Case Summary
The case is about which employees should be included and excluded from the union. The employer argues that all employees should be covered by the proposed bargaining unit, while the union seeks to exclude few employees on the ground of familial/managerial relationship along with casual workers. Following employer and unions attempted resolution the LRB decides who should be included and excluded talking into account both employer and unions points of view and precedents set in the past.
Position of the Union:
The position of the unions is that certain employees should be excluded due to their possible conflicts of interests caused by family relations, presumed supervisory roles and casual positions.
Union argues that Walker brothers
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The union requests that Athwal and Dhaliwal should be included as they are expected to be recalled to work though they presently do not work.
Position of the Employer:
The position of the Employer is that all employees should be included in the bargaining unit.
The employee argues that Walker brothers’ potential conduit of information to their father has no sufficient evidence and their do not receive special treatment due their relationship with the majority owner and it should not determine their status in the union.
As for them employees asked to be excluded from the bargaining unit per their perceived managerial duties, the employer argues that they should be included as their do not perform duties that are typical of managerial roles such as hiring and disciplining employees and their supervisory roles make them charge hands not management.
As for casual employees the employer argues that they cannot by excluded due to their nature of employment as they are not irregular or sporadic workers but employees with sufficient work histories and hours with the organization.
LRB’s Analysis and
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Both Colin Walker and Curtis walker are dependent children of the majority owner. Colin is under the majority age and therefore by definition a dependant and lives at home and Curtis too live at home and the financial assistance for his education from his father. Therefore their loyalties are more aligned with their father, therefore the employer.
Also as per the precedent set by Diversey (Canada) Limited, supra panels comments “it is only because familial relationship between employee and employer so often results in loss of community of interest with fellow workers and conflict in the bargaining unit that it serves as an important indicator to the parties that a person may not be appropriate for inclusion in a bargaining unit.”; though neither brothers have identified nay potential conflict of interest or identification with the management –their close familial relationship with the majority owner may make other employees hesitant in talking an interest in the bargaining
Despite attempting to predict the eventual outcome of the negotiation, I did not anticipate the confrontations between Local H-56 and the management of Hotel Zinnia. Although they initially agreed to engage in integrative bargaining, the union and management subsequently entered an intense negotiation. When Local H-56 presented its proposal of wage increases and health insurance, management immediately responded with a counterproposal that surprised the union. Both the union and management eventually behaved confrontationally, accusing each other of bargaining unreasonably and focusing on the trivial aspects of the negotiation. Moreover, as the union and management felt increasingly frustrated, they suffered from a lack of unity in their teams. The union could not fulfill its objectives because its lead negotiator prevented other team members from contributing to the negotiation. On the other hand, several team members of management struggled to assert their authority as the lead negotiator. After observing these issues, I ultimately believe that the union and management failed to achieve their individual objectives. Moreover, by approaching the negotiation with a zero-sum strategy, I assert that the union and management failed to reach a mutually beneficial contract. At the same time, both sides of the bargaining table lacked cohesive teams and therefore struggled under the pressure of the negotiation.
The labor union movement over the years has shaped the way individuals work and live for both the nicest and unpleasant. Some would think the unions influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In today’s time, some citizens insist the existence of unions are a must to aid in employee freedom, while others view the labor unions as just another problem in the line of progress. The purpose of labor unions was for employed workers to come together and collectively agree on fundamental workplace objectives. The rise of the union came about after the Civil War- responding to the industrial economy. Surprisingly at the least unions became popular within the 1930-50’s and began to slowly decrease, starting in the 1960’s on to today. Although, the popularity of labor unions has decreased, its importance remains to be evident with politics, journalism, auto, and the public education industries. The objective of this paper is to shine light upon labor unions, taking a closer look at the disputed issues of union ethics, concerns of union diversity, and the opposing viewpoints of labor unions.
History shows that there has been conflict of power within the workforce between union and management. This essay will discuss if management should have the right to determine whether a union should operate within their workplace. It is necessary first to discuss the roles of unions and management in the workplace and discuss both points of view on the power distribution between unions and management in the workplace.
You can see by these two cases that there is a difference between employee and non-employee union organizers. The main difference being in where they ...
The paper will discuss minicases on ‘The White-Collar Union Organizer’ and ‘The Frustrated Labor Historians’ by Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney (2010), to understand the issues unions undergo in the marketplace. There is no predetermined statistical number reported of union memberships in this country. However, “the United Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) excludes almost 2 million U.S wages and salary employees, over half of whom are employed in the public sector, who are represented at their workplaces by a union but are not union members. Not being required to join a union as a condition of continued employment, these employees have for a variety of reasons chosen not to do so. Nor do the BLS estimates include union members who are currently unemployed” (Sloane & Witney, 2010, p.5). Given this important information, the examination of these minicases will provide answers to the problems unions face in organizational settings.
This paper will focus on one particular agency, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). The NRLB was created by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act, also known as the Wagner Act. Besides creating the NLRB, the Act also provides three other key provisions:
...es through collective bargaining strategies. By examining literature and research, businesses are less susceptible to the collective bargaining practice than personnel due to the company finding new staff. However, finding a new job is much more difficult for the workers. This is the main reason that employees will work to negotiate fair terms to achieve their demands. The desired goal of collective bargaining is maintain a healthy relationship between employees and employers to ensure that all operations progress efficiently.
An arbitrator’s function is usually to interpret the collective bargaining agreement between the parties, not to apply his or her standards of what is right in a given situation. The courts have sought to compel labour and management to a peaceful resolution of grievances through arbitration. The Supreme Court has given support to the arbitration process in a series of decisions, and judicial deferral to arbitration has become a basic tenet of national labour policy. Bibliography Byars, L. L. (1997). The.
John W. Budd & Devasheesh Bhave (2006). Sage Handbook of Industrial and Employment Relations. Industrial Relations Center, University of Minnesota. Chapter 5.
Employers respond to unions in a negative way and discourage employees from joining unions as unions fight for extra pay, extra work hours and additional benefits for employees. Many employers ignore employee’s interest in joining a union as they believe that trade union have to play their role effectively as there are rising pressure on employers to deteriorate collective bargaining on wages, working conditions and job security. The tactics of employers has a significant impact on the choices made by unions. The relationship between the employers and unions is built on the power imbalance in the workplace. A union is formed for the purpose to negotiate with an employer or employees over working conditions, wages, and the term and condition
Managers have a degree of choice in how they deal with their employees. (Purcell, 1987) Some may see them as a commodity while others may see them as an important and valuable resource needing to be developed. (Purcell, 1987) Managerial prerogative is defined by Bray, Waring and Cooper (2011: pg 332) as “those areas of decision-making within an organization over which managers claim to have an unfettered right to decide as they see fit.” It is important to define managerial prerogative so that we can establish whether the legislation has increased or diminished it. Defining managerial prerogative is also important as we look at the different managerial styles and strategies and observe if they play any role in increasing or minimizing managerial prerogative. Managers will always have some degree of control over their employees because most of the day to day tasks in the workplace such as rules and procedures of the workplace, tasks, and which employee performs which tasks are decisions made by the manager without consultation with employees and unions. (Bray, Waring and Cooper, 2011) The laws and regulations surrounding managerial prerogative have only seemed to rule in favour of employers being the sole decision makers in an organisation and decrease the amount of bargaining power unions and employees have towards pay and conditions. (Bray and Waring, 2006)
Traditional literature in the field of labor relations has focused immensely on its benefit towards the employer and in the process equating it to working rules. This has been so despite the field being expected to cover the process of, labor management, union formation, and collective bargain; all which are anticipated to create a positive employer-employee relationship. This relationship is said to be positive if there exist a balance between employment functions and the rights of the laborer. Also important to note, is that this relation is equally important to the public sector as it is to the private one. Therefore, to ensure a mutually conducive labor environment exists, effective labor management process and inclusive negotiation program should be adopted (Mulve 2006; Walton, 2008).
When it comes to contract negotiations, labor unions may differ from one and another throughout the different industries, but they usually share the same goals when it involves contract negotiations (Sloane & Witney, 2010). During these procedures, demands are usually made by from both parties, the employer and the union; this processes main goal is to negotiate a written agreement between each other covering a multitude of issues and concerns (Sloane & Witney, 2010). These talks are typically the most confrontational part of the relationship between labor unions and management, especially when it comes to wage issues (Mayhew, n.d.). This author will take a look the wages and wage-related issues, employee benefits, institutional issues, administrative clauses, and make recommendation that will would prevent wage-related grievances from happening.
Godfrey et al. (2014) refer to collective bargaining as a confrontational process that involves negotiation between conflicting parties in order to find a mutually acceptable agreement. The LRA acknowledges trade unions and employers’ organisations as representatives of employers and employees by providing them with specific organisational rights as well as methods to create forums in which bargaining can take place (Grogan 2015).
The role of the government on industrial relations is very important as it sets the legal framework that industrial relations operates in. Appropriate industrial relations legislation should recognize the requirements of both employers and employee’s. Both the employee and the employer want to profit from each other but are also reliant on each other. This means that the equal bargaining power of employers and workers must be recognized (Peetz, David. 2006). Appropriate industrial relations laws should address any imbalance of power and give both groups an equal degree of control. Appropriate industrial relations should not only allow a mixture of both collective and individual bargaining but also facilitate employee participation in day to day workplace decisions. After all it’s the structure and framework of the employment relationship, which is governed by legislation that leads to good Industrial Relations.