STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

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STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

• Strikes
• Occur when employees refuse to work until an
  employer changes its position on one or more
  issues.
• Also intended to pressure the employerby
  withholding their labor, strikers seek to
  increase the employers cost of disagreement by
  depriving the employer of profits (private
  sector) or the ability to satisfy the demands of
  taxpayers and voters (public sector).
• If such actions are costly enough, the employer
  will accept the employees demands and settle the
  strike.

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STRIKES AND LOCKOUTS

• When employees strike to win better wages,
  benefits, and work rules the strike is considered
  an economic strike.
• Economic strikes are the most common frequent of
  strike in U.S. labor relations.
• Closely related to an economic strike is a
  lockoutan employer initiated rather than worker
  initiated work stoppage during a bargaining
  impasse.
• It is important to differentiate between types of
  strikes because U.S. legal doctrine in the
  private sector is different for each one.

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TYPES OF STRIKES
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PICKET LINES

• Workers, their leaders, and their supporters
  march outside the struck employers location(s)
  to publicize their dispute, convince the public
  not to patronize the business and workers not to
  cross the picket line, create solidarity among
  the strikers, and otherwise build support for
  their cause.
• In economic and unfair labor practice strikes,
  picketing is legal but is not without legal
  limitations.
• Picketing raises several important issuessuch as
  what about employees who want to work instead of
  strike and therefore cross their own unions
  picket line.

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PUBLIC SECTOR STRIKES

• All types of strikes are more likely to be
  illegal when conducted by government employees.
• Prohibiting public sector strikes is rooted in
  several traditional beliefs
• That striking against the government is an
  unacceptable threat to the supreme authority of
  the government
• That public sector employee bargaining power is
  too high because there are no market-based checks
  on their demands
• That government services are too critical to be
  interrupted.
• Strikes by federal government workers are
  prohibited and only 25 of states grant even a
  limited right to strike.

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NATIONAL EMERGENCY STRIKES

• Like in the public sector, there is a concern in
  the private sector law with strikes that
  seriously harm the public interest.
• Because of the critical importance of railroads
  in the early 20th century economy, the Railway
  Labor Act empowers the president of the United
  States to create a Presidential Emergency Board
  if a strike would threaten substantially to
  interrupt interstate commerce.

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MAJOR U.S. STRIKES, 1950-2002
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STRIKE REPLACEMENTS

• Employees used or hired to do the work of
  individuals on strike are called strike
  replacements or replacement workers (or in the
  most derogatory language, scabs).
• Strikers that have been replaced permanently
  replaced are not necessarily entitled to
  immediate reinstatement back to their old jobs
  once they end their strike.
• A 1938 Supreme Court ruling (NLRB v. Mackay Radio
  and Telegraph Co.) established that absent
  discrimination based on union activity, both
  temporary and permanent strike replacements are
  legal.
• Is the strike threat viable anymore?

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BOYCOTTS

• A boycott is a campaign to encourage a companys
  customers to stop doing business with it.
• In a bargaining dispute in the U.S. private
  sector, a boycott is generally legal if it
  narrowly targets the company directly involved in
  the dispute.
• Section 8(b)(4) of the NLRA prohibits secondary
  boycottsboycotts that target secondary rather
  than primary employers.

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WORK SLOWDOWNS

• Slowdowns try to pressure employers by imposing
  cost through lowered productivity, but without
  employees leaving their jobs.
• The most creative type of slowdown is a
  work-to-rule campaign
• Refusing to work overtime is a partial strike.
• A series of repeated quickie strikes amounts to
  an intermittent strike.
• The basic goal of these job actions is to disrupt
  the employers operations, and at the same time
  make it difficult for employers to hire
  replacements.

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THIRD-PARTY DISPUTE RESOLUTION

• Third-party dispute resolution mechanisms use a
  neutral third party to settle bargaining impasses
  with the goal of avoiding costly strikes.
• In the private sector, property rights and the
  freedom to enter into contracts means that
  third-party dispute resolution is generally
  voluntary.
• In the public sector, the primacy of serving the
  public interest means that third-party dispute
  resolution is often compulsory.
• Third-party dispute resolution mechanisms are
• Mediation
• Arbitration
• Fact-finding

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INTEREST ARBITRATON

• Interest arbitration is designed to resolve
  interest disputes that result in new contractual
  terms that govern wages and terms and conditions
  of employment.
• Two primary forms of interest arbitration
• Conventional arbitration
• Final offer arbitration
• total package
• issue-by-issue
• As with mediation, interest arbitration is
  voluntary in the private sector and often
  mandatory in the public sector.
• Most interest arbitration takes place in the
  public sectormore than 20 states have some form
  of compulsory arbitration statute.

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FACT-FINDING

• A third party dispute resolution method in which
  a neutral third party investigates a bargaining
  impasse and issues non-binding recommendations
  for a settlement.
• Is essentially non-binding arbitration.
• Typically, hearings are held where each side
  presents its case, which is then followed by a
  report containing specific terms of a settlement.
  
• Unlike arbitration, fact-finding does not
  guarantee a resolution.
• Unlike mediation, fact-finding does little to
  help the negotiating process in order to
  facilitate productive bargaining and a
  settlement.
• In fact, fact-finding appears to increase labor
  conflict relative to public sector jurisdictions
  that settle disputes with strikes or arbitration.