Learning Objectives

2. Learning Objectives After studying this chapter, you should be able to: Define collective bargaining. Explain the captive-audience doctrine. Define bargaining unit. Explain certification, recognition, and contract bars. Describe good-faith bargaining

3. Learning Objectives (cont.) Discuss boulwarism. Explain mediation. Define checkoff. Explain seniority. Define lockout and strike.

4. Collective Bargaining • Collective bargaining • Process that involves the negotiation, drafting, administration, and interpretation of a written agreement between an employer and a union for a specific period of time.

5. Collective Bargaining Process Negotiation of relevant issues in good faith by both management and union Incorporation of parties’ understandings into a written contract Administration of daily working relationships according to terms and conditions of employment specified in contract Resolution of disputes in interpretation of terms of contract through established procedures

6. Union Membership Decision

7. Reasons for Joining Better communication with management Higher quality of management and supervision Increased democracy in the workplace Opportunity to belong to a group where they can share experiences and comradeship

8. The Opposition View • Major reasons for not joining a union are satisfactory • Wages • Benefits • Working conditions • Job security

9. The Opposition View • Negative image of labor unions includes believing unions • Have too much political influence • Require members to go along with decisions made by union • Have leaders promoting their own self-interests • Abuse their power by calling strikes • Misuse union dues and pension funds

10. Union Organizing Campaign • Captive-audience doctrine • Management’s right to speak against a union to employees on company time and to require employees to attend the meeting.

11. Determining the Bargaining Unit • Bargaining unit • Group of employees in a plant, firm, or industry that is recognized by the employer, agreed on by the parties to a case, or designated by the NLRB as appropriate for the purposes of collective bargaining.

12. Determining the Bargaining Unit • Consent elections • Union elections in which the parties have agreed on the appropriate bargaining unit. • Community of interest • Concept by which the NLRB makes a bargaining unit decision based on areas of employee commonality.

13. Unfair Labor Practices Physical interference, threats, or violent behavior by employer toward union organizers Employer interference with employees involved in organizing drive Discipline or discharge of employees for pro-union activities Threatening or coercing of employees by union organizers

14. Election Campaigns • Informational picketing • Patrolling at or near an employer’s facility by individuals carrying signs to publicize the fact that the union is requesting an election to become the bargaining agent for the employees of the organization.

15. Election Campaigns • Gissel bargaining orders • Situations in which the NLRB orders management to bargain with the union • named after a landmark Supreme Court decision, NLRB v. Gissel Packing Company.

16. Election, Certification, and Decertification • 12-month rule • Provides that no election can be held in any bargaining unit within which a valid election has been held within the preceding 12-month period.

17. Election, Certification, and Decertification • Certification bar • Condition occurring when the NLRB will not permit another election in the bargaining unit within 12 months of a union’s certification. • Recognition bar • Condition occurring when the NLRB prohibits an election for up to 12 months after an employer voluntarily recognizes a union.

18. Election, Certification, and Decertification • Contract bar doctrine • Doctrine under which the NLRB will not permit an election in the bargaining unit covered by a contract until the contract expires, up to a maximum of three years

19. Steps Involved in a UnionOrganizing Campaign Figure 19.1

20. Good-Faith Bargaining • Good-faith bargaining • Sincere intention of both parties to negotiate differences and reach a mutually acceptable agreement

21. Good-Faith Bargaining • Boulwarism • occurs when management makes its best offer at the outset of bargaining and firmly adheres to the offer throughout the bargaining sessions. • Named after a General Electric vice president • NLRB has ruled that this is not good-faith bargaining and is therefore illegal.

22. Participants in Negotiations • Coordinated bargaining • A form of bargaining in which several unions bargain jointly with a single employer.

23. Role of Third Parties • Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) • Independent agency within the federal government that provides mediators to assist in resolving contract negotiation impasses.

24. Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service • Mediation • Process whereby both parties invite a neutral third party (called a mediator) to help resolve contract impasses • Mediator has no authority to impose a solution on the parties.

25. Arbitrators • Arbitration • Process whereby the parties agree to settle a dispute through the use of an independent third party (called an arbitrator) • Binding on both parties.

26. Arbitrators • Conventional interest arbitration • Form of arbitration in which the arbitrator listens to arguments from both parties and makes a binding decision, which can be identical to the position of either party or different from the positions of both parties

27. Arbitrators • Final-offer interest arbitration • Form of arbitration in which the arbitrator is restricted to selecting the final offer of one of the parties.

28. Collective Bargaining Agreements • Collective bargaining agreement (or union contract) • results from the bargaining process and governs the relations between employer and employees for a specific period of time. • specifies in writing the mutual agreements reached by the parties during the negotiations

29. Prohibited and Permitted Collective Bargaining Issues in the Federal Sector Table 19.1

30. Specific Issues in Collective Bargaining Agreements

31. Union Security • Union shop • Provision in a contract that requires all employees in a bargaining unit to join the union and retain membership as a condition of employment • most right-to-work laws outlaw the union shop.

32. Union Security • Agency shop • Contract provision that does not require employees to join the union but requires them to pay the equivalent of union dues as a condition of employment.

33. Union Security • Maintenance of membership • Contract provision that does not require an employee to join the union but does require employees who do join to remain members for a stipulated time period.

34. Union Security • Checkoff • Arrangement between an employer and a union under which the employer agrees to withhold union dues, initiation fees, and assessments from the employees’ paychecks and submit this money to the union.

35. Wages and Employee Benefi ts • Cost-of-living adjustments (COLA) • Contract provision that ties wage increases to rises in the Bureau of Labor Statistics consumer price index.

36. Definitions of TypicalSupplementary Pay Items Table 19.2

37. Dispute Resolution • Lockout • Refusal of an employer to let its employees work. • Strike • Collective refusal of employees to work.

38. Trends in Collective Bargaining