Bratton & Gold: HRM 3e CHAPTER 2

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Title
Union-Management Relations
Words of Wisdom The increasingly powerful new
economy seems to offer little role or place for
trade unions. Pay, the principal component of
any employment contract, is now fixed by formal
collective bargaining for no more than one-third
of the population. New record high for
employers recognizing unions in 2001. This
report confirms that unions are very much back in
business and that employers want to do business
with them. Sensible employers understand that
todays unions seek partnership and good working
relationships. They can be good for business, as
well as staff. Any extension of union
recognition is not likely to be employer-led.
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Chapter outline
Union-Management Relations
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Definition
Union-Management Relations

• Union-management relations address the collective
  aspects of the employment relationship and focus
  on the relations between organized employees
  (represented by a union) and management, and on
  the processes within which a union and an
  employer interact to regulate the employment
  contract.
• Union-management relations also refers to the
  context within which a union and an employer
  interact.

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Management strategies
Management Strategies

• Strategies towards unions
• An industrial relations strategy refers to the
  plans and policies used by management to deal
  with its trade unions.
• The various strategic alternatives can be
  classified into three broad industrial relations
  strategies
• 1. union acceptance
• 2. union replacement
• 3. union avoidance
• No single strategy is adopted by employers and
  managers management can choose from a variety of
  strategies.

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Tbl 12.1 Union membership in the UK 71-00
Trade Unions
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Tbl 12.2 Union presence by broad sector 80-98
Trade Unions
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Tbl 12.3 Union membership in selected countries
Trade Unions
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Interpreting union decline
Trade Unions

• Interpreting union decline
• One influential explanation of variations in the
  rate of unionization over time categorizes the
  determinants under the following headings (Bain
  Price, 1983)
• Business cycle
• Public policy
• Work and organizational design
• Industrial restructuring
• Employer policies
• Union leadership

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Union structure
Trade Unions

• Union structure
• Union structure denotes the external shape of
  trade unions or job territories, the areas of the
  labour market from which the union aims to
  recruit.
• A unions internal structure, the relationship
  between its parts, is referred to as trade union
  government.
• There are many variants of union structure within
  countries, traditionally expressed in terms of
  the four classic ideal types within British
  union structures craft, industrial, general and
  white-collar unions.

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Tbl 12.4 Largest TUC affiliated unions 79-01
Trade Unions
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Fig 12.1 Britains changing strike pattern
1960-2000
Trade Unions
Union bargaining power
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Collective Bargaining
Collective Bargaining

• Collective bargaining is an institutional system
  of negotiation in which the making,
  interpretation and administration of rules, as
  well as the application of statutory controls
  affecting the employment relationship, are
  decided within union-management negotiating
  committees.
• Several points arise from this definition
• 1. Collective bargaining is a process through
  which representatives of the union and management
  jointly determine some rules appertaining to the
  employment contract.

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Collective bargaining 2
Collective Bargaining

• 2. There are two types of rule substantive and
  procedural. Substantive rules establish terms and
  conditions of employment, such as pay, working
  hours and holidays, whereas procedural rules
  regulate the way in which substantive rules are
  made and interpreted, and indicate how workplace
  conflicts are resolved.
• 3. The parties that negotiate the collective
  agreement also enforce the agreement. The British
  system of collective bargaining is perhaps most
  noted for its lack of legal regulation.
  Collective agreements are, with a few exceptions,
  not regarded as contracts of legal enforcement
  between the parties.

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Collective bargaining structure
Collective Bargaining

• Collective bargaining structure
• The structure of collective bargaining is the
  framework within which negotiations take place
  and defines the scope of employers and employees
  covered by the collective agreement.
• Collective bargaining is conducted at several
  levels
• Workplace
• Corporate
• Industry

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Tbl 12.5 Basis for pay determination in Britain
84-98
Collective Bargaining
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Trade unions and HRM
Trade Unions and HRM

• The HRM model poses a threat to trade unions in
  at least four ways
• 1. The individualization of the employment
  contract
• 2. The demise of union representation
• 3. The intensification of work
• 4. The undermining of union solidarity through
  organizational commitment

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Union strategies partnership and paradox?
Union Strategies Partnership and Paradox?

• There are two dominant strategic approaches for
  the renewal of British trade unions.
• Organizing strategy
• Also referred to as new unionism, is internally
  focused and places a renewed emphasis on the
  recruitment and organization of new union
  members.
• The purpose of this strategy is to establish an
  effective workplace union organization that can
  be self-sustaining in terms of recruitment and
  service to members.

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Organizing strategy
Union Strategies Partnership and Paradox?

• Organizing strategy (continued)
• To be successful the organizing strategy for
  union renewal requires five broad conditions to
  be present in the workplace
• 1. a perceived sense of injustice or violation of
  the contract
• 2. attribution of the injustice to managerial
  behaviour
• 3. the presence of effective workplace unionism
  through which the collective action can occur
• 4. confidence that collective action will have
  the desired effect
• 5. charismatic union leaders who can mobilise the
  membership and legitimize collective action

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Partnership strategy
Union Strategies Partnership and Paradox?

• Partnership strategy
• The second dominant strategy for the renewal of
  unions is the social partnership strategy.
• This strategy is externally focused, emphasizing
  union-management relations, and seeks to develop
  a new form of workplace governance around the
  notion of partnership.
• Partnership agreements seek to give unions a
  place at the strategy table by portraying
  themselves as an authoritative partner in
  economic and business management.
• Trade unions seek to improve union influence and
  membership by building long-term partnerships
  with employers.

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Fig 12.2 Key principles of workplace partnerships
Union Strategies Partnership and Paradox?
Partnership strategy
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Tbl 12.6 The benefits and costs of a partnership
strategy
Union Strategies Partnership and Paradox?
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Legal context of union-management relations
Legal Context of Union-Management Relations

• Management and union strategies, collective
  bargaining processes and outcomes (for example
  pay levels, labour productivity and industrial
  disputes) are influenced by economic, political
  and legal factors.
• The state (the executive, Parliament, the
  judiciary, the civil service and the police and
  armed forces) has considerable influence on
  union-management relations in two major areas
  through legislation and through third-party
  intervention.

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Tbl 12.7 Main UK legislative provisions related
to union-management relations
Legal Context of Union-Management Relations
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Chapter summary (1st half)
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Chapter summary (2nd half)