Elements in the Labor Relations Process (20%)

• Most important element in the labor relations process

• Status of union membership today
• Difference between a craft union & an industrial union
o Craft Union: specific trade
o Industrial Union: Covers every type of trade in the plant
• What a shop steward & business agent does
• special classification that a union can give to the shop steward & business agent
• Who governs the national union
o National Convention
• Conventions & delegate system
• What is a closed shop, a union shop, and an agency shop
o Closed shop: Must be union to be hired
 Outlawed in 1947 by LMRA
o Union Shop: Doesn’t have to be union to be hired but must join within a certain
timeframe.
 Communication Workers vs. Beck
 Union shop clause only requires bargaining member to become a financial
core member
o Agency Shop: Doesn’t have to join but still has to pay for actual bargaining costs
 Financial core member
 Union may not charge them for costs unrelated to legitimate bargaining,
contract resolution,grievance
 Beck Guidelines
• How a union is formed (know all the steps and who does what, incl. who certifies results)
• Union hiring halls (who would use the most)
o Construction & Maritime 90%
• Right-to-work laws
o 22 states “Right to Work” vs. 28 states without that provision
• Know what type of union an educator would belong to
o Public sector? Agency?
• Would a “professional” be part of a union
o Yes as the amount of professionals have increased
o Contract provisions are similar but also address:
 Professional Standards
 Mechanisms for professional participation in policy making
 Regulation of professional work
 Training and professional development
 Commitment of organizational resources to professional goals
 Criteria for personnel decisions and the role of pro’s in making decisions
• What is amalgamation
o When two or more unions of roughly equal size form a new union
• What a company can do to discourage employees from joining a union.
o Ban non-employee union handbillers from company property
o Show propaganda videos

Early Labor History (10%)

• Knights of Labor (KOL)

o Organized in 1869
o Founded by Uriah Stevens as a secret society
 Was illegal
o Terrance Powderly – Leader 1879-1883
o 700,000 Members in 1886
o Pushed the 8hr work day
o KOL very poorly organized which lead to its demise
• What state the Haymarket Riot took place in
 o Chicago, IL
o Four dead after clash with police; skirmish was related to the 8hr work day push
o Next day, someone throws a bomb into a crowd of police killing 7

• American Federation of Labor (AFL); Samuel Gompers (what were his beliefs);
o Also a KOL member
o Not happy with how Powderly ran KOL or KOL’s longe-range philosophy
 Met with them 1886 to discuss problems
o AFL was not one big union
 Represented a federation of national unions cooperating for mutual gain
o Gompers believed that the goals and organization of unions should flow directly and
naturally from the members needs, not from the pronouncements of top leaders who
structured unions based on their views of what should have been, rather than what was.
o Gompers not big on revolutionary means
 Union members should work for equitable treatment within industrial society rather
than revolt against it.
o AFL’s major goal was to improve the material conditions of members through the existing
capitalistic system.
• Know what kind of union did AFL initially start out as?
o Federation of multiple unions
o Craft unions dominated it in the early stages
• Industrial Workers of the World (IWW); what helped them be successful
o William “Big Bill” Haywood – one of the initial organizers
o Revolutionary industrial union formed as an alternative to the AFL in 1905
o Organized because of the belief that the AFL:
 Failed to effectively organize the US Working Class
 Was organizing according to narrow craft principals with divided workers
o Goal was to unite in one body all skilled and unskilled workers for the purpose of
overthrowing capitalism and rebuilding society on a socialistic basis
o Opposed sabotage, arbitration, and collective bargaining
o Used direct action, propaganda, boycott, and the strike
o Was antimilitaristic and in WW-1 its members were accused of draft-evasion
 German paid strikes to cripple essential war industries
 Many leaders thrown in jail
o Failure aspects:
 majority was migratory and casual laborers
 Difficult to organize them into a cohesive group
 Inability to appeal to members interest
 Lack of revenue (voluntary dues paid)
 Identification of the IWW with Sabotage and Violence
 Alienation of the news media and gov’t officials
o Dead by 1918 (Still exists with a handful of members today)
 Starbucks
• Homestead Strike
o 1892 Iron & Steel Workers strike at Carnegie Steel Company
 Carnegie hires Pinkerton detectives to break the strike
 Armed battle with several men wounded or killed
 End result – strike is broken and steel industry unionism weakened
• Pullman Strike
o 1894 workers strike in protest of wage cuts and firing of union reps
o American Railway Union (Eugene V Debs) calls for a boycott of all Pullman cars
o Within days, 50,000 rail workers in Chicago come to a halt
o Attorney General calls for Pres to dispatch troops.
 Gov’t actions break the strike and the boycott collapses. Debs jailed
• Congress of Industrial Organization (CIO); John Lewis; sit-down strikes
o AFL did not want to deal with the growing number of semi-skilled employees
 Some AFL unions believed that semi-skilled were inferior and would possess less
bargaining power
 Some thought the semi-skilled would distort or confuse the organization
 In 1935, AFL United Mine Worker leader John L Lewis forms Committee for
Industrial Organizations
 Committee hits the steel workers
 AFL orders the Committee to disband or get out
 Lewis gets his United Mine Workers into a “lather of rage” against the AFL
o Congress of Industrial Organizations CIO is formed in 1938
 Organized the unorganized
 Successful because of
 Strong Leadership: aggressive and effective leaders
 Mobilized immigrants
 Realistic Goals: targeted short-run gains instead of long-range reform
 Opposite of KOL and IWW
 Sit-Down Strikes: 1936 Flint, MI General Motors strike
 Lasted 44 days, resulted in employer recognition
 500,000 Rubber,glass, & textile workers tried it out
 Was effect but was short lived due to public perception & Supreme
Court decision
 Wagner Act: Feds declare collective bargaining (CB) a national interest
 NLRB established to administer elections, define ULP, enforcement
 Changes in Employee’s Attitudes:
 Could not rely on employer after what happened in the Great
Depression.

• What happened with the unions in the 1920’s
o Significant drop in membership
o Decline caused by:
 Aggressive counteractions by employers
 Open Shop Movement: to ensure freedom of choice
 Industrial Spies & Blacklisting
 “American Plan” pushed the thought of “Rugged Individualism” vs. the
“Foreign, Subversive, and Corrupt” principals of labor unions
 Paternalism: company gave away free lunches, vacations, pensions,etc.
 Employees felt indebted to the employer
 Organized labors inability to overcome antiunion sentiment for potential members
 Media didn’t care for unions; therefore pushed that unions were bad
 Racketeering and “Sweetheart Contracts”
 Financial kickbacks for corrupt union official-employer relations

• Issues facing unions after World War II
o New collective bargaining issues
 Wage concessions represent the most significant organized labor development
since WWII
o Organization of public sector employees
 Now the most heavily organized group of employees
o Merger of the AFL & CIO
 CIO’s Lewis and AFL’s Green hate each other and die in 1952
 CIO’s Walter Reuther and AFL’s Meany don’t care for each other but have never
gone against each other
  Both recognized that union-raiding was ineffective (converting members)
 Realized that they would be more successful concentrating on similar goals

American Labor Law in the Private Sector (10%)

• Common law: case law precedent

• Employment-at-will: can fire you for any reason, at any time.
• Commonwealth vs. Hunt 1842: common law doctrine of criminal conspiracy does not apply to
labor unions
• Yellow-dog contract: contract between company and employee that as a condition of
employment they cannot join a union.
o Allowed employers to take legal action against union organizers
• Danberry-Hatters 1908: unions subject to anti-trust law
o United Hatters boycotted hat firm.
 Firm bought suit under Sherman Anti-trust act, union assessed 3x damages

• Clayton Act 1914

o Enacted to clarify and strengthen the Sherman Anti-trust act
 Sherman A-T act was vague and was full of loopholes benefiting corporations
o Restricted the use of injunction against labor unions, legalized peaceful strikes & boycotts
• Railway Labor Act 1926
o Was to provide for stable and effective labor relations without major interruptions in
commerce
o Required employers to bargain collectively and prohibit discrimination against unions
o Established procedures for resolving labor disputes and created:
 National Mediation Board
 National Railway Adjustment Board
o Airline coverage added in 1936
• Norris-LaGuardia 1932 (several questions)
o Was the first in a series of laws passed by congress in the 30’s which gave Federal
sanction to the right of labor unions to organize and strike, and to use other forms of
economic leverage in dealings with management
o Law specifically prohibited Federal courts from enforcing “Yellow dog Contracts”
o Barred federal courts from issuing restraining orders or injunctions against labor union
activities including:
 Joining or organizing a union, or assembling for union purposes
 Striking or refusing to work, or advising others to strike and organize
 Publicizing acts of a labor dispute
 Providing lawful legal aid to persons in a labor dispute
o Did not setup a specific agency to enforce this
 Unions had no choice but to have the judicial system enforce – weak
 Did not mention specific employer unfair labor practices that were prohibited
• Wagner Act (National Labor Relations Act) 1935 – know well
o Establishes a new nation policy:
 Encouraging CBA
 Guaranteed certain employee rights
 Detailed specific employer unfair labor practices
 Established NLRB to enforce
o Supreme court rules it constitutional (NLRB vs. Jones & Laughlin Steel Corp)
o Unions then have tremendous growth and power
  Unions start to get out of line due to this power
 Refuse to negotiate in good faith
 Intimidated new job applicants to become union members
 Walkouts over bargaining issues
• Taft-Harley Act 1947 (Labor Management Relations Act)
o Created as a reaction to organized labor’s actions (Wagner Act)
o Reorganizes the NLRB
 Included unfair labor practices regarding:
 Union membership
 Bargaining requirements
 Boycotts by unions not involved in the dispute
 Strikes regarding work assignments
• Landrum-Griffin Act 1959 (Labor-management Reporting and Disclosure Act)
o To put a check on the abuses of power and corruption by union leaders
 Teamsters Beck and Hoffa
o Rules on internal affairs of the union
o Instituted penalties
• National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) – know well
o Established to enforce the NLRA due to it being too cumbersome for the court system
o Two major functions:
 Supervising and conducting representation elections
 Adjudicating employer and union ULP charges
o 5-member board that is recommended by the President and confirmed by the Senate
o Office of General Counsel (OGC)
 Final authority in ULP charges
 Oversees field offices
 During an ULP charge, the OGC’s role is like a “prosecutor” and the Board is the
“judge”
o Fifty regional and field offices
• Unfair labor practice – know well
o Wagner Act only discusses protection of employees from the employer
o Unfair labor practices of labor organizations added in 1947 and 1959
 Forbids union or its agents from coercing or restraining employees in the exercise
of their rights guaranteed by the act
 Example: Mass picketing that blocks entrances to the plant
 Threats to employees not supporting union
 Refusal to process a grievance because the employee has criticized
the union officers
 Union can’t force employer to assign jobs to union members
 Can’t force employer to fire employees that challenge the union
 Must bargain in good faith
 Must meet with company lawyer
 Must process grievances
 Can’t strike a company to compel it to leave a multiemployer
bargaining unit
 Four prohibited activities:
 May not force a “hot-cargo” agreement
 Union members don’t have to handle scab made goods
 May not restrict work because the materials are made by a company
in a labor dispute
 May not force an employer to recognize/bargain with a labor
organization if one has already been certified
 May not cause an employer to assign certain work to employees in a
particular labor union, trade, or craft rather than another

• Workers Adjustment & Retraining Notification Act (WARN) – how many days’ notice req’d
o Enacted in 1988
o Requires 60 days notice of covered plant closings and mass layoffs
The Organizing Process (10%)

• Why unions are formed

o Alienation theory: workers lost with involvement when the machine dominated
 Became estranged from fellow employees when their work made them tired
 Lost contact with their own labor when the products they created were taken away
o Scarcity Consciousness Theory: Need for job security
 Employees collectively believe that jobs are difficult to obtain and retain
o Unions potentially satisfy members needs by enhancing a sense of identity

How organizing begins; activities of the union

o Recognition
 Voluntary Recognition
 Union asks company to support, Company voluntarily recognizes union
 NLRB Directives
 Company is directed by NLRB to recognize union
 Evidence reveals that a fair election cannot take place
 Gissel case
 Secret Ballot Election

o Know the percentages for union formation
 30% of employees needed to initiate a secret ballot election
 50% plus one vote for favoring representation needed to move toward NLRB
certification
• Who determines appropriate bargaining unit
o NLRB
• Combining Bargaining Units (one question on this)
o Need a majority of votes from EACH bargaining unit that is to be combined to move
forward
• Secret ballot elections
• Totality of conduct doctrine
o A pattern of individual acts that each are not specific bargaining violations but in the
totality of the circumstances are indeed a bargaining violation
• 24-hour rule (an employer cannot hold an employee meeting the same day as the union
election)
o Can’t give “captive audience” speeches within 24hrs of an election
o Can’t include threats or promises of benefits

Collective Bargaining (20%) – Know this entire category very well

• Pattern bargaining
o Union negotiated settlement is extended from one formal structure to another
 UAW GM’s contract would match that of Ford or Chryslers, etc.
• Distributive bargaining approach
o More competitive bargaining, views both sides being in conflict
o May use tricks & deception to get the other side to concede
o Gains from one side must come from the other as there is finite amount of resources
o Primary focus is to maximize their own party’s interests
• Integrative (mutual gain) approach
o “Win Win” bargaining
o More cooperative bargaining, encourages and values mutual trust
o Party’s are trying to make more of something
• Splitting the difference
o Adopt and intermediate position
o Associated with Contract Arbitration (Know this!)
• The most common reason that employees go on strike (over wages)
o
• What guarantees that striking union employees will be paid while on strike
o When sanctioned by the national union leadership
• Voluntary bargaining subjects
o Bargained items that don’t directly affect the bargaining members terms
 Items not related to employees day to day responsibilties
 i.e. whether or not employees can participate in a promotional company
made video
• Duty to bargain in good faith
o Each party must demonstrate sincere and honest intent to reach a labor agreement and
be reasonable in their bargaining positions, tactics, and activities

• Totality of conduct
o A pattern of individual acts that each are not specific bargaining violations but in the
totality of the circumstances are indeed a bargaining violation
• New employer vs. successor employer
o New Employer: Change of ownership with minimal continuity in business operations
 Purchaser of company have no legal duty to automatically recognize the former
union as the bargaining rep of the current employees
 Under no duty to bargain over the establishment of employment terms
o Successor Employer: substantial continuity in business operations
 Has the legal duty, upon request, to recognize the union that existed
 Must be willing to engage in good faith bargaining over the terms of a new labor
agreement
 Generally not obligated to continue to enforce the terms unless there is a
successorship clause
• Income maintenance (union supplements unemployment benefits)
o Pay guarantees
 Severance pay, supplemental unemployment benefit plan
• Scanlon plan
o Group incentive plan
o Bonus payments dependent on computed labor costs
• Two-tier plan
o Contract language specifying that a newly hired employee will be paid less than other
employees performing a similar job
• Contract ratification (know well)
o Process through which an agreement is validated so that it becomes binding
 Contract voted on by members
• Arbitration (know well, including what requirements are to be an arbitrator)
o Procedure when parties agree to submit their disputes to an independent neutral third
party, known as the Arbitrator
o Makes a final decision on the labor dispute which is binding the parties
o In the CBA process, labor arbitration is generally the final stage of resolution
o Nearly all CBA’s have arbitration as the final stage of resolution
o Major advantage is the cost, especially when compared to the expense of litigation
o Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service, AAA
 Must have experience in decision-making roles in the resolution of labor disputes
 Have extensive and recent experience in relevant positions in collective bargaining
 Capable of conducting an orderly hearing, can analyze testimony and exhibits
• Mediation
o Mediator suggests possible solutions to the disputing parties, does not make a final
decision
 Suggests solutions to resolve disputes
 • Fact-finding
o Use of an impartial expert to determine the “facts” that are in dispute
o Analyzes the facts of the bargaining process and seeks to recognize a potential
compromise
• Mediation-Arbitration (separate from just mediation or just arbitration)
o Variation to combine the two separate processes into one
o One person acts as the mediator and if that fails, now acts as the arbitrator
 Can move along faster if it goes to arbitration as he is already familiar
 Can also put pressure on both parties to settle in mediation as some of the
information discussed in the mediate could influence the outcome of the arbitration
• Economic strike
o Work stoppage during the negotiation of a contract to gain economic goals such as higher
wages, improved pensions, and longer vacations
• Unfair labor strike
o Strikes that occur as a reaction to ULP charge
• Wildcat strike
o Workers strike without permission of the union
o
• Boycott
o Refusal to purchase or handle products made by the employer involved with the dispute
• Lockout
o Work stoppage in which an employer refuses to allow employees to work
 Put pressure on the union

Contract Administration (10%)

• Job security issue

o
• Definition of a grievance
o Alleged violation of the contract
• Steps in grievance procedure
o First
 Phase 1: Employee discusses the alleged grievance with 1st line supervisor
 Ends if an agreement is met
 Phases 2: Written grievance filed, written response from supervisor
o Second
 Union grievance committee members and management labor rep brought in to
discuss the 1st line supervisor’s response
o Third
 Includes the 2nd step persons in addition to the labor relations manager, other
management officials, and a member of the union international
o Fourth
 Arbitration or Mediation
• Featherbedding
o Receiving payment for work that is not needed; employee’s working at reduced speed
• Superseniority
o Privilege granted to union officers or employee’s engaged in contract negotiation or
grievance handling duties to be the last to be laid off and first to be recalled
• Breininger v. Sheet Metal Workers Local 1987
o Breininger sued the union because he believed he was discriminated against by the union
from acquiring jobs because he was not a favorite of union officials
 Supreme court brought into question the district court’s jurisdiction vs. NLRB’s
• Just cause
o A reason for discipline. Management has the “burden of proof” covered
• Progressive discipline
o Increasingly severe penalties corresponding to repeated or similar offenses

Labor Arbitration (10%)

• Steelworkers Trilogy 1960
o Reinforced that the arbitrators decision is better than would the courts could do
• Collyer case 1971
o NLRB will defer an issue to arbitration if the issue can be resolved under the CBA in
arbitration
• Alexander vs. Gardner-Denver Co. 1974
o A discharged employee (black) filed a grievance subject to arbitration and also filed an
EEOC charge
 Arbitration rules that his discharge was for cause
 Supreme court rules that the arbitrators expertise pertains to labor agreement
interpretation and not resolving federal civil rights laws
• Gilmer vs. Interstate Johnson
o Discharged from job. Files an EEOC based on age (ADEA)
 Supreme court declares that an ADEA claim can be subjected to compulsory
arbitration

• Vaca vs. Sipes

o Dealt with the “duty of fair representation”
o Employee was discharged due to poor health
 Files a grievance and the union allegedly “impulsively dropped his grievance”
 Sues union
o Supreme courts decision was that a union has the right to honestly and in good faith settle
or drop a grievance that lacks sufficient merit to justify an arbitration
 As long as it doesn’t violate the unions duty of fair representation
 Court made it clear that an employee does NOT have the absolute right to have
their grievance taken to arbitration
o Preemption Issue
 Courts (state and federal) are preempted from deciding cases that should fall
under NLRB

• Federal Mediation & Conciliation Service (FMCS)
o
• American Arbitration Association (AAA)
o
• Employment arbitration
o Use of arbitration for employment discrimination claims
o Use of arbitration in non-union firms
• Common law of the shop
o Where an arbitrator takes into account the specific labor agreement language, intent of
the parties, and past practices of management officials at the shop at a particular facility.
 Can lead to exclusive decisions due to uniqueness of a facility
• Parole evidence rule
o Evidence, oral or otherwise, cannot be admitted for the purpose of varying or
contraindicating written language recorded in the labor agreement
o The contract is the exclusive document. Anything oral or written that was not in the
contract does not count
• Intent of the parties
o Refers to what the union and management officials had in mind when they:
 Negotiated the labor agreement
 Engaged in an action that resulted in a particular grievance
• Past practice
o Specific and identical action that has been continually employed over a number of years
to the recognition and acceptance of both parties
• Know what factors an arbitrator will take into consideration when reviewing a case
o
Public Sector (5%)

• Civil Service Reform Act 1978

o Establishes the FLRA
o
• Federal Labor Relations Authority (FLRA)
o Independent neutral agency that administers the federal labor relations program and
investigates unfair labor practices
 Oversees the creation of bargaining units
 Supervises elections
 Conducts hearings and resolves complaints of ULP
 Assists federal agencies in dealing with labor relations issues

• Similarities & differences between unions in Public and Private sectors

o Differences:
 Monopolistic conditions (police & fire services don’t have competition)
 The market economy doesn’t operate in the public sector and cannot act as a
constraint on union and management negotiations
 Lack of substitute services (i.e. sanitary department strikes, there is a public crisis)
 Productivity bargaining is difficult
 Police officers and bus drivers should not be financially punished for nonuse
of their services (number of crimes solved & number of passengers
served…)
o Similarities:
 Public employers have been under severe budge constraints
 Privatization of services
 Broadening job classifications
 Using more part-time or contingent employees
 Alternative work schedules
o
• Sunshine laws
o Open approach to public-sector bargaining
o Public have more input by their involvement
o Openness reduces public distrust in the bargaining process
• Impasse resolution
o Legislation usually prohibits public employees from striking or requires impasse-resolution
procedures before striking
• End-run bargaining
o Where a union makes a direct appeal to a legislative body rather than dealing with the
designated management negotiator at the bargaining table
 i.e. a Mayor making concessions to a police agency in return for its endorsement
• Public sector unions are most commonly AGENCY SHOPS
o
• Laws/rules about the public sector & going on strike
o Illegal in most states
o No proof though that the presence of a statutory strike ban has reduced the occurrence of
a strike
• National Partnership Council (one question on this)
o Labor-Management working together within federal agencies
Labor Relations Abroad (5%)

• NAFTA
o
• Cuba
o Has been struggling due to lack of financial subsidies after the collapse of USSR
o Strikes prohibited, non-paid work is encouraged, free collective bargaining doesn’t exist
• Western Europe
o Union membership declining, bargaining less frequent, employers winning more
concessions
o Employer may have to bargain with multiple unions unlike US
o Greater commitment to employee training
• Germany
o 90 percent of wage earners are covered by CBA’s
o Nearly all employers are members of employer associations
• Japan
o All aspects of employment, training, discipline, working conditions, benefits are open for
examination
o Management reports to employees the company’s financial status, its problems, its
expectations, and plans all before they occur
o Lifetime employment
 Hired after high school or college and work until 60
o Salaries paid monthly and based on seniority
• Know how U.S. labor unions compare against unions in other countries in terms of
growth
o

One last thing – there were about five questions discussing “Burden of Proof” regarding grievances and
disciplinary activity. Basically they give you a scenario and then ask, “Who has the burden of proof?”