UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN INDIANA
College of Business
Management 408.001
Collective Bargaining
and Industrial Relations
Fall 2009
TR 300-415p OC 2025
Dane M. Partridge, Ph.D.
OC 3066C
465-7085
465-1044 (fax)
dpartrid@usi.edu
http://business.usi.edu/dpartrid/
Office Hours:
TR 930-1145a
and by appt.
INTRODUCTION AND LEARNING OBJECTIVES
This course provides a survey of labor history, labor relations law, and current practices in union
organizing, representation elections, collective bargaining, and grievance arbitration. The primary
emphasis is on U.S. private sector labor relations. Particular attention will be devoted to the
following issues: (1) the role of unions in a democratic society; (2) the mutual responsibilities of
management and labor in fostering the competitiveness of American enterprises; and (3) the
mutual responsibilities of management and labor in promoting the employment security of
American workers. Upon completion of this course, students should be able to …
 Discuss the current pressures on the U.S. labor relations system
 Discuss schools of thought on the employment relationship—neoclassical economics,
human resource management, industrial relations, and critical or Marxist industrial
relations
 Understand the central elements of major ethical theories and their relevance to labor
relations
 Identify the major events in U.S. labor history, including what happened and why each
event is significant
 List the major provisions of U.S. labor law and their underlying logic and rationale,
especially with respect to the Wagner Act, Taft-Hartley Act, and Landrum-Griffin Act
 Understand the structure of unions and the labor movement in the United States, and the
range of possible management strategies toward labor unions and how those relate to
human resource strategies and business strategies
 Discuss the basic procedural steps and legal standards for the union organizing process
 Understand how collective bargaining agreements are negotiated
 Understand different types of strikes and lockouts, their roles in labor relations, and their
legal restrictions in the private and public sectors, as well as impasse resolution
procedures
 Discuss the role of grievance procedures and grievance arbitration in U.S. labor relations
 Explain the pressures for increased workplace flexibility and employee involvement in the
contemporary employment relationship, and strategies for implementation
 Discuss the key elements of globalization and how globalization affects the employment
relationship and labor relations
 Compare the basic features of labor relations systems in the major industrialized,
democratic countries around the world
 Understand strategic management and leadership issues pertaining to labor relations for
managers and union leaders in the 21st century
Note:
MNGT 201: Survey of Management or MNGT 305: Principles of Management, is a
prerequisite for this course.
READINGS
Students should obtain the following book:
Budd, John W. Labor Relations: Striking a Balance 2e (McGraw-Hill Irwin, 2008).
Copies of the text should be available for purchase in the Bookstore. All other assigned readings
will be available via the Rice Library online databases or the instructor’s website. Supplements to
the course outline and reading assignments may be distributed during the semester.
Much of the information about trends in management that you will obtain as a manager will
come from business periodicals, such as the Wall Street Journal, Business Week, and Fortune. It is
important to learn how to read these sources quickly and critically. As you do so, you should
keep in mind the following questions: (1) What is the “story” that the article is telling? And (2)
What kind of evidence does the article use (should we believe the article’s conclusions)?
COURSE REQUIREMENTS, METHODS OF EVALUATION, AND RESPONSIBILITIES
In addition to the required reading assignments, there will be three exams and several case
assignments (including a collective bargaining simulation). Grading will be determined on the
basis of the following weights:
Exams
Case assignments
60% (3 @ 20% each)
40%
Regular attendance is recommended, as the required readings and class meetings are
intended to be complements, not substitutes; class participation is encouraged – it does not
carry an assigned weight in grading in that it is difficult to measure in a reliable and valid
manner, but students whose participation is regular and of quality will benefit should they be on
the borderline at semester’s end. The required reading is the foundation for the course; the class
meetings will build on that foundation. On the exams, students will be responsible for both
material covered by the readings and material discussed in class. Students are expected to
keep up with the required reading, as assigned, and to come to class prepared for discussion.
Students are reminded that under the credit hour system a three-credit class requires on
average six hours of outside preparation per week. While research indicates that the average
U.S. college student spends less time in outside study and class preparation than the instructor
might expect, when full-time students devote only part-time effort to their coursework, less-thandesired outcomes may well result.
Students often observe that they would like their classes to “better relate to the real world.” For
students to apply what they have learned in the classroom to actual work environments students
have responsibility for active, rather than passive, involvement in the learning process. The
instructor’s role in active or experiential learning is to serve as a facilitator of student-directed
learning, rather than being the provider of teacher-directed instruction. Some have called this a
shift from “teaching by talking” toward “learning by doing.” The responsibility for learning is
borne by the learner, while the teacher makes resources available and helps the learning
process. This instructor’s primary objective with respect to this course is that students will acquire
knowledge, skills, and abilities that will make them more competitive in the job market and more
effective members of the organizations they join upon graduation.
As one college president has put it, “[I]t isn't enough just to learn -- one must learn how to learn,
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how to learn without classrooms, without teachers, without textbooks. Learn, in short, how to
think and analyze and decide and discover and create…. [W]hile mastery of specific content is
important, we want our graduates to learn how to think critically and creatively, express
themselves coherently, work collaboratively, and develop a global consciousness…. A college is
not a trade school. A college education ultimately must be designed to help students develop
the skills needed to become lifelong learners, capable of finding new information, evaluating it,
and using it in both the real world and the world of the mind.”
Further details of these requirements and grading procedures will be discussed in class as is
necessary.
Students are encouraged to stop in during office hours to talk about any problems or
suggestions you may have concerning the course, about careers, or just about management or
things in general. If the scheduled office hours are inconvenient feel free to make an
appointment. To underscore the value of office hours each student will be expected to meet
briefly with Dr. Partridge early in the semester. To facilitate electronic communication, students
are required to schedule this initial appointment via e-mail. Please be reminded that USI
provides free e-mail for students through MyUSI. The University routinely uses this USI e-mail
account for both formal and informal communications with students. Students are expected to
check their USI e-mail account regularly for University correspondence. If you prefer to use an email account other than the one provided you by USI, you should forward your USI e-mail to the
account you use most often.
WHAT (SOME) PREVIOUS STUDENTS HAVE LIKED LEAST…


“Calling on people – not everyone likes to talk”
o Exams aren’t optional, projects aren’t optional, why should participation be
voluntary? And doesn’t learning involve challenge, and doesn’t challenge
impact one’s comfort zone?
“There was a lot of work” and “I thought there was too much material to read and know
for the tests. Specifically the vocabulary part”
o Hmm, must be that senior-level class thing…
Student Rights and Responsibilities: Academic Misconduct
Truth and honesty are necessary to a university community. Each student is expected to do his
or her academic work without recourse to unauthorized means of any kind. Both students and
faculty are expected to report violations to academic honesty. USI policies and regulations
governing the conduct of students and the procedures for handling violations of these policies
and regulations are found in the USI Bulletin and on the Dean of Students' website
(http://www.usi.edu/stl/index.htm).
THE INSTRUCTOR
DANE M. PARTRIDGE -- Associate Professor of Management; B.A., Michigan State University; M.S.,
Cornell University; Ph.D., Cornell University. Dr. Partridge's primary teaching and research interests
involve human resource management and labor relations. His research has been published in the
Journal of Collective Negotiations in the Public Sector, the Employee Responsibilities and Rights
Journal, the Journal of Labor Research, and the Denver University Law Review; his most recent
article, “Violence and Strikers’ Rights to Reinstatement,” is forthcoming in the Employee Relations
Law Journal. Dr. Partridge has presented management development programs on topics
including employee involvement in quality improvement and managing workforce diversity. Dr.
Partridge has also taught at Virginia Tech, Radford University, and Roanoke College, and has
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received several awards for teaching excellence.
COURSE OUTLINE, TENTATIVE SCHEDULE, AND READING ASSIGNMENTS
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
CONTEMPORARY LABOR RELATIONS (9/1, 9/3)
LABOR UNIONS: GOOD OR BAD? (9/8)
LABOR RELATIONS OUTCOMES (9/10)
HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT (9/15, 9/17)
LABOR LAW (9/22, 9/24)
 Labor Law Discussion Box 5.24, 5.25, and 5.26
 EXAM I (9/29)
6. STRATEGIES, STRUCTURES, AND RIGHTS (10/1, 10/6)
7. UNION ORGANIZING (10/8, 10/13, 10/15)
 Labor Law Discussion Box 7.6, 7.7
 GMFC CCD Case due October 13
8. BARGAINING (10/20, 10/22)
 Labor Law Discussion Box 8.11
9. IMPASSE, STRIKES, AND DISPUTE RESOLUTION (10/27, 10/29)
 Labor Law Discussion Box 9.7
 EXAM II (11/3)
10. CONTRACT CLAUSES AND CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION (11/5, 11/12)
 Grievance Discussion Cases Box 10.11 – 10.20
 BARGAINING SIMULATION (11/17, 11/19)
 Case material to be made available in early October.
11. FLEXIBILITY AND EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT (11/24, 12/1)
 Labor Law Discussion Box 11.14, 11.16
12. GLOBALIZATION (12/3)
13. COMPARATIVE LABOR RELATIONS (12/8)
14. WHAT SHOULD LABOR RELATIONS DO? (12/10)
 FINAL EXAM: Tuesday, December 15, 300-500p.
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