MGNT4166: Human and Labor Relations

Chapter One: Organized Labor and the Management Community

Sloane and Witney (2010)

Lecturer: Dr. C. Samms

Date: August 21, 2012

The State of Unions - Today

Union Membership: Public and Private Sectors
#1: Public Sector: 40% of all employees in the federal, state and local govt are in unions
Local government (public school teachers, police, firefighters): 42%

#2: Protective Service Workers in the Private Industry: 35%

Transportation and utilities: 13% then construction and manufacturing: 13%

State of the Union Today

Union Membership (contd):
Occupational Color
Blue Collar (35%) job duties are primarily manual in nature, eg: laborer

States (6)
More than half of union members: California (alone has more than 1million), New York, NJ, Illinois, Michigan and Pennsylvania Pittsburg, Detroit and Seattle currently have 90% of its workforce covered by union contract in manufacturing Also a strong representation outside of manufacturing

Blue Collar Workers

Job duties are primarily manual in nature, eg: laborer
Smokestack Industry: A basic manufacturing industry, such as the automobile, rubber, and steel industries, that has limited growth potential, and earnings and revenues that vary cyclically with general economic activity. Aerospace, rubber, agriculture, needle trades, paper and brewing Lesser % of blue collars: printing, oil, chemical, electrical, electronic, pharmaceutical and shoe industries

Other Examples of Blue Collar

Do not look at TITLES
Teamsters derived from drivers of teams of horses; largest membership: truck drivers and warehouse workers.
Employees at Disneyland; Disney World Donald, Mickey

State troopers, egg farmers Teachers in OKC Laborers Union Cab drivers in Chicago Seafarers Intl. Union United Automobile Workers represent secretaries at Columbia Uni United Steelworkers (850,000 members) not more than 15% work anywhere near steel some in healthcare; middle management

White Collar Workers

belonging or pertaining to the ranks of office and professional workers whose jobs generally do not involve manual labor or the wearing of a uniform or work clothes.
Trades Services Finance Real Estate

White Collar Workers (contd)

Sense of superiority to blue collars Autonomy at work Educational achievement Mode of dress Language Work is mentally challenging Opportunity to advance to managerial ranks (blue collar: foremanship)

Union Strength/Weakness
Highly concentrated in areas that are strategic to our economy
Eg: Trucking

Threat: Job growth in the white collar industries (unions tend to be weak in these areas) Job losses in blue collar industries

Union Strength/Weakness
Women poor candidates for unionism. WHY?
Job security Temporary job compared to males Masculinity that comes with unionism tough, rough guy image

New Types of Union Members

College Faculty Members Physicians and Nurses Sports: professional athletes
MLB: NBA: Lockout 1995; 1999, currently NFL
Bargaining rights

Students, research assistants (working at public universities) governed by state labor laws
Undergrads at UMass to become members of United Automobile Workers Grad students at Yale, Brown, Tufts, Cornell, UPenn, Temple Brown reversal of NLRB ruling that research assistants, etc were students and NOT workers; thus NO Collective Bargaining Rights.

New Types, contd

Better educated

Labor Relations in the Public Sector

Fastest growing employment sector Public employees greatest rate of union growth in labor movement
AFSCME (American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees) gains 1000 new members a week 1.5 million members in 2008 American Federation of Teachers (AFT) 60K in 1960 and less than 50 years later, grew up to 850,000 members

Prior to 1956 No data

1956 915, 000 (postal workers, shipyards, arsenals 1964 1.5 million 2008 7.3 million (engineers, zookeepers, firefighters, jail guards, teachers, sewerage workers, etc.)

Private Sector vs Public Sector

Governed by the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) Governed by the Federal Labor Relations Authority (FRLA) Public Service Workers cannot strike

Types of Unions
Industrial unions found their start in factories where largely unskilled laborers worked. Transportation unions in the railroad and airline industries, such as the United Transportation Union and the Air Line Pilots Association, are governed by the Railway Labor Act, which differs some from the National Labor Relations Act. Craft unions are labor unions whose membership is organized in accordance with their craft or skills. United Farm Workers, founded by Dolores Huerta and Cesar Chavez, do not have the protections of the National Labor Relations Act, but they do have rights under California law and still organize and gain recognition through concerted activities.

NEXT CLASS
Historical Framework of Unions in the United States

Why workers join unions

A theoretical perspective
Please see handout or page2 20-26 in Sloane and Witney