By Tim Lally

The vote on union representation at our hypothetical workplace is now only two weeks away. Will the workers choose the union, or will they succumb to the false hopes of a "better," union-free future that the employer and his fear-mongering consultants have instilled?

If the union has managed to retain majority support at this late stage, management knows it's time to drop some big bombshells. Some union-busting consultants have become specialists in particular industries or have positioned themselves to challenge the same labor organizations in many locations. The bombshells they lob at the last minute may be fashioned from records they've carefully compiled to identify disgruntled members of an international union.

It doesn't matter if (as is often the case) the "horror stories" happened years ago, involved only a handful of people or simply bear no resemblance to the realities of your situation. Since the consultant routinely portrays union advocates as "outsiders," he has every reason to reinforce this bad-guy image with wildly exaggerated tales of what "this very same union" did a long time ago, thousands of miles away.

As we've noted before, at various stages in an organizing campaign the most activist unions rely on their own rank-and-file members to rally support from those they seek to organize. The stale "horror stories" and the "outsider" stigmas lose their sting when they are countered with sincere, believable testimony of real people who speak from their own experience about union pride and achievements.

Often, in the campaign's final stages, it comes down to this: the payday surprise. As the employer hands out the pay envelopes, suddenly someone shouts: "Hey, what's going on? I've been shortchanged!"

The boss then hands out a second set of envelopes, labeled on the outside: "Enclosed is $20 of your hard-earned money, the minimum amount the union takes from its members' paychecks every month." Union-busting consultants call this all-too-common ploy "the split paycheck stuffer." The National Labor Relations Board deems it an acceptable tactic as long as it's used no less than 24 hours before the voting.

Anti-union leaflets based on the notion that the union had better "put its promises in writing" tend to multiply at this stage. Here is some typical wording as recommended by a prominent consultant:

"Ask the union salesperson for a signed, notarized, legally enforceable guarantee about any of the following:

"1. I guarantee you will get a pay raise of (blank space for amount promised) in your first contract.

"2. I guarantee you will not lose any of your current wages or benefits as long as you are represented by my union.

"3. I guarantee if you are called out on an economic strike, your job will not be filled by a permanent replacement.

"The union won't sign this because it can't make such guarantees. Talk is cheap — VOTE NO!"

Another type of "supervisory handout" that is often held back until the last weeks is what the notorious consultants, Jackson, Lewis, Schnitzler and Krupman (in their $75-a-copy book, Winning NLRB Elections) call "Your Personal Strike Cost Calculator." Over a chart with the heading, "How Long Will It Take You to Break Even after a Four-Week Strike?", columns of figures are stacked up like poker chips portraying ever-growing amounts of "lost wages."

Then there's the "contest" type of flyer, which asks questions like, "What's the largest fine ever levied against a member of the union?" and "What was the length of the union's longest strike?" Ostensibly to protect the "privacy" of contest entrants, entries are numbered and the employee retains a receipt. The correct answers and the winning number are announced right before the election.

Small group meetings and supervisory handouts may also be devoted to "the truth about collective bargaining," or at least the consultant's version of the truth. Management's basic point is that nothing in the law compels an employer to agree to any union "demands." They'll quote with approval the segment of the Labor Act that says an employer's only obligation is "to meet at reasonable times and confer in good faith with respect to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of employment…but such obligation does not compel either party to agree to a proposal or require the making of a concession."

If the union has done its job of preparing those whom it seeks to organize to do battle with the employer, all the flyers will fall flat and workers will react to the rhetoric at the "captive audience" meetings with skepticism. A viable union campaign isn't built on false promises; it's developed through visible strategies that show how working people can bring the utmost pressure to bear on a company and its corporate allies.

Next: The final week.

EDITOR'S NOTE: We'll be returning to the subject of anti-union consultants in future issues. Please tell us about your experiences with union-busting law firms and consultants. Send your letters to letters@laboreducator.org