THIS is why craft breweries need to pay very close attention to labor unions

It was a simple question posed in the Craft Beef Professionals Facebook group: "Conversations on fair compensation are extremely important in our industry. What is a brewery that impresses you with the way they treat their team?" 

Out of the dozens of responses, this one should scare the hell out of any craft brewery owner: 

The IWW is looking into this and the other plethora of issues we face as workers in this industry. Reach out to brewing@iww.org if you're interested in creating a better work environment near you.

When I scream at the top of my lungs to craft breweries that they need to pay attention to union organizing, this is why.

If labor unions are actively talking to your employees about their slanted and self-interested view of why your employees should join a union, why aren't you talking to your employees about why they shouldn't?

If you wait for a union to show up at your door with signed authorization cards asking for recognition or an election, it's too late. You've lost too much valuable time during which you could have been educating your employees about the benefits of remaining union-free. Here are a couple of resources to get you started.

• We are officially in the Golden Age of Union Organizing. How will your company respond?

• "Striketober" highlights union organizing concerns for Ohio craft breweries

One final thought: None of this matters if you're mistreating or abusing your workers. The best defense against union organizing is for your employees to feel safe, respected, fairly treated, and reasonably compensated. Be an employer of choice for workers, so that when a union contacts them their knee-jerk and natural response is, "Union? We don't need no stinking union. We're good."

* Image by Diariocritico de Venezuela on flickr (CC by 2.0)