What Communicators Need to Know About EFCA

If a communicator is not tuned into labor relations issues, the big change that the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) represents may not be immediately apparent. With apologies to my international peers, this topic is only relevant for practitioners in America because the legislation will apply exclusively to U.S. labor law.

Under EFCA, HR & employee communications must become pro-active and preemptive. Read my lips: not reactive.

Here’s the skinny for communicators: under current law, most communicators generally wait (i.e., react) once advised to do so by HR or Legal before addressing matters related to labor unions. Under EFCA, communication strategies will have to change, because:

• The “card check” provision of EFCA means that your employees can be approached by union organizers and sign cards authorizing a union without your knowledge. In fact, union organizers have a strategy related to this (future post).
• Those card signatures are a legally-binding vote for unionization, not merely an “expression of interest” as has been true in recent years.
• Up until EFCA, those cards were used to trigger a secret ballot election in 60 days – time which the employer had to campaign against unionization. If EFCA passes, the secret ballot election will be a thing of the past.
• The crux for communicators is that the time frame and opportunity to campaign against unionization will cease to exist under EFCA. It’s not that you can’t campaign, it’s that the company will be unionized before you get a chance to do so.
• Thus, communicators must campaign against unionization, or promote a union free philospohy, in advance. That’s a huge cultural and communications shift for most organizations.
• Hence the conclusion: the urgent need for pro-active and preemptive HR & employee communications.
• Absolutely essential: educate your employees now about the value of their signature and what it will mean under EFCA. It’s imperative that employees not be blind sighted by a change in labor law with which they may not be familiar. They must know now that signing a card is equal to voting for a union under EFCA.

It’s all a bit byzantine, and even as someone experienced in labor relations, it took a while before these new realities sunk in. Unions will visit employees at homes, in parking lots, etc. to secure their signatures. Once accomplished, employers will be presented with a union. No election. No chance to fight it. Your opportunity to put your position and your voice out there will be gone. Long gone. Ancient history. Wait and react at your own peril.

Ramp up HR & employee communications now.