Management Talking Points:

1. Don’t probe (it’s illegal)

2. Don’t discourage discussion (it’s illegal)

3. If asked, or if overheard, follow these talking points:

   a. Company believes each employee wants and deserves to be treated as an individual, and is likely to succeed and prosper in a union-free setting.

   b. Company values the direct working relationship and treats employees well.

   c. When problems arise, as they inevitably do, Company believes they’re best positioned to solve those problems one-on-one — often employee and manager, but without a third party.

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Rebuffing the Talking Points:

a. The company took no data about how employees want to be treated. To say we “deserve” to be treated a certain way is paternalistic at best.

JWA — the group of employees responsible for organizing — collected data from a survey that went around in January. It shows that 95% of us are unhappy with how the company treats us: Keeping us in the dark about planned changes; “altering the deal” whenever the CEO wills it; and pitting employees against each other for a shrinking piece of that growing pie called profit.

The way to succeed, in business as in war, is with a unified front. Shoulder to shoulder in solidarity, with interlocked shields, the Roman Legions marched unopposed wherever they chose. But should one man break ranks, rout would soon follow. United we stand.

b. The company values? Of course it does.

The company is in business to make the most money for — well — whoever controls where the money goes. Right now, that means the board of directors and the CEO. With 300,000 one-on-one relationships, we’re stuck in a race to the bottom: The company holds all the cards. Only through collective bargaining can we hope to leverage for ourselves a fair share of that sweet, sweet profit that our efforts enable.

c. One-on-one, there are no witnesses. We all know what happens when there are no witnesses.

If you’re fixing to have an uncomfortable conversation with management, wouldn’t you rather have a colleague in your corner? You’d have that right under the law, if you were in a union.

A union is no mere “third party”. It is composed exclusively of non-management workers in your same company — in the same bargaining unit. Yes, we would have a relationship with a national organization to help with the legal paperwork. But each union local is its own legal entity, operated democratically by the vote of its members.