It’s About To Get Harder For Companies To Hide Union-Busting

[applegrove]

It’s About To Get Harder For Companies To Hide Union-Busting

by Dave Jamieson at the Huffington Post

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/union-busting-persuader-rule_us_56f1bdcbe4b0c3ef52172770?utm_hp_ref=politics

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A lot of U.S. companies pay top dollar just to keep labor unions out of their workplaces. It’s hard to know exactly how much — or who — they pay, because the reporting standards aren’t all that strict. But that’s about to change.

On Wednesday, the Labor Department announced a final version of its contentious “persuader” rule. Persuaders are lawyers and consultants hired by companies to discourage workers from unionizing. The art — sometimes subtle, sometimes not — is known as “union avoidance.” Unions, though, have a more derisive term for it: union-busting.

Employers are already required to report to the federal government any direct work these consultants do on their behalf — that is, any talks or presentations the consultants personally deliver to workers. However, consultants can also advise company supervisors on what to say to workers and how to say it, thus bypassing the reporting requirements with behind-the-scenes work that doesn’t have to be disclosed.

Until now. Under the new rule, employers and their contractors will have to acknowledge any indirect “persuading” that was done and the fee structure for it. For example, if a lawyer helps a company craft a video presentation that paints unionizing as a bad idea, or drafts a speech for a manager, then both parties will have to inform the agency that they had a relationship and report how much money changed hands.




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