United We Fall? Worker interest in unions may threaten your business. How will you respond?

The 1990s are over. And with the collapse of the economicbubble, revelations about horrific corporate governance practices,and the layoffs of thousands of Americans, an institution that somepeople have long since written off as dead has been revived: theunion.

In a recent survey for the AFL-CIO, for the first time in nearlytwo decades, the number of nonunion American workers willing tojoin a union has increased. "After seeing so many jobsdestroyed in the recession, Americans are looking for jobprotection," says Jared Bernstein, senior economist at theEconomic Policy Institute, a Washington, DC, think tank. (Unionworkers earn 32 percent more than nonunion workers.)

"In the 1990s, workers had the idea they were free agentsand that ties to a union would only slow them down as they movedaround," says Fred Feinstein, a labor expert at the Universityof Maryland. "But that idea has been decimated, and now peoplejust want security."

Drawing on public support, unions have launched major battlesover the past year. They've increased organizing efforts inSouthern and Western states that had prided themselves on theirnonunion work forces. West Coast dockworkers in the InternationalLongshore and Warehouse Union used a port strike to throttletrans-Pacific commerce. And the Major League Baseball Players'Association, perhaps the most visible union in the country, wonenormous concessions from management this past summer.

Organized labor leaders have shifted attention frommanufacturing and heavy industry toward white-collar and serviceprofessions because it's harder to move them overseas. Theeffort is paying off. According to a study by the Albert ShankerInstitute, a labor research organization, white-collarprofessionals have become "one of the most organized segmentsof the work force," forming unions or union-like workorganizations.

Smaller service and IT companies are vulnerable because theylack financial resources to wait out a strike or shift businessoverseas. And though President Bush stepped in to halt the WestCoast port strike, the government rarely takes an interest in laboractions against smaller companies.

Though small manufacturing firms such as Barry Baird's AvisConstruction Co., a 75-person Roanoke, Virginia, business, appearunconcerned about increased unionization. Baird doesn't thinkmuch about unions, yet small IT and service companies--especiallysoftware firms, cleaning services companies and restaurants--haveexpressed concern because unions have won a series of victories inthese sectors. For example, Boston janitors recently used amonth-long strike to win wage increases from the contractors whomanage them.

But labor experts say small business shouldn't be overlyconcerned about unionization. The majority of small firms are notunionized, and while organized labor has become more popular withthe public, corporate scandals have also boosted the reputation ofsmall-business leaders, so BIZ Experiencess are more likely to retaintheir staff's trust. (In an October survey by polling firmFabrizio, McLaughlin, and Associates, 68 percent of respondentsranked small business as the most honest institution in thecountry.)

Instead of panicking, BIZ Experiencess should concentrate onworking with unionized members of their work force on issues ofcommon concern. Lester Trilla, president and CEO of Trilla Steel DrumCorp., a steel drum manufacturer in Chicago, has cooperatedwith his unionized employees in their joint battle against steeltariffs enacted by the Bush administration; he and his stafftraveled together to Washington, DC, to join a march against thetariffs. Trilla says working with his unionized staff on this issuehas drawn them closer together and made future rifts much lesslikely.

Marcus Courtney, president of the Washington Alliance ofTechnology Workers, a labor organization of high-tech workers inWashington state, agrees. "Unions are not anti-competitive oranti-profit," Courtney says. "[For instance], we runskill trainings for IT workers that save companies the huge cost ofupgrading their staff's skills. If management works withunions, both can benefit."