Your company have expanded to physical products to complement the software "App," described above. Your hard product division makes stuffed birds "stuffy" with recorded bird sounds, sweatshirts and hoodies that have the bird sound embedded into the material, sunglasses that look like birds, hats that "chirp," shoes that chirp, walking robot birds that look and sound like the real bird and other bird motifs. The robot birds are "hot market" just like the old cabbage patch dolls, Tyco toys, and other toys.

Your shipping department does not have enough workers, drivers, shifts, and you are paying lots of overtime, with weekend and holiday "double pay and holiday pay." It is getting almost impossible to "meet the delivery schedule," and the attrition rate is now at 40%, within 6 weeks, 50% within 6 months, 75% within 1 year and 100% at 2 years. The alleged "grind is a killer," and the remaining "old timers" those with three years or more with the company are threatening to "walk off" the job, even though their act is illegal. They are not unionized, and the company is in a "Right to Work State," where new hires are not required to join a Union, nor required to pay union dues, if a facility is unionized.

However, there is enough interest in the facility to unionize, as a way to raise salaries, limit ordered overtime pay, stop extra ordered shifts and basically the "employees to have a seat at the table." One of the veterans has taken on the role as the "union organizer" and is getting "unionization" advice from a union officer from another state. The veteran is calling for a Union "Yes or No" vote. The entire facility knows of this impending action. Company management does not want the facility to unionize, fearing loss of employee control, higher wages, better benefits, and overall "employee participation in company decisions."

Management has even gone as far as talking to shift leaders, telling them to discourage employees from even participating in the vote, much less voting Yes. The shift leaders say they "have been given the green light" to do "things" to "dissuade" employees from unionizing.

What are the legal issues? What is the best course of action by company leadership? What possible labor law violations have management and shift leaders committed if any? What would you recommend?