1
Chapter
14
Collective Bargaining and Labor
Relations
After reading this chapter, you should be able to:
Describe what is meant by collective bargaining and labor
relations.
Identify the labor relations, goals of management, labor unions,
and society.
Explain the legal environment's impact on labor relations.
Describe the major labor-management interactions: organizing,
contract negotiations, and contract administration.
Chapter
14
Collective Bargaining and Labor
Relations
Describe the new, less adversarial approaches to labor-
management relations.
Explain how changes in competitive challenges (e.g., product-
market competition and globalization) are influencing labor-
management interactions.
Explain how labor relations in the public sector differ from
labor relations in the private sector.
The Labor Relations Framework
Competitive
Challenges
- Legal
- Stakeholder needs
- High-performance
work systems
Goals Union Membership
- Employees and unions and Relative
- Management Bargaining Power
- Society
Union and Management
Union Structure and Interactions Goal Attainment
Administration - Organizing - Employees and unions
- Negotiating - Management
- Administering - Society
The Labor Relations Framework
John Dunlop suggested a
labor relations system that
consists of four elements:
An environmental context
Participants
A web of rules
Ideology
Goals and Strategies
Society
Labor unions' major benefit to society throughout history has
been the balancing of power and the institutionalization of
industrial conflict in the least costly way.
The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA, 1935) sought to
provide a legal framework conducive to collective bargaining.
Management
Must decide whether to encourage or discourage the
unionization of its employees.
Labor Unions
Seek to give workers formal representation in setting the
terms and conditions of employment.
Union Structure, Administration,
and Membership
National and International Unions
Craftunions
Industrial unions
Local Unions
Responsible for the negotiations of a contract as well as the
day-to-day administration of the contract, including the
grievance procedure.
AFL-CIO
Not a union but rather an association that seeks to advance the
shared interest of its member unions at the national level.
Union Security
Checkoff
Provision
Right-to- Closed
Work Laws Shop
Maintenance Union
of Membership Shop
Agency
Shop
Union Membership and Bargaining
Power
Reasonsfor the consistent decline of union
membership in the U.S. include:
Structural Changes in the Economy
Increased Employer Resistance
Substitution with HRM
Substitution by Government Regulation
Worker Views
Union Actions
Legal Framework
The 1935 NLRA enshrined collective
bargaining as the preferred mechanism for
settling labor-management disputes.
Section 7 of the NLRA: employees have
the "right to self-organization, to form,
join, or assist labor organizations, to
bargain collectively through
representatives of their own choosing, and
to engage in other concerted activities for
the purpose of collective bargaining."
Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs)
TheNLRA prohibits certain activities by both employers
and labor unions:
Employers cannot interfere with, restrain, or coerce
employees in exercising their Section 7 rights.
Employers cannot dominate or interfere with a union.
Employers may not discriminate against an individual for
exercising his or her right to join or assist a union.
Employers may not discriminate against employees for
providing testimony relevant to enforcement of the NLRA.
Employers cannot refuse to bargain collectively with a
certified union.
Unfair Labor Practices - Unions
Originally the NLRA did not list any
union unfair labor practices. These
were added by the 1947 Taft-Hartley
Act.
The 1959 Landrum-Griffin Act further
regulated unions’ actions and their
internal affairs
i.e.financial disclosure and conduct of
elections.
Enforcement
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has
the primary responsibility for enforcing the NLRA.
The NLRB is a five-member board appointed by the
president. Additionally, there are 33 regional offices.
The NLRB has two major functions:
To conduct and certify representation elections.
To prevent unfair labor practices.
ULP charges are filed at and investigated by the regional
offices.
Why Do Employees Join Unions?
Virtuallyevery decision to join a
union focuses on two questions?
Is there a gap between pay, benefits,
and other conditions of employment
that employees actually receive versus
what they believe they should receive?
If such a gap exists, is it sufficiently
large enough to motivate employees to
remedy the situation?
The Process and Legal Framework
of Organizing
An election may be held if at least 30 percent of the
employees in the bargaining unitsign authorization
cards.
A secret ballot election will be held. The union is
certified by the NLRB if a simple majority of
employees vote for it.
A decertification election may be held if no other
election has been held within the year or if no contract
is in force.
Certain categories of employees cannot be included in
bargaining units.
Organizing Campaigns
The NLRB may set aside the results of an election if
the employer has created an atmosphere of confusion
or fear of reprisals.
Associate union membership is a form of union
membership in which the union receives dues in
exchange for services but does not provide
representation in collective bargaining.
Corporate campaigns seek to bring public, financial,
or political pressure on employers during the
organizing and negotiating process.
The Negotiation Process
Distributive
Bargaining
- win/lose
Intraorganizational Integrative
Bargaining Bargaining
- conflicting objectives of - win/win
different factions
Attitudinal
Structuring
- relationship
and trust
Preparing Managers for
Negotiations
Seven steps:
Establish interdepartmental contract objectives.
Review the old contract.
Prepare and analyze data.
Anticipate union demands.
Establish the costs of various possible contract
provisions.
Make preparations for a strike.
Determine the strategy and logistics.
Negotiation Stages and Tactics
The early stages may include many
individuals, as union proposals are
presented.
During the middle stages, each side makes
decisions regarding priorities, theirs and
the other parties'.
In the final stage, momentum may build
toward settlement or pressure may build
as an impasse becomes more apparent.
May involve interaction with negotiators
or facilitators.
Management’s Willingness to Take
a Strike
Thefollowing factors help determine whether
management is able to take a strike:
Product Demand
Product Perishability
Technology
Availability of Replacement Workers
Multiple Production Sites and Staggered Contracts
Integrated Facilities
Lack of Substitutes for the Product
Alternatives to Strikes
Mediation - Has no formal
authority to force a solution; acts
as a facilitator for the parties.
Fact finder - Investigates and
reports on the reasons for the
dispute and both sides' positions.
Arbitration - A process through
which a neutral party makes a final
and binding decision.
Grievance Procedure
The negotiation process typically occurs every three years.
Negotiation processes and administration processes are linked.
The effectiveness of grievance procedures may be judged on
three criteria:
How well are day-to-day problems resolved?
How well does the process adjust to changing circumstances?
In multi-unit contracts, how well does the process handle local
contract issues?
The duty of fair representation is mandated by the NLRA and
requires that all bargaining-unit members, whether union
members or not, have equal access to and appropriate
representation in the grievance process.
Grievance Procedure
Arbitration is a final and binding step.
Criteria arbitrators use to reach decisions include:
Did the employee know the rule and the consequences of
violating it?
Was the rule applied in a consistent and predictable way?
Were the facts collected in a fair and systematic way?
Did the employee have the right to question the facts and
present a defense?
Does the employee have the right of appeal?
Is there progressive discipline?
Are there mitigating circumstances?
New Labor Management Strategies
There are signs of a transformation from
an adversarial approach to a less
adversarial and more constructive
approach to union-management relations.
The transformation includes increasing
worker involvement and participation and
reorganizing work to increase flexibility.
Union leaders have frequently resisted
such change, fearing an erosion of their
influence.
Labor Relations Outcomes
Strikes
Wages and Benefits
In2000, private-sector unionized workers received, on average,
wages that were 19 percent higher than nonunion counterparts.
Productivity
Some argue that unions increase productivity, while other argue that
they decrease productivity.
Studies have concluded that union workers are more productive than
nonunion workers although the explanation is unclear.
Profits and Stock Performance
These may suffer under unionization if costs are raised.
The International Context
The United States has both the largest
number of union members and the
lowest unionization rate of any
Western European country or Japan.
The growing globalization of markets
will continue to put pressure on labor
costs and productivity.
The United States differs from
Western Europe in the degree of
formal worker participation in
decision-making.
The Public Sector
During the 1960s and 1970s, unionization in the
public sector increased dramatically.
As of 2003, 37 percent of government employees
were covered by a union contract, and 42 percent
of all government employees were covered by a
collective bargaining contract.
Strikes are illegal at the federal level and in many
states for government workers.
