{"id":26214,"date":"2023-02-17T16:57:20","date_gmt":"2023-02-17T21:57:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/?p=26214"},"modified":"2023-02-17T16:57:20","modified_gmt":"2023-02-17T21:57:20","slug":"big-labor-targets-tech-company-findhelp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/26214\/big-labor-targets-tech-company-findhelp\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Labor Targets Tech Company findhelp"},"content":{"rendered":"

Here at CFIF, we\u2019ve written at length about how unionization rates in the United States have reached record lows<\/a>. Despite talk of Big Labor\u2019s resurgence<\/a>, spurred by a pro-union White House and a federal government that tips the scales<\/a> in unions\u2019 favor, American workers are just not sold by the self-enrichment<\/a> of union leadership and hostile negotiating practices that ultimately harm workers more than help them.<\/p>\n

America\u2019s growing tech sector, which typically maintains non-unionized workforces, perfectly illustrates today\u2019s workforce realities.<\/p>\n

A company named findhelp in Austin, Texas, however, suddenly finds itself at the center of an unwanted drama<\/a> that threatens the company\u2019s future courtesy of Big Labor.<\/p>\n

By way of background, findhelp is a social care network to connect people with community services. It\u2019s a \u201cpublic benefit company<\/a>\u201d backed by private equity that employs approximately 250 workers.<\/p>\n

On January 25, the Office and Professional Employees International Union (OPEIU) announced that findhelp workers formally sought a union representation election with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). Naturally, deep-pocketed Big Labor groups like the AFL-CIO leapt at the announcement to claim it as some sort of watershed moment for workers in the tech sector.<\/p>\n

Instead of a watershed moment, however, the reality appears to be Big Labor doing what it is notorious for doing: instigating worker unrest. This case offers a particularly chosen opportunity to Big Labor, as it desperately seeks to gain a foothold in the tech sector, and in a right-to-work state whose growing population and business prosperity are due in large part to the fact that it remains a refuge from the destructive public policies pushed by Big Labor.<\/p>\n

At the center of the effort to unionize findhelp\u2019s employees is the \u201cfindhelp Solidarity Network<\/a>,\u201d a glossy, public relations effort claiming employees at the company are \u201cmissing a voice at the table.\u201d Parroting commonplace Big Labor Union slogans, it expresses a desire to \u201censure that findhelp becomes, and stays, a place where all team members have a living wage, competitive benefits, and a respectful work culture.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those are curious charges against a tech start-up like findhelp, but ones that are all too recognizable for anyone familiar with Big Labor\u2019s antics.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, on the popular company-review website Glassdoor, findhelp maintains an average rating of 3.4 out of 5. Companies like findhelp in early stages of development naturally experience growing pains, and complaints on Glassdoor by current and past employees like issues with \u201ctransparency,\u201d \u201ctrust,\u201d and management allegedly refusing to respond to employee feedback are commonplace at start-ups. An NLRB complaint<\/a> charges findhelp with coercive actions, coercive rules and coercive statements, among other typical boilerplate union charges. Which raises the question of whether such commonplace complaints justify a full-blown union representation campaign threatening to drive a fledgling company into the ground through union representation.<\/p>\n

It also makes for an odd irony, because many tech sector companies maintain left-leaning employee cultures, often at the encouragement of left-leaning executives themselves. Accordingly, one might expect them to welcome unionization, since in the abstract those same left-leaning cultures would favor Big Labor and its partisan agenda.<\/p>\n

Tech sector employers, however, operate in an environment demanding fluid development and the ability to pivot on a moment\u2019s notice. Unions, by their very nature, inhibit that sort of fluidity and flexibility.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s an issue of obvious concern for management, investors and even customers who may question the ability of a company with Big Labor\u2019s bullseye on its back to function as effectively and efficiently as needed.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, all of this threatens to further embolden Big Labor, which may in turn have a substantial impact on startup companies across our economy, particularly in the tech sector.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, all eyes will be watching findhelp and how it navigates this sudden and unwanted disruption.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Here at CFIF, we\u2019ve written at length about how unionization rates in the United States have reached record lows. Despite talk of Big Labor\u2019s resurgence, spurred by a pro-union White House and a federal government that tips the scales in unions\u2019 favor, American workers are just not sold by the self-enrichment of union leadership and […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[5205,5206,5207,974,833],"class_list":["post-26214","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-posts","tag-afl-cio","tag-employment-labor","tag-findhelp","tag-labor-unions","tag-nlrb"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=26214"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26214\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":26216,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26214\/revisions\/26216"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cfif.org\/v\/freedom_line_blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}