The Keene Group Launches Website Targeted to Healthcare Industry

The Keene Group, the nation’s premiere source for union avoidance products and services, including research, consulting, training and video, has launched a website designed specifically for the healthcare industry. The website (www.educateemployees.com) includes detailed statistics and facts about the labor unions that are targeting healthcare workers and what employers can do to inoculate their workforce from the looming threat of union organizers.

Houston, TX (PRWEB) March 24, 2006 -- The Keene Group, the nation’s premiere source for union avoidance products and services, including research, consulting, training and video, has launched a website designed specifically for the healthcare industry. The website (www.educateemployees.com) includes detailed statistics and facts about the labor unions that are targeting healthcare workers and what employers can do to inoculate their workforce from the looming threat of union organizers.

“The AFL-CIO and Change to Win Coalition have made it clear hospitals and healthcare providers are their top targets," said Stuart Keene, co-founder and president of The Keene Group. "We created an online source where healthcare professionals could better understand and stay abreast of union activity, as well as learn ways to keep their facilities union-free.”

With more than 30 years of management consulting and training experience, Keene is widely regarded as the nation’s foremost expert in labor relations and union-avoidance matters. He founded PTI Labor Research, Inc. in 1979 and successfully managed its operations until 2000. He has co-founded The Keene Group in 2001 with his daughter, Kristin, who has more than 13 years of experience in the industry.

Union organizing in hospitals and other healthcare providing facilities has dramatically increased in the past year, with an unprecedented 75 percent success rate. Unions, such as the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the American Nurses Association (ANA), are actively competing amongst one another for representation of healthcare professionals.

Kristin Keene cited several reasons that healthcare providers should pay attention to the SEIU. "First, SEIU has been the fastest-growing union within the AFL-CIO, recently forming its own umbrella organization Change to Win, which is posing stiff competition for AFL-CIO," said Keene. "The significance is that despite an overall decline in union membership, the SEIU has grown dramatically over the past couple years. Even in traditional NLRB elections, statistics show SEIU has a success rate of nearly 75 percent, which is a significantly higher win rate over other unions.”

SEIU, AFSCME and the ANA are utilizing non-traditional organizing methods that are not necessarily covered under the National Labor Relations Act.

"The SEIU’s preferred organizing model is to pressure employers to sign ‘neutrality agreements’ and avoid NLRB-supervised elections," said Mildred Blowen, senior healthcare consultant at The Keene Group. "Under these employer ‘neutrality agreements,’ the SEIU claims a success rate of nearly 80 percent. Healthcare providers should monitor these unions, and know the signs of a corporate campaign.”

To avoid the interruption of a union campaign, companies should first review their unprotected supervisory group, which is the first line of defense and the best way to recognize if your company is being targeted. Training members of this supervisory group is essential.

"Today's unions are different from the past and training models have changed in response," said Keene. "Companies don't have the luxury of waiting until a union knocks on the door. A company needs it supervisors to be able recognize and respond to union organizing activity, preventing a union authorization card from being distributed in the first place.”

The Keene Group offers in-house supervisory training programs designed specifically for healthcare providers in addition to a nationwide circuit of two-day public seminars that healthcare executives can attend to learn more about the union’s organizing goals and methods.

About The Keene Group:

Visit the company's corporate website at http://www.thekeenegroup.com and its training division at http://www.laborrelationstraining.com. The Keene Group represents and serves the interests of management in the area of labor and employee relations. The company's founders have been innovative and successful in creating and implementing labor relations solutions worldwide for more than 30 years. Responding to the varied needs of labor attorneys and professionals, The Keene Group's healthcare division provides products and services dedicated to the solution of labor problems and positive employee relations for the healthcare industry. The company's client roster includes many Fortune 500 companies in virtually every component of the private sector and every category in the NLRB Industrial Classification. The Keene Group is equipped to provide healthcare specific union avoidance management training, including public seminars, in-house seminars and its train-the-trainer program entitled “The Certificate in Labor Relations.” In addition, The Keene Group offers the industry’s first software program designed to manage full scale, multi-lingual, large unit campaigns. The advent of this product allows healthcare providers to cut down on the number of consultants needed to run a campaign. The company also provides union vulnerability studies, employee attitude surveys, an employee alienation index and extensive site location analysis. Involved in hundreds of union campaigns annually, the company's philosophy is to provide management labor professionals with assessments, plans and implementation schedules that solve existing labor problems while increasing productivity and achieving management business objectives and prerogatives.

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