1. How does a union's organizing drive affect the interests of an organization's employees, owners, and customers? From an ethical perspective, which of these interests should the company's HR staff try to protect?
2. In this example, Alma Quintero was applauded for communicating with employees. What are some of the ethical requirements of communicating with employees during a union's organization effort? Which of these are also legal requirements?
3. In communicating with employees, Quintero says her goal was to give full information about the negotiations. What else would Quintero need to do to ensure that the hotel was treating workers fairly during this time-or is information all that Quintero owed the employees?

Recently, the San Fernando Valley Business Journal named Alma Quintero one of its Top Human Resources Professionals of the Year. A major reason she was nominated and received the prize had to do with her handling of her employer's relationship with its employees attempting to organize a union.
Quintero is director of human resources for the Hilton Los Angeles North-Glendale hotel. When she arrived at the organization, she found that workers were divided between some who wanted to be represented by the union, Unite Here Local 11, and others who were not interested in a union. Furthermore, union supporters were bitter about what they saw as unfair practices by the hotel. The union staged demonstrations and maintained a boycott of the hotel for almost two years.
While the hotel's management insisted that it was taking a neutral stance during the organizing effort, some employees complained that they felt harassed for their interest in a union. At one point, the National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint alleging intimidation, which the hotel settled. What one employee called "anti-union letters stapled to our paychecks," a Hilton spokesperson called an effort to help employees "get all the facts before they make their decisions." Throughout that time, Quintero maintained an ongoing role in the negotiations and committed herself to communicating with employees frequently on what occurred during negotiations, trying to help them "stay focused and do their job." Eventually, the sides reached a representation agreement, and the union's boycott ended.