Meet Jackson Lewis: Union Buster

[Omaha Steve]

http://www.americanrightsatwork.org/the-anti-union-network/for-profit-union-busters/jackson-lewis-20071018-313-254.html

Jackson Lewis presents itself as a reputable "national workplace law firm," yet under its polished veneer lies a for-profit unionbuster. In fact, Jackson Lewis is one of the oldest and largest union avoidance law firms in the nation. Jackson Lewis counsels businesses on labor relations strategies that prevent unions from entering the workplace. By operating in the shadows of corporate unionbusting campaigns, the firm remains virtually unknown to the general public.

Jackson Lewis capitalizes on ineffective labor laws, the desperation of some employers to remain union free, and the use of scare tactics to portray unions as an enemy to businesses.1 One of the firm's lawyers iterates the modus operandi of Jackson Lewis best: "Jackson Lewis was founded on the concept of preventive labor relations, and we want to help our clients before there's full-blown organizing. We are a full-service law firm. We just don't do the legal stuff-we handle the campaign." As with other unionbusting firms Jackson Lewis profits off manipulation of a weak labor law system to help its clients avoid unions, at all costs.
"Preventive" Labor Relations Practices
Jackson Lewis sells a variety of services to employers to prevent workers from ever considering a union. Here are a few examples of the firm's activities:

* Vulnerability Assessments: The firm provides audits as the first step for employers looking to avoid a union organizing campaign. By assessing an employer's vulnerability through measures such as weaknesses in management-employee communication and levels of workplace satisfaction among employees.2 The assessment aims to create an "issue-free" workplace where management makes clear that their business desires to remain union-free.

* "How To Stay Union Free" Seminars: These two-day intensive workshops are for a "bona-fide management representative" only. Seminars with provocative titles such as "Union Avoidance War Games"3 take place throughout the country and run an employer anywhere from $595 to $1,595. Jackson Lewis promises a "frightening, valuable, and enjoyable" seminar that completely prepares "supervisors to exercise their union-free rights under the law." A 2007 exposé by a journalist who went undercover at one of these union-free workshops revealed how Jackson Lewis encourages employers to skirt the law when it comes to unions. A Jackson Lewis lawyer reasoned that it is acceptable to fire union organizers, as long as one creates a legitimate reason: "Union sympathizers aren't entitled to any more protection than other workers."

* Union-Free Books, Articles, and Pamphlets: Among the anti-union manuals the firm produces are suggestively titled newsletters such as "Union KNOw -a publication devoted to enhancing the union-free status of clients and friends of Jackson Lewis," and books including "Leveling the Playing Field-What New York Charter Schools' Leaders Need to Know About Union Organizing."4


FULL story at link.

[Donnachaidh]

1. Omaha Steve -- is this the same group that had it's seminar meetings

Put up on youtube last year? Or is this a different one?

[Omaha Steve]

4. I think it is

I won't have time to look for more on this until tomorrow.

[ret5hd]

2. I wonder if there is a relationship between Jackson Lewis and R. Doug Lewis...

of "Election Center" fame.

[bushmeister0]

3. Good old Jackosn Lewis, I remember them from my days at Borders

From an old 1996 Nation story via the IWW:

"Borders manipulates its hippie image and uses new-age obfuscations to derail union efforts. At stores all over the country, executives flown in from the Ann Arbor headquarters hold small, mandatory 'open dialogues' where they insist that unions are 'out of date' and "divisive" and will disrupt the 'Borders culture.'

Unions -- fine for other companies -- are a betrayal of the Borders family. 'We're disappointed that they've chosen to bring in a third party,' says Borders spokeswoman Jodie Kohn.

Borders has a third party of its own: Jackson, Lewis, the number-one unionbusting law firm in the country.

Following the Jackson, Lewis primer, management showcases union spending like a U.F.C.W. president's $132,000 salary (Borders C.E.O. Robert DiRomualdo rakes in more than ten times that amount), and hands out propaganda to stir up employees' strike fears."

http://www.iww.org/unions/iu660/borders/borders6.shtml

I recall one of the tips J&L gave Border's managers on how to tell if their staff was secretly organiazing was to look out for employee parties they weren't invited to. Seriously!

Who the hell would invite their boss to a party?

As far as "open dialogues" go, I remember sitting at a mandatory meeting held by our DM who told us we didn't want a union, they didn't want a union and there would be no union. Very open, end of discussion.

[stillcool]

5. I didn't know that...

I don't suppose the owners of the company read the books they sell.