HRM textbook

CHAPTER 15 LABOR RELATIONS AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING 523
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CHAPTER SECTION SUMMARIES
1. The labor movement is important. About 14.7 million
U.S. workers belong to unions around 11.9% of the
total. Workers unionize not just to get more pay or
better working conditions; employer unfairness and the
union s power are also important. Unions aim for union
security, and then for improved wages, hours, and working
conditions and benefits for their members. Union
security options include the closed shop, union shop,
agency shop, preferential shop, and maintenance of
membership arrangement. The AFL-CIO plays an
important role in the union movement as a voluntary
federation of about 56 national and international labor
unions in the United States.
2. To understand unions and their impact, it s necessary
to understand the interplay between unions and the
law. In brief, labor law has gone through periods
of strong encouragement of unions, to modified encouragement
coupled with regulation, and finally to
detailed regulation of internal union affairs. Today, the
legal environment seems to be moving toward
increased encouragement of unions. Historically, the
laws encouraging the union movement included the
Norris-LaGuardia and National Labor Relations
(Wagner) Acts of the 1930s. These outlawed certain
unfair employer labor practices and made it easier for
unions to organize. The Taft-Hartley or Labor
Management Relations Act of 1947 addressed keeping
unions from restraining or coercing employees, and
listed certain unfair union labor practices. In the
1950s, the Landrum-Griffin Act (technically, the Labor
Management Reporting and Disclosure Act) further
protected union members from possible wrongdoing
on the part of their unions.
3. When unions begin organizing, all managers and supervisors
usually get involved, so it s essential to understand
the mechanics of the union drive and election. The
main steps include initial contact, obtaining authorization
cards, holding a hearing, the campaign itself, and
the election. Supervisors need to understand their role
at each step in this process. Follow the acronym TIPS
do not threaten, interrogate, make promises, or spy. And
follow FORE provide facts, express your opinions,
explain factually correct rules, and share your experiences.
Managers need to understand rules regarding
literature and solicitation. For example, employers can
always bar nonemployees from soliciting employees
during their work time, and can usually stop employees
from soliciting other employees when both are on duty
time and not on a break.
4. The employer and union hammer out an agreement via
the collective bargaining process. The heart of collective
bargaining is good faith bargaining, which means
both parties must make reasonable efforts to arrive at
agreement, and proposals are matched with counterproposals.
Both negotiating teams will work hard to understand
their respective clients needs and to quantify their
demands. In the actual bargaining sessions, there are
mandatory bargaining items such as pay, illegal bargaining
items, and voluntary bargaining items such as
benefits for retirees. If things don t go smoothly during
collective bargaining, the parties may utilize third-party
intermediaries, including mediators, fact finders, and
arbitrators. Strikes represent a withdrawal of labor.
There are economic strikes resulting from a failure to
agree on the terms of the contract, as well as unfair labor
practice strikes, wildcat strikes, and sympathy strikes.
During strikes, picketing may occur. Other tactics
include a corporate campaign by the union, boycotting,
inside games, or (for employers) lockouts.
5. Most managers become involved with grievances during
their careers. Most collective bargaining agreements
contain a specific grievance procedure listing the steps in
the procedure. In general, the best way to handle a grievance
is to create an environment in which grievances
don t occur. However if a grievance does occur, things to
do include investigate, handle each case as though it may
eventually result in arbitration, talk with the employee
about the grievance, and comply with the contractual
time limits for handling the grievance. On the other
hand, don t make arrangements with individual employees
that are inconsistent with the labor agreement or
hold back the remedy if the company is wrong.
6. Membership is down but in some ways unions are
becoming more influential today, so it s important to
understand the union movement today and tomorrow.
For example, unions are becoming more aggressive in
terms of pushing Congress to pass the Employee Free
Choice Act, which, among other things, would enable
employees to vote for the union by signing authorization
cards, rather than going through a formal union election.
New union federations, such as Change to Win, are being
more aggressive about organizing workers, and unions
are going global, for instance, by helping employees in
China organize local Walmart stores.