Chapter 14 collective bargaining and labor relations

1. Chapter 14 collective bargaining and labor relations Fundamentals of human resource management 5theditionBy R.A. Noe, J.R. Hollenbeck, B. Gerhart, and P.M. Wright

2. Need to Know • Unions and labor relations’ role in organizations. • Labor relations goals of management, labor unions, and society. • Laws and regulations that affect labor relations. • Union organizing process. • How management and unions negotiate contracts. • Practice of contract administration. • Cooperative approaches to labor-management relations.

3. Role of Unions • In U.S., most workers act as individuals to select jobs that are acceptable to them and to negotiate pay, benefits, flexible hours, and other work conditions. • At times, workers have believed their needs and interests do not receive enough consideration from management. • One response by workers is to act collectively by forming and joining labor unions.

4. Unions and Labor Relations Unions – organizations formed for the purpose of representing their members’ interests in dealing with employers. Labor relations – field that emphasizes skills managers and union leaders can use to minimize costly forms of conflict (such as strikes) and seek win-win solutions to disagreements.

5. 3 Levels of Labor relations decisions:

6. Figure 14.1: 10 Largest Unions in U.S.

7. National and International Unions • Most Union members belong to a nationalor internationalunion that may be: • Craft unions:members all have a particular skill or occupation. • Industrial unions:members are linked by their work in a particular industry. • Most national unions are affiliated with the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO).

8. Figure 14.2: Union Membership Density among U.S. Wage and Salary Workers

9. decline in union membership DUE to:

10. Figure 14.3: Union Membership Rates and Coverage in Selected Countries

11. Sketch of a Union Worker

12. Impact of Unions on Company Performance • Harley-Davidson and the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers have cooperated to produce good results. • Companies wishing to become more competitive need to continually monitor their labor relations strategies.

13. Management Goals • Management goals are to increase organization’s profits. • Managers prefer options that lower costs, raise output and keep organization’s operations flexible. • When an employer has recognized a union, management’s goals continue to emphasize restraining costs and improving output. • With labor unions, managers prefer to limit increases in wages and benefits, and retain as much control as they can over work rules and schedules.

14. Labor Unions Goals • Obtain pay and working conditions that satisfy and give members a voice in decisions that affect them. • Unions achieve results by gaining power in numbers. • Unions want to influence the way pay and promotions are determined.

15. Goals of Labor Unions • Survival and security of a union depend on its ability to ensure a regular flow of new members and member dues to support the services it provides. • Unions place high priority on negotiating two types of contract provisions that are critical to a union’s security and viability: • Check-off provisions • Union membership or contribution provisions

16. Goals of Labor Unions Checkoff Provision Membership Security Contract provision under which the employer, on behalf of the union, automatically deducts union dues from employees’ paychecks. • Closed shop • Union shop • Agency shop • Maintenance of membership

17. Societal goals • Activities of unions and management take place within the context of society. • Society’s values drive laws and regulations that affect labor unions. • Society’s goal for unions is to ensure that workers have a voice in how they are treated by their employers.

18. Laws Affecting Labor Relations

19. Laws Affecting Labor Relations • Right-to-work laws:state laws that make union shops, maintenance of membership, and agency shops illegal. • National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):Federal government agency that enforces the NLRA by conducting and certifying representation elections and investigating unfair labor practices.

20. Figure 14.4:States with Right-to-Work Laws SOURCE: National Right to Work Legal Defense Foundation, “Right to Work States,” www.nrtw.org , accessed May 3, 2012.

21. Test Your Knowledge • True (A) or False (B) • NLRA established unfair labor practices on the part of the union. • NLRB determines which states are Right-to-Work • In Right-to-Work states, employees do not have to become members of the union • In states without Right-to-Work laws unions can refuse to hire non-union members. • Protection from union misconduct was established by the Landrum-Griffin Act.

22. Organizing Process

23. Signing Authorization Cards • A document indicating that an employee wants to be represented by a labor organization in collective bargaining • Is there sufficient interest on the part of employees to justify the unit? • Evidence of interest when at least 30 % of employees in a work group sign an authorization card • Usually need 50% to proceed

24. Figure 14.5: Authorization Card Example

25. Election and Certification • NLRB monitors secret-ballot election on set date • Board will issue a certification of results to participants • Majority of employees vote for union. • NLRB will certify. • Process does not require either party to make concessions; it only compels them to bargain in good faith.

26. Table 14.1: What Supervisors Should and Should Not Do to Discourage Unions

27. Union Strategies • Organizers call or visit employees at home to talk about issues like pay and job security. • Offer workers associate union membership. • Conduct corporate campaigns. • Negotiate employer neutralityand card-checkprovisions into a contract.

28. Union Decertification • Taft-Hartley Act made it possible for employees to decertify a union • Essentially the reverse process that employees must follow to be recognized as an official bargaining unit • Employees have used decertification petitions with increasing frequency and success

29. Collective Bargaining • In collective bargaining a union negotiates on behalf of its members with management representatives to arrive at a contract defining: • Recognition • Management Rights • Union Security • Compensation and Benefits • Grievance Procedure • Employee Security

30. Table 14.2: Typical Provisions in Collective Bargaining Contracts

31. Table 14.2: Typical Provisions in Collective Bargaining Contracts Cont.

32. Test Your Knowledge: Which is an Unfair Labor Practice (ULP)? • Enforcing disciplinary policies only to those who have expressed interest in a union • Showing employees articles about negative aspects of unions that occurred elsewhere • Email employees asking them to respond with how they plan to vote in the union election • Tell employees the disadvantages of having a union • Enforcing disciplinary policies when deserved to a pro-union employee • Promise employees an additional week of vacation if they vote against the union

33. Bargaining Over New Contracts

34. When Bargaining Breaks Down Strikes Alternatives to Strikes • Strike: a collective decision by union members not to work until certain demands or conditions are met. • Mediation • Fact Finder • Arbitration

35. Figure 14.6: Strikes Involving 1,000 or More Workers

36. Alternatives to Strikes

37. Contract Administration Contract Administration Grievance Procedure • Carrying out agreement’s terms and resolving conflicts over interpretation or violation of the agreement. • Process for resolving union-management conflicts over interpretation or violation of a collective bargaining agreement.

38. Figure 14.7: Steps in an Employee- Initiated Grievance Procedure

39. Labor-Management Cooperation

40. Test Your Knowledge True (A) or False (B) • Mediation requires each party to abide by the mediator’s decision. • Clearly written contracts require less contract administration time due to fewer disagreements over interpretation. • Integrative bargaining involves a win-lose approach because the issues are considered a fixed pie. • A union steward represents the issues concerning union employees and is elected by them.

41. Summary • A union is an organization formed for the purpose of representing its members in resolving conflicts with employers. • Labor relations is the management specialty emphasizing skills that managers and union leaders can use to minimize costly forms of conflict and to seek win-win solutions to disagreements. • Management goals are to increase organization’s profits. Managers generally expect that unions will make these goals harder to achieve.

42. Summary • Labor unions have the goal of obtaining pay and working conditions that satisfy their members. They obtain these results by gaining power in numbers. • Society’s values have included the hope that existence of unions will replace conflict or violence between workers and employers with fruitful negotiation. • In contrast to traditional view that labor and management are adversaries, some organizations and unions work more cooperatively.