Vinny
Well-known member
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2011
- Posts
- 51
As described in Martin Levitt’s Confession of a Union Buster, this was a letter Levitt convinced World Airlines CEO Ed Daly, who Levitt describes at paternalistic and tyrannical, to write to his employees on the eve of a decertification election at the airline.
Levitt describes the strategy behind the letter this way:
Together we drafted a letter of contrition that we saw as Daly's only chance to salvage the election. The letter was to be sent by Daly directly to the employees' homes, rather than being handed out in the office, in order to create an aura of intimacy, as in the confessional…
Dear Fellow Employee,
I have taken the liberty of writing you at your home because of the extreme importance of my subject.
For many months we have all had to endure the intrusion and annoyance of an outside third party. It has not been easy for anybody. But by now you have learned that the union can guarantee you nothing except that it will take money from you and perhaps take you out on strike. Your company is not perfect. No company is. We have made our share of mistakes in the past, and we may again in the future. But nothing can justify the damage that would be caused if we were infected by an outside agent. We will accomplish a lot more through a direct relationship than an arm's length one. And so I am asking you, from my heart: Please, give us a chance. Thank you for allowing me into your home with this most important message.
Yours Truly,
Ed Daly
Although at that time Mr. Daily did not have YouTube available to him to broadcast his mea culpa. If he had, I think it would have sounded a lot like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trBSg-bu3q4&sns=em
Levitt describes the strategy behind the letter this way:
Together we drafted a letter of contrition that we saw as Daly's only chance to salvage the election. The letter was to be sent by Daly directly to the employees' homes, rather than being handed out in the office, in order to create an aura of intimacy, as in the confessional…
Dear Fellow Employee,
I have taken the liberty of writing you at your home because of the extreme importance of my subject.
For many months we have all had to endure the intrusion and annoyance of an outside third party. It has not been easy for anybody. But by now you have learned that the union can guarantee you nothing except that it will take money from you and perhaps take you out on strike. Your company is not perfect. No company is. We have made our share of mistakes in the past, and we may again in the future. But nothing can justify the damage that would be caused if we were infected by an outside agent. We will accomplish a lot more through a direct relationship than an arm's length one. And so I am asking you, from my heart: Please, give us a chance. Thank you for allowing me into your home with this most important message.
Yours Truly,
Ed Daly
Although at that time Mr. Daily did not have YouTube available to him to broadcast his mea culpa. If he had, I think it would have sounded a lot like this.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=trBSg-bu3q4&sns=em