Don't retaliate against unionizing employees

"You're fired!" That's what the Dallas Black Dance Theatre said to its entire company of dancers a mere months after they voted to unionize.

To make matters worse, the employer seemingly admitted its misconduct in a post on its official Instagram page: "It is a decision that DBDT does not take lightly, but one that is necessary to preserve our legacy of professionalism and excellence in dance. Unfortunately, we recently discovered that our dancers engaged in conduct that fails to align with DBDT's standard of performing at the highest level of artistic excellence and violates several of DBDT’s policies."

Necessary to preserve our legacy of professionalism?
Conduct that violates several of DBDT's policies?

This sure smacks of retaliation to me.

Under the National Labor Relations Act, employees have the right to organize, form, join, or assist labor unions and engage in collective bargaining. Retaliation against employees for exercising those rights, including termination, is a violation of federal labor law. It's also just plain dumb.

If you want to avoid a labor union, you need to act like you don't want your employees to form a labor union. This means treating them with respect and dignity, listening to their concerns, paying them fairly, and not retaliating against them.

Be an employer of choice for employees, not one of opportunity for a labor union. Otherwise, your employees will exercise their choice to unionize.