Chapter 10 Flashcards
What features federal and provincial labour legislation have in common?
- The right of people to join unions
- The requirement that employers recognize a certified union as the rightful and exclusive bargaining agent for that group of employees
- The identification of unfair labour practice
- The right of unions to strike and right of employers to lock out workers
What are the duties of the Labour Relations Board (LRB)?
- Processing union applications to represent employees
- Processing applications to terminate union bargaining rights
- Hearing unfair-labour-practice complaints
- Hearing complaints and issuing decisions regarding strikes, lockouts and picketing
Why do employees unionize?
Because they feel that individually, they would be unable to exercise power regarding their employment conditions at any particular employer.
What is the labour relations process
Logical sequence of 4 events:
- workers desire collective representation
- the union begins its organization campaign
- collective negotiations lead to a contract
- the contract is administered
What are the results of employees that unionize?
- economic need
- general dissatisfaction with managerial practices
- a desire to fulfill social and status needs
What is a union shop?
Provision of the collective agreement that requires employees to join the union as a condition of their employment
What is the definition of a closed shop?
Provision of the collective agreement that requires employers to hire only union members
What is an open shop?
Provision of the collective agreement that allows employees to join or not join the union
When do employees may want to unionize?
When they perceive that managerial practices regarding promotion, transfer, shift assignment, or other job-related policies are decidedly unfair
What are the needs that can be satisfied with unions?
- fraternize with employees who have similar desires, interests, and problems
- enables them to put to use any leadership talents they may have
What is the deciding factor for employees when they join a union?
Employees perceive that the benefits of joining a union outweigh the costs associated with membership
What needs to be started once employees desire to unionize?
a formal organizing campaign that can be started by a union organizer or by employees acting on their behalf
What are the steps of an organizing process?
- employee - union contact
- initial organizational meeting
- formation of in-house organizing committee
- application to labour relations board
- issuance of certificate by labour relations board
- election of bargaining committee and contract negotiations
What is a membership card?
a statement signed by an employee authorizing a union to act as a representative of the employee for purposes of collective bargaining
What are the employer’s tactics?
- not interfere with the certification process
- they are prohibited by the law from dismissing, disciplining or threatening employees for exercising their rights to form a union
What are the employees’ tactics?
- act in accordance with labour legislation
- they are prohibited from interfering with the operation of an employer’s organization
What is bargaining units?
group of 2 or more employees who share common employment interests and conditions and may reasonably be grouped together for purposes of collective bargaining
What is an unfair labour practice?
specific employer and union illegal practices that operate to deny employees their rights and benefits under labour law
What is the definition of certification?
Acquisition of exclusive rights by union to represent the employees
Which employers may voluntary recognize and accept a union?
all employers, except those in the province of Quebec
What is the process of regular certification?
- union submitting the required minimum membership evidence to the labour relations board
- then, if they demonstrate that they have sufficient support in the proposed bargaining unit, labour board may grant certification on that basis
What are prehearing votes?
when there is evidence of irregularities a prehearing vote may be taken
Once the bargaining unit has been certified by the board what do the employers and the union have to do?
they are legally obliged to bargain in good faith over the terms and conditions of a collective agreement
When does decertification can occur ?
if the majority of employees indicate that they do not want to be represented by the union
if they want to be represented by another union
if the union has failed to bargain
(an application for decertification can be made)
What are the impacts of unionization on managers?
- challenges to management decisions
- loss of supervisory flexibility
What is a union (shop) stewart? and what is its role?
employee who, as un unpaid union official, represents the interests of members in their relations with management
What is a business agent? and what is its role?
normally a paid labour official responsible for negotiating and administrating the collective agreement and working to resolve union members’ problems
What is the difference with the labour relation in the public and private sectors?
the difference is that in the private sector they have an economic foundation, whereas in government their foundation tends to be political, therefore:
- Employees in the private sector will make demands that could bankrupt them.
- Government, on the other hand, must stay in business because alternative services are usually not available
What is the collective bargaining process?
- Prepare for negotiations
- Gather data
- Form bargaining teams - Develop strategies
- Develop management proposals and limits of concession
- Consider opponents’ goals
- Make strike plan - Conduct Negotiation
- Bargain in good faith
- Analyze proposals
- Resolve proposals
- Stay within the bargaining zone - Formalize agreement
- Clarify contract language
- Ratify agreement
What is interest-based bargaining?
Problem-solving bargaining based on a win-win philosophy and the development of a positive long-term relationship
What is the definition of a strike?
a situation in which unionized workers refuse to perform their work during labor negotiations
When do unions use picketing?
When they go on a strike, they will picket the employer by placing persons at business entrances to advertise the dispute + discourage people from entering the premises.
What is the lockout strategy?
strategy by which the employer denies employees the opportunity to work by closing its operations
What is an arbitrator and what is the interest arbitration?
An arbitrator is a third-party neutral who resolves a labour dispute by issuing a final and binding decision in an agreement
The interest arbitration is a mechanism to renew or establish a new collective agreement for parties
What is the definition of rights arbitration?
a mechanism to resolve disputes about the interpretation and application of a collective agreement during the term of that collective agreement
What are the issues of management rights?
- Residual rights
- Defined rights
What are residual rights?
concept that management’s authority is supreme in all matters except those it has expressly conceded to the union in the collective agreement
What are defined rights?
concept that management’s authority should be expressly defined and clarified in the collective agreement
What are the typical items that can be found in a collective agreement?
Typical clauses will cover:
- wages
- vacations
- holidays
- work schedules
- management rights
Progressive clauses will cover:
- employee access to records
- limitations on use of performance evaluation
- eldercare leave
- flexible medical spending account
- bilingual stipends
What are the common forms of union security?
- the closed shop
- the union shop
- the agency shop
- the open shop
what is the grievance procedures?
Formal procedure that provides the union a way to process a complaint that something within the collective agreement has been violated
What is the grievance resolution?
process in which a neutral 3rd party assists in the resolution of employee grievance
What are the steps of a grievance procedure?
- Informal meeting to discuss grievance between employee and supervisor
- Written complaint between next-level supervisor and union official
- Written document between manager and union business agent
- Arbitration, judicial function ( formal and legalistic decisions are binding and enforceable through the courts)
What is an arbitration reward?
final and binding award issued by an arbitrator in a labour- management dispute
What are the 4 factors when deciding cases?
- the wording of the collective agreement
- the submission agreement as presented to the arbitrator
- testimony and evidence offered during the hearing about how the collective agreement provisions have been interpreted
- arbitration criteria or standards against which cases are judged
