one day find themselves confronted with a union campaign.

Taking Control of a Destiny

Employers know that unions can bring many negatives. An employer can explain that unions often limit employee rights, succeed through intimidation and tie employer hands in areas like compensation and promotion - and the millennial is likely to believe the employer is only being self-serving. Idealistic millennials view the next labor movement as a means to higher wages and job security in a volatile economic environment. But, do they understand the full consequences of a decision to unionize, like seniority rules blocking job promotions of more qualified people and the impact of contract-based pay increases on job availability?

The reality is that unions can take away exactly what millennials desire - the power to drive their own destinies and control their work lives. Unions may restrict the employer's ability to promote the most qualified employees and limit pay increases based on productivity. They can interfere with the employee's ability to have honest discussions with supervisors and career progress. Millennials believe in collaborative work styles, and unions interfere with that ability through work rules discouraging teamwork involving different levels of employees.

Trading a Negative for a Positive

An effective leader knows it's first necessary to get the millennial's attention. That requires using technology-enabled training, rapid feedback and communication best practices that millennials respect - collaboration, fact-based information and reasonableness. Descriptions of doomsday scenarios in which employees are intimidated by union thugs, forced to go on strike and unable to get earned promotions because of seniority rules may fall on deaf ears.

Ideally, the best approach is discussing the things of importance to millennials and pointing out the ways the company meets their needs with flexible work schedules, a collaborative culture, transparency in decision-making, effective formal and informal communication systems, fair compensation policies, training and skills development opportunities, a commitment to social improvement, job stability and the freedom to discuss workplace issues with managers without fear of repercussions. Then, explain how each positive could be impacted by the union's presence.

Unions require employee issues to go through the union representative first rather than working collaboratively with the employer. In another example, an employer may not be able to allow flexible work schedules because of seniority clauses and union scheduling rules. Also, as union member Zachary Yost points out, the union dues deducted from paychecks can take a significant percent of the employee's paycheck. Since millennials make up the largest group in lower-paying retail and service industries, an hour of pay deducted from a part-time paycheck can equate to a five-percent loss.

Collaboratively Embracing Positive Values

The values that unions tout - but don't adhere to - are the identical values successful employers embrace. Now is the time for employers to union proof their workplaces as pro-union millennials push unionization. The Pew Research Center found that 57 percent of millennials have a favorable opinion of unions. Employers should explain the negatives of joining a union by regularly sharing via technology the positive things that matter most to millennials. Unions make a lot of promises they cannot fulfill. What they do deliver is uncertainty and negativity.