Barry,

I work in an organization that has more than one union (RN's, and others). First, to address your comment on horror stories. That has not been my experience and it certainly does not need to be an organization's experience. It is possible to work very successfully and collaboratively with unions. I have had union leaders report directly to me for years, and they had the same interests I did in many respects (for example not keeping bad employee's around) and worked to accomplish the same end goals. Currently, we have had success in tying monetary rewards to organizational outcomes such as patient satisfaction results.

We have not made any efforts to overtly disband current unions. The best you can do is rebuild the relationships /trust/issues that were responsible for the employees seeking unionization in the first place. Because you are right, they got into the organization for a reason. I have also seen that over time employee's can become very satisfied with management and dissatisfied with their union and have gotten rid of the union on their own.

If you are not currently unionized, you are indeed lucky (it is time consuming and expensive with all that it entails and certainly creates restrictions), and now is the time to do your best to build the trust and relationships so folks don't want or feel the need to seek representation to be heard or to feel that managment is being fair to them.

An RN union has been in my hospital since 1982 long before my time. From what I hear, it may have been warranted at the time, however, was probably more a factor of the town's manufacturing base and multiple unions. I cannot say that it has been a complete horror story, however it is very costly and difficult at times. Having the unique experience of having been a member of the union as a staff RN prior to being promoted to management, I found them very frustrating to work with. The leadership were very self serving and rarely focused on concerns for patient care, only on financial considerations. The union in my facility tends to keep the pot stirred up most of the time. If there is perceived disagreement and mistrust of management, it makes them more valuable to their membership. We must remember, they are a "business" of their own.

Marie makes an important and often overlooked distinction; unions are business entities and union dues are the source of the revenue streams necessary for business continuation. Unions therefore behave in a manner that preserves the revenue stream- generally by hyperinflating real or perceived slights against employees/members.

I think it wise to add the disclaimer that as employers, it is not our role to "break" a union. Indeed, there are few legally defensible avenues available to the employer that won't produce multiple unfair labor practice charges by the union and the NLRB.

The bargaining unit members (your employees) are really the only ones who can abandon representation- and the process is very difficult and time sensitive.