First Exam Flashcards
Any activity between management and unions or employees concerning the negotiation or implementation of a collective bargaining agreement.
Labor relations
A written and signed document between an employer entity and a labor organization specifying the terms and conditions of employment for a specified period of time
Collective bargaining agreement
Defined in Sec. 2. [§ 152] of the NLRA and means any employee, committee or other organization of any kind in which employees deal with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, hours, or working conditions
Labor organization
Requires “equal pay for equal work” in the same workplace, regardless of gender, and makes it unlawful to retaliate against a person who complained about pay discrimination, or participated in a lawsuit.
The equal pay act of 1963
Makes it illegal to discriminate against someone on the basis of race, color, religion, national origin, or sex, and it is illegal to retaliate against a person who complained about discrimination, or participated in a lawsuit. Also requires employers to reasonably accommodate sincerely held religious practices, except in cases of undue hardship.
The civil rights ACT (title vll) of 1964
Federal contractors and subcontractors; affirmative action must be taken by covered employers to recruit and advance qualified minorities, women, persons with disabilities, and covered veterans.
E>O> 11246 (affirmative action) 1965
Protects people aged 40 and older from discrimination because of age, and makes it unlawful to retaliate against a person who complained about pay discrimination, or participated in a lawsuit.
Age discrimination in employment act (ADEA)
Makes it illegal to discriminate against women because of pregnancy, childbirth, or a related condition, and makes it unlawful to retaliate against a person who complained about pay discrimination, or participated in a lawsuit.
Pregnancy discrimination act of 1978
Prevents employers from using lie detector tests, either for preemployment screening or during the course of employment, with certain exemptions. Also, employers may not discharge, discipline, or discriminate against an employee or job applicant for refusing a test.
Employee polygraph protection act 1988
Prohibits employers from age discrimination in employee benefits.
1990 older workers benefit protection act
Makes it illegal to discriminate against a qualified person with a disability in the private sector and in the state and local governments, and make sit illegal to retaliate against a person because the person complained about discrimination, or participated in a lawsuit. Also requires that employers reasonably accommodate the known physical or mental limitations of an otherwise qualified individual with a disability, unless doing so would impose an undue hardship.
1990 Americans with disabilities act (ADA)
What are the pros of unions for members?
- Higher wages
- Representation in discipline/discharge cases.
- Greater job security.
- Better health care, pension, and paid time-off benefits.
What are the cons for member of unions?
- Union dues
2. Fewer individual rewards based on performance.
What are the pros of Unions for management and owners?
- System for grievance handling.
- Fewer individual requests/complaints.
- Standard rules reducing friction at the workplace.
What are the cons of Unions for management and owners?
- Higher personal costs reduce competitive position.
- Less flexible work rules.
- Greater time spent on grievances.
What are the pros of unions for society?
- Increased middle class
2. Leadership in passing major employment laws.
What are the cons of unions for society?
- Less competitive global position U.S. firms less competitive in global markets.
- Image of union leaders
- Less relevant in today’s global market place.
Why join a Union?
- Job security
- Wages and benefits
- Working conditions
- Fair and just supervision
- Need to belong
- Collective voice
What are the four most important factors affecting the health of the American labor movement?
- Collective bargaining rights.
- Leadership in the labor movement.
- Union member solidarity
- Action of the NLRB
The soft issues leading employees to unionize were what?
- recognition, 2. Protection from humiliation, 3. hopelessness, 4. Double standards, 5. Lack of control, 6. Job insecurity, 7. Broken Promises, 8. Representation
- The freedom to enter into contracts and to decide the use of one’s economic resources such as capital and labor are essential concepts in capitalism.
- Employers are free to seek employees and offer them economic resources in exchange for their labor.
- Employees are free to enter into contracts, or not, for their labor.
Contracts and Collective Bargaining
Oppressive places of employment -
Workers chose to unionize
It requires the National Labor Relations Board to certify a union to represent workers if a majority signs cards that authorize the union
Employee Free Choice Act
The new union federation Change to Win aims to build membership and union strength by focusing on a few strategic industries
Strategic industry focus
What industries does the Strategic industry focus chose to focus on?
- Hospitality industry
- Health care industry
- Airline industry
- Casino industry
- Shipping industry
- Professional workers
- Immigrant workers
Various forms Voluntary recognition of the union Performance-based incentive systems Employee teams QWL programs Federal government Integrative collective bargaining
Labor–Management Cooperation
A unique international joint effort between GM and Toyota and the UAW
New United Motor Manufacturing, Inc. (NUMMI)
How did the new Japanese management change one of the least productive U.S. auto plants into one of the finest?
Cooperation
Fewer job classifications
Fewer supervisors
Work teams
Types of unions?
- Craft unions
- Industrial unions
- Unions in the entertainment business and professional sports
- Transportation unions in the railroad and airline industries
- Unions of agricultural workers
oversees most labor relations activities in the private sector and was created by the 1935 National Labor Relations Act
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
The purpose of the _________ was to minimize industrial strife interfering with the normal flow of commerce
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA)
The National Labor Relations Board lists employers activities considered unfair labor practices in violation of those rights.
- Interfering with employees’ rights earlier enumerated
- Interfering with the formation or administration of a union
- Discriminating against union members
- Refusing to bargain with employees’ representatives
is a five-member body appointed for five-year terms by the president of the United States, with the advice and consent of the Senate.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)
has jurisdiction over persons when there is a labor dispute affecting commerce or when there is a controversy involving an employer, employee, or a labor organization
The NLRB
The following tests must be met before the NLRB is empowered to act.
- Persons
- Labor disputes
- Affecting commerce
- Employees
- Employers
- Labor organizations
A legal theory in which federal law takes precedent over state law.
Preemption
- Agricultural economy
2. Little division between employers and employees
Pre-revolutionary america
What was the labor force made up of in pre-revolutionary america?
- Free Laborers
- Indentured servants
- Black slaves
An organization of workers dedicated to protecting their interests in the workplace and improving wages, hours, and working conditions
Labor Unions
Founded in 1866
The first union to allow skilled and unskilled workers to join in one union
It pursued a political as well as a workplace agenda
National Labor Union (NLU)
NLU’s reluctance to admit African Americans to full membership led to the creation of the NCLU
It hoped to affiliate with the NLU but was refused in the 1870 Congress
National Colored Labor Union (NCLU)
A group of union organizers who were prosecuted and either executed or imprisoned after an 1875 strike against anthracite mine owners failed
Molly Maguires
The bitter and violent strike involving railroad workers from Maryland to Missouri who protested 10 percent wage cuts after a 35 percent cut years earlier
Railway Strike - 1877
Demonstration in support of 8-hour day led to a series of confrontations with Chicago police
Public became fearful of labor organizations
Haymarket Square Riot - 1886
An organization open to skilled and unskilled laborers, 1. formed in 1869 as The Noble Order of the Knights of Labor (KOL)
2. It sought economic and social reform through political action rather than strikes
Knights of Labor
Involved the Amalgamated Association of Iron and Steel Workers and the Carnegie Steel Company
Armed confrontation between strikers and armed Pinkerton guards
Union broken at plant and other steel mills
Homestead Strike - 1892
Involved the Pullman Palace Car Company and the American Railway Union
Injunction issued using the Sherman Antitrust Act
Union leaders were jailed
Pullman Strike - 1894
Founder of American Railway Union
Led the democratic socialist movement in America
Espoused industrial unionism
Ran for president of the U.S. in 1920
Eugene Debs
- created in 1886
- A federation of unions made up of skilled workers formed in 1886 by Samuel Gompers
- The AFL offered trade unions local autonomy because the national union operated as a decentralized organization
- Eventually the AFL merged with the CIO
American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- British-born U.S. labor leader, founder and first president of the American Federation of Labor (AFL)
- He was a union organizer known for his opposition to radicalism and political involvement
- Believed that unions should focus on economic goals, bringing about change through strikes and boycotts
Samuel Gompers (1850-1924)
Western Federation of Miners (WFM) involved in a series of violent strikes 1899 - WFM demanded recognition of union Company fired all WFM members Federal troops arrested miners “Bull Pen”
Bunker Hill & Sullivan Mining Incident, Cour d’Alene, Idaho
- created in 1905
- Wobblies
- Comprised of Western
- Federation of Miners, other activist political and labor groups
Goals:
a. Become one large industrial union
b. Overthrow capitalism in favor of a cooperative society
c. Participated in a number of highly-publicized strikes
Industrial Workers of the World (IWW)
first association dedicated to organizing women
1903 Women’s Trade Union League
Miners on strike were evicted from their company-owned houses
The miners erected a tent colony on public property
The coal operators used the Colorado militia, thugs hired as strikebreakers, attacked without warning, killing 20 men, women, and children
Ludlow Massacre - 1914
- An American leader of organized labor who served as president of the United Mine Workers of America from 1920 to 1960
- He was a major player in the history of coal mining
John L. Lewis - 1880 –1969
A federation of unions made up of industrial workers formed in 1935 by John L. Lewis
The CIO organized unions within industries and included all the workers at a work site rather than restricting membership to one trade
Eventually merged with the AFL
Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO):
- If two or more people conspired to commit an illegal act, they were guilty of conspiracy whether or not they ever completed the particular illegal act
- Cases in Philadelphia, New York, and Pittsburgh
Cordwainers Conspiracy Cases
A court order that prohibits any individual or group from performing any act that violates the rights of other individuals concerned
Until 1932, injunctions were primarily used by employers to end boycotts or strikes
Use of labor injunctions
Gave certain protections to union members
Provided mediation and conciliation of railway labor disputes
Erdman Act - 1898
Stated that:
Labor was not a commodity
The existence and operation of labor organizations were not prohibited by antitrust
Individual members of unions were not restrained from lawful activities
Clayton Act (1914)
Created during World War I, President Woodrow Wilson formed the ___________ to prevent labor disputes from disrupting the war effort
National War Labor Board
Passed to prevent disruptions in the nation’s rail service
It required railroad employers to negotiate with employees’ union
In 1936 it was expanded to include the airline industry
The Railway Labor Act - 1926
created conditions that led to sympathy for workers’ problems
Judicial process was too slow to deal with problems
State legislation was ineffectual
Stock market crash of 1929
The act restricts the federal courts from issuing injunctions in labor disputes, except to maintain law and order
The act made yellow-dog contracts illegal
Norris-La Guardia Act - 1932
The cornerstone of U.S. Federal labor law
The act was the first in history to give most private sector employees the right to organize into unions, the right to bargain collectively with employers, defined unfair labor practices by employers, and created the NLRB
National Labor Relations Act (The Wagner Act)
Passed in 1936
It requires employers to pay covered employees at least the federal minimum wage and overtime pay of one-and-one-half-times the regular rate of pay for work exceeding a 40 hour week
Fair Labor Standards Act - 1938
Passed in 1959
To help regulate internal union operations
The act amended the Wagner Act and the Taft-Hartley Act
Resulted in the limitation of boycotts and picketing, the creation of safeguards for union elections, and the establishment of controls for the handling of union funds
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (Landrum-Griffin Act)
It was introduced in the U.S. Congress in 2007 Its primary provisions: “Card – check recognition” First contract Increased penalties
The Employee Free Choice Act
Headed by Isaac Myers
The NCLU was organized in the South in 1870
The white labor movement did not agree
National Colored Labor Union (NCLU)
Organized and engineered strikes and demonstrations to improve the lot of African American workers who had been shunted to low-paying jobs
Maryland Freedom Union and the Mississippi Freedom Labor Union
Major areas of potential growth for unionization
Health industry
Clerical workers
Formed by reformers and working women Adopted a six-point platform Equal pay for equal work Full citizenship for women An eight-hour workday A minimum wage Organization of all workers into unions The economic programs of the American Federation of Labor
Women’s Trade Union League
Formed in 1974, by the women within the U.S. labor movement
To promote a renewed interest among women to unionize
Coalition of Labor Union Women (CLUW)
Except for American Indians and their descendants, all the people of the United States are immigrants or descendants of immigrants
American Indians and their descendants
It was not until after _____ that industrial labor unions took a negative stand on immigration
World War 1
Unionists supported the ______ , which restricted immigration, because those acts reduced the nation’s labor supply
Immigration Acts of 1921 and 1924
Current scenario
American employers and unions recognize that new unskilled immigrants are changing workplaces across the United States
Union leaders and managers are realizing they must abandon old assumptions to gain the loyalty of each new wave of immigrants
African American sanitation workers went on strike in order to be paid minimum wages
Memphis sanitation strike
consists of a myriad of levels and jurisdictions of governmental units providing basic services
The public sector
The three levels of government are:
Federal
State
Local
All three levels of government have two roles as it relates to collective bargaining:
- In the private sector as creator and protector of collective bargaining rights
- In the public sector as employer
The federal government is divided into three main branches:
The legislative
The judicial
The executive
Congress, the legislative branch
passes the laws
The _________ and is charged with faithful execution of the laws
The president is the elected chief executive officer
The _______________ have the judicial authority vested in them by the Constitution to interpret the law
Supreme Court and all other federal courts
A _________ is the governing body of one of the 50 states
state government
____________ are legally dual sovereigns
State governments and the federal government
The sharing of governmental power between the federal and state governments
Under the U.S. Constitution, all powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states
Dual sovereignty
________ share power with the federal government, and under the U.S. Constitution, all governmental powers not granted to the federal government are reserved for the states
State governments
All ______ have a written constitution and a three-branch government modeled on the U.S. federal government
states
The executive branch of every state is headed by an elected _______.
governor
The legislative branch is a bicameral legislature made up of a ________________.
senate and a house of representatives
The __________ is headed by a supreme court which hears appeals from lower state courts
Judicial Branch
A __________ is the legal term for a local government
municipal corporation
A _________ is a political creation of a state that is composed of the citizens of a designated geographic area and which performs certain state functions on a local level
municipal corporation
Give municipalities the power to create an official governing body, such as a board or council
States
A flexible grant of powers from the state to municipalities to determine their own goals without interference from the state legislature or state agencies
Home rule
The governmental authority most commonly exercised by municipalities is the exercise of what is called ________
The power to enact laws governing health, safety, morals, and general public welfare
police powers
Created the federal merit system to address the abuses of the spoils system; administered open competitive examinations; protected employees from being fired for political reasons; and provided that Congress set the wages for federal workers
Pendleton Act
Two early federal employee organizations, the ____________and the ___________, engaged in intense lobbying for improved salaries, better working conditions, and greater security for letter carriers and their families
New York Letter Carriers (1863) and the National Association of Letter Carriers (1890)
During the 1930s and 1940s, private sector unionization flourished under the protection of the ______________.
National Labor Relations Act
Unionization grew later and more slowly than the public sector for a number of reasons:
- Unions held less attraction for many public employees because they already enjoyed some of the protections sought by private employees
- The nature of government employment was predominately white collar, while unionization in the 1930s and 1940s was by and large a blue collar activity
- A legal environment that was highly unfavorable to public employee collective bargaining, kept employees at all levels of government from being able to approach government employers and engage in collective bargaining
Passed in 1939, amended in 1993, the Hatch Act limited the political activities of federal employees to shield workers from political pressure and ensure that the resources of the federal government were not used to favor a political party
Hatch Act
The unrestricted and paramount power of the people to govern
In the public sector, this doctrine is presented as a basic reason for not allowing employees to have collective bargaining rights or the right to strike their public employers
Sovereignty doctrine
The _______ signed by President John F. Kennedy in 1962 allowing federal employees bargaining representation, forms of employee recognition, and the right to collective bargaining
executive order
An initiative of the Nixon Administration was the passage of _________ that made the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) an independent agency of the executive branch
the Postal Reorganization Act of 1970
Act designed to reform the outdated federal civil service structure, modeled after the NLRA
Created the Federal Labor Relations Authority to oversee labor–management relations within the federal government
Civil service reform act of 1978
The ________ was to oversee about 760,000 federal government civilian employees
National Security Personnel System (NSPS)
The unions successfully ________ in court actions to the changes in the labor relations sections of the NSPS
objected
There is no federal law currently governing the ________________relationship between states and local governments and their employees
collective bargaining
allow all state and municipal employees to join unions and to collectively bargain with their governmental employer
Comprehensive laws
laws either grant rights to most state or local employees
Targeted collective bargaining
either prohibit public sector collective bargaining or are silent on the subject
Restrictive collective bargaining rights
may adopt collective bargaining laws or, by practice, recognize and bargain with employee organizations
Local, county, and municipal governments
Public sector unions today fall roughly into three categories:
Associations or fraternities
Public sector–only unions
Mixed unions
Many public sector unions have their roots in professional associations and fraternities that developed before
widespread public sector collective bargaining
Collective bargaining in the private sector is largely shaped by _______.
Collective bargaining in the public sector, however, is ultimately shaped by ______.
The core difference - government is not a _____
a. Market forces
b. political forces
c. business
