Here's an interesting account of the efforts of one young employee to unionize a family business. The headline is misleading because the efforts started before he was fired. The point here for employers is the dispute really isn't over wages and benefits, rather its over irritants many employers wont see or acknowledge. It is these irritants, and management's failure to provide an acceptable rationale for its policies that drive employees to seek third party representation, more than wage benefit issues.

Well, thats the conventional wisdom, but there are some compelling reasons why certain employers can benefit from providing lunch for employees. Take a look at this post on the I Need a Job Blog. There is another idea in this vein, albeit more defensive. Employers with a large hourly workforce don't necessarily need to provide lunch, but by paying employees for their half hour lunch break, they can avoid wage hour claims for not providing the uninterrupted time off, and prevent the nit-picking overtime claims for employees working a bit beyond their scheduled 40 hours.