CHAPTER 12
LABOR RELATIONS
PowerPoint Presentation by Charlie Cook
Copyright © 2002 South-Western. All rights reserved
Union Membership
• The decline in union membership
– Workers have become disenfranchised from their unions
– Many unionized firms have moved their operations outside
the United States.
– Change in the nature of work and technology have eliminated
many traditionally unionized manual labor jobs.
– Unions have refused to be flexible enough to allow their
organizations to grow and adapt to changes in their
industries.
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Why Study Labor Relations?
• Unionization is the norm in many industries such
as transportation, construction, hospitality,
publishing, education, and health care.
• Contract settlements with unionized competitors
may impact on HR practices, programs, and
policies needed to remain competitive.
• Managers of non-unionized firms need to know
why and how employees form unions and the legal
requirements of the representation and collective
bargaining process.
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Why Employees Organize
• Employees seek to form unions because of the
perceived economic, social and political benefits
of organization:
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Higher or more equitable wages
Better or expanded benefits
Greater job or employment security (contracts)
Affiliation and sense of community (brotherhood)
Sense of power/influence in numbers (solidarity/voice)
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Strategic Challenges of Organized Labor
• Organized labor can have a significant impact on
organizational performance:
– When workers unionize, the employee/management power
balance within the organization is redistributed.
– The process of unionization involves bringing in “outside
players,” union representatives who then become an
additional constituency whose support must be gained for
any new and ongoing management initiatives.
– A unionized work setting can greatly impact an organization’s
cost structure, particularly raising payroll expenses and
affecting the efficiency of work processes.
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National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
• NLRA, also called the Wagner Act, (1935)
– Provided the rights for employees to organize, elect
representatives, and to collectively bargain.
– Required employers to recognize the rights of employees to
organize and bargain collectively with their elected
representatives.
– Act regulates the process of union/management relations.
– Created the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) to
oversee and enforce the provisions of the Act.
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Steps in the Organizing Process
• Employees conduct an organizing campaign in
which 30% of the employees sign “authorization
cards” expressing an interest in having a specific
union represent them.
• Employees petition the NLRB to hold a
representation election and to make a bargaining
unit determination.
• If the union receives a majority vote in the
election, it gains representation status to bargain
collectively for an contract with the employer.
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Behavior During Organizing Campaigns
• Section 8 (c) of the NLRA
– Regulates employer/employee activities during organizing
campaigns; violations are considered unfair labor practices.
– Employers cannot conduct reprisals against employees who
exercise their rights as defined in Section 7 of the NLRA.
– Prounion employees have a right to approach coworkers and
express union support during nonworking periods in
nonworking areas.
– Employers can restrict access to employees by nonemployees if organizers have other means of access and
there is policy of banning solicitation by non-employees.
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Collective Bargaining
• Collective bargaining between the union and the
employer covers various terms and conditions of
employment.
• NLRA classification of bargaining items:
– Mandatory items that must be negotiated in good faith.
• These items can be bargained to impasse.
– Permissive items can be included if both parties agree.
• These items cannot be bargained to impasse.
– Prohibited items are cannot be negotiated because of their
illegality under the terms of the NLRA or other laws.
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Collective Bargaining
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Union Security Issues
• Unions attempt to increase the security of their
status as bargaining representatives by bargaining
for:
– Union shop agreements that require new employees to join
the union after an initial period of employment.
– Agency shop agreements that require employees who
choose not to join the union to pay “representation fees” to
cover the union’s cost of representing them in bargaining.
– A dues check-off agreement in which the employer deducts
union dues from the paychecks of union employees.
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Failure to Reach Agreement
• Failure in bargaining negotiations to reach an
agreement (an impasse) may result in a strike.
– Economic strikes are the result of an bargaining impasse
over wages or other monetary-related issues. Striking
workers can be permanently replaced in economic strikes.
– Unfair labor practice strikes are ones in which employees
strike in response to management actions that defined unfair
labor practices under the NLRA. Striking workers cannot be
permanently replaced in unfair labor practice strikes.
– Wildcat strikes are unauthorized strikes by workers who walk
out in violation of the collective bargaining agreement.
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Related Bargaining Issues
• Government workers are prohibited by law from
striking; they must seek arbitration.
• Organizations can prevent strikes by:
– Using mediation to restart the bargaining process.
– Agreeing to submit the unresolved issue(s) to binding
arbitration in which a mutually agreed-to third party decides
the issue(s).
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