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[...] Among employers there grew a great demand for expertise in the tricks of what was called "union avoidance." All that was needed were a few good capitalists ready to tap that burgeoning market, and a whole new industry was born.

The first nationally known management consulting firm that spe…

Once a union voting unit is established and the election date is set, federal labor law requires the employer to provide the union with the names and home addresses of all eligible employees. That law, which grew out of a 1966 U.S. Supreme Court decision, was intended to give unions easier access t…

So what could the foremen do about the union threat? It was time for a lesson in law. I walked to the back of the basement room and picked up the legal pad on which the miners had signed their names. I handed the tablet to the miner sitting nearest me and announced that everyone should make sure he…

I moved in closer. "You love your wife?" "Yes, sir."

"You sleep with your wife?"

The man blushed. "Uh, yes, sir."

"Well," I continued, "how would you like it if your mother-in-law slept between you and your wife every night?"

The crowd broke out in laughter, and…

I first met Cravat Coal on paper. One hot August day in 1983, I sent the paralegal student who worked as my assistant to the National Labor Relations Board office in downtown Cleveland to poke through the filings. That was the method I had developed to generate work during slow times. It turned out…