The Supervisor's Role in Labor Relations

1
The Supervisor's Role in Labor Relations

• What is Labor Relations?
• All activities within a company that involve
  dealing with a union and its members.

2
The Supervisor's Role in Labor Relations

• What is a Union?
• An organization that represents workers and seeks
  to protect their interests through collective
  bargaining.
• (less than 15 of U.S. labor force currently
  belong to a labor union)

3
Why Would a Worker Join a Union?

• Higher wages and benefits
• Greater job security
• Increased opportunity to influence work rules.
• Compulsory membership Union shop
• Agency shop
• Maintenance of membership
• Upset with employer/supervisor

4
National Labor Relations Act (1935)

• Guaranteed worker the right to organize and join
  unions, to bargain collectively, and to act in
  concert in pursuit of their objectives.
• Established election procedures, required
  management to bargain in good faith, specifically
  prohibited employers from engaging in certain
  unfair labor practices, and created the NLRB to
  administer the act.

5
National Labor Relations Act (1935)

• Management Unfair Labor Practices
• Interfering with, restraining, or coercing
  employees in the exercise of rights to to join
  unions, and bargain collectively.
• Dominating or interfering with the formation or
  administration of any labor organization.
• Discriminating with anyone because of union
  activity.
• Discharging or otherwise discrimination against
  any employee for filling charges under the act.
• Refusing to bargaining collectively with the
  representatives chosen by the employees.

6
Labor-Management Relations Act(1947)

• Also known as the Taft-Hartley Act. It modified
  the NLRA with the intent of reducing some of the
  power the 1935 Act vested in the unions.
• Established unfair labor practices for the
  unions, outlawed the closed shop, declared
  secondary boycotts illegal, and opened the door
  for states to legally forbid compulsory union
  membership by authorizing the states to enact
  Right-to-Work laws.

7
Labor-Management Relations Act(1947)

• Union Unfair Labor Practices
• Restrain or coerce employees in joining the union
  or to coerce the employer in selecting bargaining
  or grievance representatives.
• Discriminate against an employee to whom union
  membership has been denied or to cause an
  employer to discriminate against an employee.
• Refuse to bargain collectively.
• Engage in strikes and boycotts for purposes
  deemed illegal by the act.
• Charge excessive or discriminatory fees or due
  under union-shop contracts.

8
Labor-Management Cooperation

• During the 1990s the labor-management
  environment has been experiencing some new
  approaches to issue and dispute resolution at
  both the bargaining table and during the
  administration of the agreements.
• Ironically, the principle obstacle to these
  attempts at promoting and improving
  labor-management cooperation is the NLRA
  itself...

9
A Certified Bargaining Unit

• Identifies which employees the union will
  represent if it wins the representation election.
• The NLRB is empowered by the Act to determine the
  appropriate bargaining unit following their
  receipt of a petition for representation from a
  union.

10
A Certified Bargaining Unit

• Proper receipt of a petition requires that the
  union secure signed authorization cards from at
  least 30 of the employees that it desires to
  represent.
• If management does not voluntarily recognize the
  union the NLRB will call for a secret-ballot
  election.

11
A Certified Bargaining Unit

• To win the union must get a majority of the
  votes. A Tie goes to the employer. If the union
  loses the election it is barred for one year from
  organizing another campaign with the same workers.

12
Collective Bargaining

• A process for negotiating a union contract and
  for administering the contract after it has been
  negotiated.
• Customarily, negotiations begin when the union
  delivers a list of demands to management. They
  end with either an agreement or impasse. (this
  is an over simplification of the process)

13
Collective Bargaining

• Agreements are submitted to the members for
  ratification and an impasse can lead to continued
  negotiation, a strike, or a lockout.
• A substantial body of law has evolved through
  court decisions that define the ground rules for
  bargaining. It clarifies the otherwise ambiguous
  language of the NLRA.

14
Contract Administration

• Almost all collective bargaining agreements
  contain formal procedures for resolving
  grievances over the interpretation and
  application of the contract.

15
Contract Administration

• These grievances are sometimes referred to as
  rights disputes and the dispute resolution
  process established in the agreements generally
  provide for some form of internal resolution
  before proceeding to an impartial third party
  arbitrator for final and binding resolution.

16
Contract Administration

• The Union Steward is an employee who is the
  elected representative of the employees in a work
  unit, and is there to protect the rights of union
  members. Because of his duties he or she will
  generally enjoy super seniority status while
  performing the stewards duties.

17
Impasse

• Economic Strikes
• Lockouts
• Partial Strikes
• Wildcat Strikes
• Secondary Boycotts
• Striker Replacement

18
Impasse Resolution

• FMCS
• Mediation
• Interest Arbitration
• Fact-finding
• National Emergency Powers