Employee Relations Specialist for a national retail company

You are the Employee Relations Specialist for a national retail company with locations across the United
States. The nearly 500 company employees are diverse in terms of age and demographic differences. Your
primary work location is Southeast Pennsylvania. Recently, the employees in the mid-Atlantic region, managed
by Kristopher Kolumbus, have expressed dissatisfaction with the work environment. There are approximately
125 employees in the mid-Atlantic region. Their specific concerns include receiving small pay raises for the
past 2 – 3 years, limited employee benefits, lack of career mobility and progression, and heightened security
controls implemented due to theft concerns. There has been recent talk among the employees about the
possibility of unionization, and some workers have begun exploring options such as United Food & Commercial
Workers International Union and the Retail, Wholesale, and Department Store Union. Before either of these
unions will send an organizer to the organization, it wants to be sure that sufficient employees will back union
representation. Some employees have started company-wide communication to increase interest in
unionization.
As the Employee Relations Specialist, it is your responsibility to ensure that supervisors and managers follow
the rules regarding a union organizing campaign. In response to this potential campaign, you decide to take
some initial actions and prepare several documents to share with your boss, the Director of Human Resources:
• A summary email to the Director of Human Resources describing the issues and what actions you are taking
(which include the below items)
• A one-page memo to all managers and supervisors indicating what they can and cannot do during any union
organizing effort.
• An email to your human resource colleagues about actions the HR team should consider in response to some
of the concerns raised by the Mid-Atlantic Region employees
• An outline for a meeting to be held between Human Resources and the organization’s leadership team
regarding the organizing effort