You earn a union.<p>You earn a union by not treating your employees well, if you knew the history of the labor movement in the 30&#x27;s you&#x27;d better understand how things got to be the way they are, and why the relationship is adversarial, instead of cooperative.<p>If your employees are trying to unionize its because of longstanding grievances held by a significant minority if not majority of your workforce - grievances that have either not been meaningfully addressed, or can&#x27;t be aired, because there is no workable mechanism to air them. It&#x27;s not just pay (though often is primarily pay - we&#x27;ll put up with all sorts of shenanigans for a big paycheck) if often as much about working conditions and esprit de corps as it is pay.<p>If you don&#x27;t want a union, pay your employees well (well above market), or have a great working environment and instill a sense of pride and appreciation in your management - and make it clear you value their contributions as well - it&#x27;s this balance of pay and working environment that keeps a workplace healthy and union free.<p>The car companies stumbled because they had a high cost structure and they ziged when the market zagged - while the union contributed to the high cost structure, they had nothing do to with changing market conditions.