Picture this: You’re the proud CEO of a successful company, known for being a great place to work, and you open the news to find that your biggest competitor’s workforce is unionizing. You knew about the new wave of organized labor, but you never thought it would happen in your industry. Now you start to wonder if you might be next.
How Businesses Should (and Shouldn’t) Respond to Union Organizing
In 2022, U.S. workers voted to form more unions than they have in nearly 20 years.
January 06, 2023
HBR Staff/Softulka/Robert Daly/Getty Images
Summary.
In 2022, workers in the United States voted to form more unions than they have in nearly 20 years, and labor has recently organized at companies in almost every industry. But most business leaders have responded in an outdated way, by embracing union busting at all costs. This ignores business risks of the modern era — and often encourages companies to break the law. In this article the authors, building on their academic and practical expertise, explain how leaders can respond much more constructively to the new wave of labor organizing.