Healthcare executives in Washington and Oregon are most concerned about union organizing, but recognize the best way to prevent organization is to educate their employees, according to a survey by a leading labor relations firm.

According to a survey of 26 top-level healthcare executives from throughout Washington and northern Oregon done last month by Adams, Nash, Haskell & Sheridan last month, close to 71 percent of the executives said their CEOs are most concerned about union organizing, while 96 percent — almost unanimous — agreed that educating employees is the best method to prevent union organizing.

“While it’s not a scientific survey, it nevertheless has provided us with a pretty good snapshot of how healthcare managers are thinking in Washington State and Oregon,” said William R. Adams, Ph.D., president of Adams, Nash, Haskell & Sheridan.

Executives were asked to answer three survey questions. On the first two they were asked to rank the priority of their answers.

In response to the question, “What keeps your CEO up at night,” 71 percent ranked “union organizing” the highest. The next highest ranking was for “employee lawsuits,” while the lowest ranking was for “benefit costs.”

The second question asked the executives their opinion of best method to prevent union organizing. They overwhelmingly ranked, “educating employees” as the highest priority, followed by “locking union organizers out of the workplace” and “aggressive opposition” to unions.

The third question asked the executives to complete the sentence, “Agreeing to neutrality agreements and card checks...” They were given four options:

• Helps management negotiate contract concessions
• Reduces employee conflict
• Locks management into ever-costly union contracts, and
• Eliminates the right of employees and management to free and fair elections.

   Neutrality agreements ensure that company management will remain neutral on union organizing and will allow the issue to be decided by the counting of union authorization cards instead of a secret-ballot election of employees with oversight by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).

More than 58 percent of the executives said neutrality agreements and card checks eliminate the right of employees and management to free and fair elections. This compares to 29 percent who said they lock management into ever-costly union contracts, while eight percent said it helps get contract concessions, and five percent said it reduces employee conflict.