Employee and Labor Relations 1 (Mod 5)

Question 1

Common Law vs Statutory Law

Answer 1

Common Law = based on court rulings

Statutory Law = codified law

Question 2

Employment at Will implications with handbooks

Answer 2

Many employee handbook provisions have been held by courts to be an IMPLIED CONTRACT.

Question 3

Tort Law vs Contract Law

Answer 3

Tort Law = protects persons’ interests in their physical safety and well-being, in the possession and enjoyment of property, in their financial resources, and intangible resource of reputation

Contract Law = provides remedies if a promise is breached or the promise is recognized as a duty

Question 4

Injunction:
What Is it?
Which law does it relate to?

Answer 4

Court order that restricts, prevents or requires certain activities

Sherman Anti-Trust Act was use to obtain injunctions against unions; Clayton Act minimally restricted the use of injunctions

Question 5

Yellow Dog Contract:
What is it?
Which law does it relate to?

Answer 5

Force employees to agree to not join a union or participate in union activity as a condition of employment

Norris-LaGuardia Act made yellow dog contracts unenforceable in federal court; NLRA (Wagner Act) made them illegal

Question 6

NLRA:
Two other names?
Key points?

Answer 6

National Labor Relations Act, Wagner Act

Protects the rights of employees to organize unhampered by management (Section 7); Section 8 prohibited employer conduct (ULPs) that would interfere with Section 7 rights

Question 7

LMRA:
Two other names?
Key points?

Answer 7

Labor Management Relations Act, Taft-Hartley Act

Provides balance of power between union and management by designating certain union activities as ULPs

Question 8

Sweetheart Contract

Answer 8

Forbids employers from establishing preferred deals with a specific union

Were outlawed by LMRA (aka Taft-Hartley)

Question 9

Closed Shop

Answer 9

Requiring that employees be union members in order to be hired

Were made illegal under LMRA (Taft-Hartley) except for construction industry

Question 10

Union Shop

Answer 10

New employees are required to join the union as a condition of employment after completion of a probationary period

Question 11

Right To Work

Answer 11

Statutes that prohibit unions from making union membership a condition of employment

22 states have adopted right-to-work legislation that prohibits union shop clauses/union security clauses

Question 12

LMRDA:
Two names?
Purpose?

Answer 12

Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, Landrum-Griffin Act

Protects the rights of union members from corrupt or discriminatory labor unions; contained bill of rights for union members, closed shop exception for construction industry, law prohibiting discrimination based on union membership, requirement of union officers to report certain financial information

Question 13

Public sector unions are covered by what law?

Answer 13

Civil Service Reform Act (which established Federal Labor Relations Authority or FLRA)

Question 14

Organizing Techniques and Salting

Answer 14

Inside organizing, leafleting, meetings, home visits, telephone organizing, internet campaigns, indirect pressure, picketing (organizational, recognitional, informational, bannering), salting

Salting = use of paid union organizers (“salts”) to infiltrate an organization and organize its workers

Question 15

Management Rights in a Campaign

Answer 15

Take the initiative; state an opinion; use line supervisors as a resource; safeguard employee names and addresses

Question 16

Authorization Cards:
What are they?
How many are needed?

Answer 16

Cards signed by employees to indicate that they want union representation

At least 30% of eligible employees in a prospective bargaining unit must sign authorization cards before NLRB will order an election. A union, however, will not usually petition for an election unless more than half (50%) of eligible employees sign cards.

Question 17

NLRB’s Determination of a Bargaining Unit

Considerations of the NLRB uses

Answer 17

NLRB must determine if proposed unit is appropriate (not that it is the most appropriate)

Considerations: community of interests (employees have sufficient common interests); geographical and physical proximity; employer’s administrative or territorial divisions; functional integration; interchange of employees; bargaining history; employee desires; extent of organization

Question 18

Bars to the Election Process

Answer 18

Contract bar: when valid CBA exists; except for 30-day period preceding expiration

Statutory bar: when valid election has been conducted in previous 12 months

Certification-year bar: when union has been initially certified during previous 12 months

Voluntary-recognition bar: when union has been informally and voluntarily recognized by employer

Blocking-charge bar: when ULP affecting bargaining unit is pending

Prior-petition bar: when election petition was withdrawn by requesting party within past 6 months

Recognition bar: when employer recognizes a union; decertification precluded for 6-12 months

Question 19

Excelsior List

Answer 19

List of the names and addresses of all eligible bargaining unit employees that the employer must file with NLRB within 7 days after consent to or direction of an election

Question 20

Voter Eligibility

Answer 20

Employees in a bargaining unit must be on payroll during both the payroll period immediately before the date of direction of election and payroll period immediately preceding date of the election

Question 21

Captive Audience Speeches

Answer 21

Speeches by management to employees during working time.

Must not be presented within 24 hours of a union election, and content must not include promises of benefits or threats of reprisals

Question 22

Election/Certification Formula

Answer 22

50% + 1 of those voting = union certification

Question 23

Recognition of a Union: most common way?

Answer 23

NLRB election process

Question 24

Decertification Formula

Answer 24

30% of bargaining unit employees for NLRB petition

50% of those voting = decertification (i.e. tie vote results in decertification)

Question 25

Deauthorization Formula

Answer 25

30% of bargaining unit employees for NLRB petition

50% of eligible voters + 1 = deauthorization; non-votes count as votes against deauthorization

Question 26

ULP:
What is it?
Examples of each
Who commits them?
TIPS acronym

Answer 26

Violation of rights under labor-relations statutes

Employers and Unions can commit ULPs

Employer ULPs: interfere with, restrain or coerce employees in exercise of guaranteed rights; dominate or interfere with formation of union; encourage or discourage membership in union; discharge or discriminate for ULP charge; refuse to bargain collectively

Union ULPs: restrain or coerce employees in Section 7 rights; cause an employer to discriminate against employee; refuse to bargain collectively; encourage secondary boycotting; require excessive dues/fees; demand employer payment for services not performed; picket or force employer to recognize/bargain if another union is recognized

TIPS: Threaten, Interrogate, Promise, Spy
(Reminders supervisors what NOT to do during union organizing)

Question 27

Employer Domination of Union: Two Cases

Answer 27

Electromation: action committees were labor organizations that had been formed to “deal with” employees concerning terms and conditions of employment and that had been unlawfully dominated by the employer

E.I. Dupont & Company: Employee involvement committees focused on safety and health improvement were illegal because Dupont management circumvented the legally chosen employee representatives and usurped the union’s right to represent its members

Question 28

Mandatory, Permissive and Illegal Bargaining Subjects

Answer 28

Mandatory: those required by law (e.g. overtime, discharge, layoff, recall, seniority, promotions, transfer, safety, vacation, holidays, leave of absence, sick leave, union security, grievance, demotion, contracting out work)

Permissive (aka voluntary, nonmandatory): those that may be bargained but are not obligatory (e.g. retiree benefits, settlement of ULPs, neutrality agreements)

Illegal: those that are unlawful (e.g. closed shops, discriminatory hiring)

Question 29

Do public sector unions have the right to strike?

Answer 29

No

Question 30

Public Sector Unions: Permissive and Prohibited Bargaining Subjects

Answer 30

Defined by state and local laws.

Negotiators may be restricted in their ability to make bargaining concessions and concessions may need legal approval

Question 31

Pattern, Coalition, Coordinated and Segmented Bargaining

Answer 31

Pattern bargaining (aka parallel bargaining): unions negotiate provisions covering wages and other benefits similar to those already provided in other agreements existing within the industry or region. Union focuses on one employer and then negotiates similar contracts with competitors. Also known as whipsawing.

Coalition bargaining (aka multiple employer bargaining): more than one employer negotiates with the union

Coordinated Bargaining: employer bargains with several unions simultaneously but on a separate basis

Segmented Bargaining: employer bargains with one union, but will assign specific bargaining issues to committees; proposals will then return to the group for a decision

Question 32

Positional and Principled Negotiation

Distributive and Integrative Bargaining

Answer 32

Positional: people lock themselves into a position, parties lose sight of underlying problems, emphasis is placed on winning the position.

Principled negotiation: more productive; based on four premises (separate people from problem, focus on interests not positions, invent options for mutual gain, insist on objective criteria)

Distributive bargaining: parties are in conflict over issue and outcome represents gain for one and loss for the other

Integrative bargaining: more than one issue to be resolved; focuses on creative solutions that reconcile parties’ interests and result in mutual benefit

Question 33

Good-Faith Bargaining and Violations of It

Answer 33

Good-faith bargaining: both parties enter into discussions with fair and open minds and sincere desire to arrive at agreement

Violations: surface bargaining, lack of concessions, refusal to advance proposals and demands, dilatory tactics, imposing conditions, bypassing the representative, commission of ULP during negotiations, not providing information, refusal to bargain

Question 34

Duty of Successor Unions

Answer 34

Mutual bargaining obligation of an employer and a union when a majority interest in a unionized company is sold to another employer; new employer has no duty to bargain with union until it becomes perfectly clear that purchaser is “successor” employer.

Question 35

Agency Shop

Answer 35

Even if workers do not join the union, they must still pay the equivalent of dues (a service fee) to the union. In right-to-work states, employees cannot be required to pay any dues or fees if they choose not to join the union.

Question 36

Compulsory Arbitration and Public Sector Unions

Answer 36

Compulsory arbitration is common only in the public sector, where employees may have limitations on their ability to strike.

Question 37

Mediation vs Arbitration

Answer 37

Mediation (aka conciliation): method of nonbinding dispute resolution involving a third party who tries to help the disputing parties reach a mutually agreeable decision

Arbitration: negotiated procedure in which labor and management agree to submit disputes arising under the terms of the contract to an impartial third party; both parties must accept decision of the arbitrator as final and binding