LABOUR

RELATIONS
 Union Membership

• Decline in union membership

– Workers have become
disenfranchised from unions
– Many unionized firms have moved
operations outside US

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 Union Membership

• Decline in union membership

– Change in nature of work &
technology has eliminated many
traditionally unionized manual labor
jobs
– Unions have refused to be flexible
enough to allow organizations to
grow & adapt to changes in
industries

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 Why Study Labor Relations?

• Unionization is norm in many industries

• Contract settlements with unionized competitors
may impact on HR practices, programs, & policies
needed to remain competitive
• Managers of non-unionized firms need to know
– Why & how employees form unions
– Legal requirements of representation &
collective bargaining process

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 Why Employees Organize

• Employees seek to form unions because of

perceived economic, social & political
benefits of organization
– Higher or more equitable wages
– Better or expanded benefits
– Greater job or employment security
– Affiliation & sense of community
– Sense of power/influence in numbers

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 Strategic Challenges of Organized
Labor
• Organized labor can have significant impact on
organizational performance
– Employee/management power balance is
redistributed
– Brings in “outside players” whose support
must be gained for any new & ongoing
management initiatives
– Unionized work setting can greatly impact
organization’s cost structure
• Payroll expenses
• Efficiency of work processes

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 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)

• NLRA, also called the Wagner Act, (1935)

– Provided rights for employees to
organize, elect representatives, &
collectively bargain
– Required employers to recognize
rights of employees to organize &
bargain collectively with elected
representatives

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 National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)

• NLRA, also called the Wagner Act, (1935)

– Act regulates process of
union/management relations
– Created National Labor Relations
Board (NLRB) to oversee & enforce
provisions of Act

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 NLRA: Six Notable Provisions

1. Right of employees to 1. Employees have right to

discuss employment honor picket lines
terms without fear of
2. Right to complain to retaliation
third parties, such as 2. Employees have
customers, clients, & conditional right to
media solicit & distribute union
3. Employees have right to literature
engage in work 3. Employers cannot
stoppage or collective unilaterally ban
walk out to protest employees access to
working conditions work site while off-duty

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 Steps in Organizing Process

• Employees conduct organizing campaign in

which 30% of employees sign
“authorization cards”
• Employees petition NLRB to hold
representation election & to determine
bargaining unit
• If union receives majority vote in election,
gains representation status to bargain
collectively for contract with employer
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 Behavior During Organizing
Campaigns

• 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 NLRA

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 Behavior During Organizing
Campaigns
• NLRA
– Prounion employees have right to approach
coworkers & express union support during
nonworking periods in nonworking areas
– Employers can restrict access to employees
by non-employees if organizers have other
means of access & there is policy of
banning solicitation by non-employees

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 Collective Bargaining

• Collective bargaining between union & employer

covers various terms & conditions of employment
• NLRA classification of bargaining items
– Mandatory items that must be negotiated
in good faith
• Can be bargained to impasse

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 Collective Bargaining

• NLRA classification of bargaining items

– Permissive items can be included if both
parties agree
• Cannot be bargained to impasse
– Prohibited items cannot be negotiated
because of illegality under terms of NLRA or
other laws

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 Types of Bargaining Items

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 Union Security Issues

• Unions attempt to increase security of

status by bargaining for
– Union shop agreements: Require new
employees to join union after initial
employment period

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 Union Security Issues

• Unions attempt to increase security of

status by bargaining for
– Agency shop agreements: Require
employees who choose not to join
union to pay “representation fees” to
cover union’s cost of representing
them
– Dues check-off agreement: Employer
deducts union dues from paychecks
of union employees
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 Failure to Reach Agreement

• Failure in bargaining negotiations to reach

agreement (impasse) may result in strike
• Economic strikes
– Result of bargaining impasse over
wages or other monetary-related
issues
– Striking workers can be permanently
replaced in economic strikes

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 Failure to Reach Agreement

• Unfair labor practice strikes

– Employees strike in response to
management’s unfair labor practices
– Striking workers cannot be
permanently replaced in unfair labor
practice strikes
• Wildcat strikes
– Unauthorized strikes by workers who
walk out in violation of collective
bargaining agreement

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 Related Bargaining Issues

• Government workers
– Prohibited by law from striking
– Must seek arbitration
• Organizations can prevent strikes by
– Using mediation to restart bargaining
process
– Agreeing to submit unresolved
issue(s) to binding arbitration

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 Unions Today

• Recruit in organizations & industries

with which they have no previous
affiliation
• Rely on technology

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 Controversial Rulings of Clinton
NLRB
• Issued several decisions which favored interests of
bargaining representative or preference for
collective bargaining agreements over expression
of employee free choice
• Ruled that workers provided by temporary
employment agency may be included in same
collective bargaining unit as client’s regular
employees without mutual consent of agency & its
client

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 Controversial Rulings of Clinton
NLRB
• Extended “Weingarten” right to nonunion
employees
– Employers must grant requests by
nonunion employees to be accompanied by
co-employee of their choice at any
investigatory meeting that employee
“reasonably believes” may result in
disciplinary action
• Overruled established principles of law that
employer could withdraw recognition from union
if employer has good-faith uncertainty as to
union’s majority status
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 Controversial Rulings of Clinton
NLRB
• Ruled that companies doing business with
employer that chooses to contest Board
certification of union are excluded from
secondary boycott protections
• Expanded doctrine to hold that policy
impacting adversely on union members is
discriminatory, even without any showing
of discriminatory intent

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 Controversial Rulings of Clinton
NLRB
• Recognized that role played by legitimate
employee involvement structures is
substantially different from that of sham
unions
• Sought to assist union organizers by
extending property access rights to them in
number of cases

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 Bush NLRB
• Likely to address important issues that
have never been decided by Board
– New forms of union solicitation
– Card check/neutrality
agreements
– Corporate campaigns

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 Employment Litigation
• Liability claims have risen • Damages company’s
400% in past two decades reputation & its ability
– 67% of plaintiffs win
in trial
to hire top talent
– 90% of claims • Can devastate
brought against employee morale
employers are settled
for average of • Employment practices
$390,000
liability insurance
– 91% of all
discrimination claims costs have
are successfully skyrocketed
resolved through
consent decrees,
settlements, &
favorable
Copyright © 2005 court
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 Employment Practices Compliance
System
• Effective risk management should be pervasive
responsibility throughout organization
• Critical for organizations to consistently monitor,
quantify, & measure effectiveness of company’s
compliance program
• EPCS is interactive, online tool that provides
method of achieving nearly 100% workforce
compliance
• Educates employees

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 Employment Practices Compliance
System
• Can be antidote to hardening insurance market
• Provides near perfect level of protection against
employment lawsuits
• Demonstrates “good faith efforts”
• Prevention strategy
– Raising workforce compliance &
understanding
• Substantiation strategy
– Systematic, centralized documentation of
compliance activities

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 Good Faith Efforts
• Adopt compliant policies
• Distribute to all employees
• Train managers & employees
• Investigate promptly
• Enforce consistently
• Evaluate practices

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 Unions’ Experimental Strategies
• Education & retraining
• Research & development to improve &
develop new products & services
• Voice in strategic management decision
making & ownership
• Capital investment & pension funds
• Industrial sector approach

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 Initiating Nontraditional Strategies
• Education is key
• Unions need to have specific knowledge
necessary to contribute substantively
• Unions need to develop effective process
for communicating with members &
involving them in changes
• Unions need clear agenda for change

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