15
Working with
Organized
Labor
Challenges
• Why do employees join unions?
• What agencies and laws regulate labor
practices?
• What is union organizing, collective
bargaining and contract administration?
• What is the managerial and HR role in
resolving union grievances?
What is a Union?
Unions – An organization that
represents employees’ interests
to management on such issues
as wages, work hours, and
working conditions
Why do Employee’s Join Unions?
• Job dissatisfaction
• Employees lack influence with
management to make needed changes
Role of the Manager in Labor Relations
• Labor Relations Specialists
• Managers:
• day-to-day labor-management relations
• Need to understand workplace issues
associated with unions:
– Unions start where employees are dissatisfied
– If there is a union managers are responsible for
the day-to-day operations of the labor agreement
– Need to have a basic understanding of the labor
laws so as to not create a liability
Labor Relations and the Legal Environment
Laws enacted to try and balance:
Employer
Rights
Union
Rights
Individual
Rights
• To operate business free from unnecessary
interference
• To organize and bargain for their members
• To choose their representatives or to decide
they do not want representation by a union
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act)
(1935)
• Designed to protect employee rights
to form and join unions
• Created the National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB):
• Administer certification elections
• Prevent and remedy unlawful acts (unfair labor
practices)
• Identified 5 illegal labor practices
Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act)
(1935)
Five illegal labor practices:
• Do not keep employees from forming unions or collective
bargaining
• Do not dominate or interfere with the formation or
administration of a union or provide financial support for
union
• Do not discriminate against employee to encourage or
discourage union membership
• Do not discharge or discriminate against employee who
filed charges (gave testimony) under Act
• Do not refuse to bargain collectively with the union that
employees chose
Taft Hartley Act (1947)
• Designed to limit some of the power unions
acquired under the Wagner Act
• Right-to-work law (most controversial) – a state
law that makes it illegal within that state for a
union to include a union shop clause in its
contract (currently 22 states)
• Made closed shops illegal (Landrum-Griffin Act
later made an exception for the construction
industry)
• Allows for decertification of a union
• Created the Federal Mediation and Conciliation
Service
Taft Hartley Act (1947)
Six unfair union labor practices:
• Cannot influence employer’s choice of representation in
collective bargaining
• Causing or attempting to cause an employer to discriminate
against any employee who is not a member of the union
• Refusing to bargain with employer in good faith
• Asking or requiring its members to boycott products made
by a firm engaged in a labor dispute with another union
• Never charge employees excessive or discriminatory union
dues as a condition of membership
• Never ask an employer to pay for services that are not
performed
Landrum-Griffin Act (1959)
Designed to protect union members and their
participation in union affairs, allows the government
to regulate union activities:
• Each union has a bill of rights to ensure minimum standards
of internal union democracy
• Each union must give their constitution to Department of
Labor
• Each union must report its financial activities and financial
interests of leaders to Department of Labor
• Union elections are regulated by government
• Union leaders have fiduciary responsibility to use union
money and property for the membership, not for own personal
gain
New Proposed Legislation
Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA) - Amend the
Wagner Act (NLRA)
• Change the currently existing procedure to require the NLRB
to certify the union as the bargaining representative without
directing an election if a majority of employees signed cards
• It would take away employers' present ability to decide
whether to use only the card-check process or to hold a secretballot election
• The proposed legislation would also establish stricter
penalties for employers who violate provisions of the NLRA
when workers seek to form a union, and set in place new
mediation and arbitration procedures for disputes
Union Membership in the
United States, 1930 - 2000
40
35
30
25
20
15
10
1930 1935 1940
1945
1950
1955 1960 1965
1970 1975 1980
1985 1990 1995 2000
Labor Relations Strategy
Labor Relations Policy –
Union Acceptance Strategy
Management chooses to view union
and its employees as legitimate
representatives and accepts collective
bargaining as an appropriate
mechanism for establishing workplace
rules.
Union Avoidance Strategy
•
• Management tries to prevent its
employees from joining a union, either by
removing the incentive to unionize or by
using hardball tactics
• Union Substitution Strategy
• Union Suppression Strategy
3 Phases of Labor Relations
• Union organizing:
• Union solicitation
• Pre-election conduct
• Certification election
• Collective bargaining
• Contract administration
Union Organizing
Union Solicitation:
• Union needs at least 30% of employees to
sign authorization cards to show NLRB there
is a significant interest in organizing
• Union web sites have organizing information
• Some companies have no-solicitation rules
Union Organizing
Pre-election conduct:
• Management cannot
• Threaten
• Intimidate
• Promise
• Conduct surveillance
Union Organizing
Pre-election conduct:
• Management can:
• Make speeches as to why union not needed
• Employ a consultant
• Send personal letters to employees
• Show videos and other material portraying
union negatively
• Summarize and communicate all the good
things company has done for employees
Union Organizing
Certification Election
• Supervised by NLRB
• If vote is against union, can’t hold another
election for 12 months
Good Faith Bargaining Behavior
• Both parties meet and confer with each other
at reasonable time and place
• Both parties negotiate over wages, hours and
conditions of employment (mandatory topics)
• Both parties sign a written contract that
formalizes their agreement
• Each party gives the other a 60-day notice of
termination or modification of the labor
agreement before it expires
Bargaining Power
• Distributive bargaining
• Integrative bargaining
• Attempt to understand the other negotiator’s real needs and
objectives
• Create a free flow of information
• Emphasize the commonalities, and minimize the differences,
between the parties
• Search for solutions that meet both parties’ goals and
objectives
• Develop flexible responses to the other negotiators
proposals
Mandatory Bargaining Topics
Impasse in Bargaining
• Economic
Strike
• Wildcat
Strike
• Lockout
Contract Administration
Union Grievance Procedure
Employee with
a Grievance
Immediate
Supervisor
Verbal Presentation
Written Grievance
Business
Representative,
Grievance
Committee
Department
Manager
Labor
Relations
Director
Arbitration
National Union
Representative
and Local Union
Representative