Firm repays community with union-busting tactics

(Rochester Business Journal)

Some of the greatest barriers workers face in winning the right to bargain collectively and form a union are widespread union busting tactics which are often illegal but rarely punished.  Every employer in our community should be held accountable for meeting at least a basic standard of behavior when dealing with workers, especially – though not exclusively – those employers who receive tax relief and other economic development incentives to do business here. 

Once again one of our local companies has displayed complete disdain for the right of its employees to a free and fair union election.  Once again our community has been invaded by a union busting law firm bent on threatening and intimidating Rochester employees.  Once again, we’ve opened our doors and our coffers to an employer who mistreats our local workforce, Sutherland Global Services.

Not long ago this community bent over backwards to accommodate Sutherland in their quest for economic development incentive packages.  Last October the community was praising the company as an engine for the kind of quality jobs Rochester needs.  COMIDA gave the company a substantial tax break to keep them in the area, predicting the company would create jobs and generate more than $311,000 in local taxes over ten years.  Jack Doyle pushed urgently with the County Legislature for expansion of the county’s Empire Zone to include a site in Greece that Sutherland was considering at the time. 

When the community extends itself to a company like this, isn’t it reasonable to expect some minimum standards of decent behavior?  Is the expectation simply that beneficiarys simply create new jobs under any circumstances, or should we as a community require a certain level of decency and respect for employees?

Here’s the story:.

Last March Southerland said it expected to increase its work force by almost 3,000 jobs, and Dan Lang, the senior vice president was quoted in local papers as saying, “business is unbelievable.”(3/24)  We are growing rapidly,” yet  the company has engaged in a series of benefit reductions and takeaways.  These have included elimination of the 401k contribution, paid holidays, tuition reimbursement, and most recently, less than four months after Lang’s statement, paid sick time for its North American Service Delivery unit.

After this series of takeaways a majority of Sutherland employees signed union cards, authorizing UNITE HERE to petition the NLRB for an election.  The election date was then set for September 17^th.  Shortly after the date was set Sutherland brought in the union busters. 

As if acting directly from the Union Buster’s handbook, these attorneys and their staff started out really slow.  They introduced themselves as neutrals, interested in educating the employees.  Then, quietly, an employee was sent around asking people how they intend to vote, a move that would be illegal if it could be traced to management.  That information was then used to plan mandatory meetings that exclude pro-union voters, and their dissenting views. 

Some employees say the meetings gave them the impression the union busters were federal officials from the NLRB.  After falsely establishing themselves as an authoritative and disinterested party, the union busters began to frighten employees by suggesting their jobs were very tenuous, and discussing how any disruption might be enough to send all the work overseas.  At the same time the company put out daily flyers that smear the union and distract employees from the issues at Sutherland, while pro-union literature is prohibited. 

On August 30^th, as all too often happens, the ultimate anti-union tactic was employed.  A well known pro-union employee was fired for his union activity.  After three years of employment without a single disciplinary incident, this employee was warned several times about his union support, and then disciplined three times and terminated within the space of two weeks.  Although the union has filed charges on his behalf, this sort of behavior is an egregious violation of all Sutherland employees’ rights.

In addition to being an unconscionable attack on these employees, it is also an attack on a local union that has long been an important benefactor of the Rochester community.  UNITE HERE, formerly UNITE, has been in Rochester for over 80 years.  During that time it has helped create and sustain many of the industries that built Rochester.  Since the 1940s the union has helped Xerox grow and maintain high paying production jobs.  Just this summer UNITE HERE was critical to raising the funds, including a large donation of its own capital, necessary to keep Hickey Freeman in this community. 

It is an outrage that Sutherland has attacked these workers and this union.  Though these union busting firms neither manufacture a product, nor perform a public service, companies like Sutherland regularly pay them hundreds of thousands of dollars to practice their craft; which is to spread fear and confusion, to mock our employees’ rights, and to turn a democratic process into a third world dictatorial circus. 

 This is certainly not what we expect from a company receiving enormous economic development benefits from our community. There is a basic standard of treatment for every worker as defined by the laws of our land, and employers who violate these laws and our standards should be held accountable for their actions.