Module 5.3B: Union Relationship

Question 1

What is a labor union?

Answer 1

An organization legally authorized to represent workers

Question 2

What is a bargaining unit?

Answer 2

The employees covered by a union contract, or collective-bargaining agreement

Question 3

What is collective bargaining?

Answer 3

Negotiating a contract between an employer and bargaining unit

Question 4

What is the Labor-Management Relations Act (LMRA)?

Answer 4

The Labor–Management Relations Act (LMRA) (or Taft–Hartley Act) limits employees’ right to strike. It also permits the president to require an 80-day cooling-off period to protect national security—putting workers back on the job.

Question 5

What is the Labor Management Reporting & Disclosure Act (LMRDA)?

Answer 5

The Labor–Management Reporting and Disclosure Act (LMRDA) (or Landrum–Griffin Act) regulates union activity, including requiring a majority vote to raise union dues.

Created a union member Bill of Rights, guaranteeing opportunities for members to speak out, participate in meetings and elections, and have due process in disciplinary situations.

Question 6

What is the Norris-LaGuardia Act?

Answer 6

The Norris–LaGuardia Act limits federal court interference in labor disputes and outlaws “yellow-dog contracts.”

Prior to the act, employers would ask judges to provide court orders, called injunctions, that prohibited employees from striking and picketing

Question 7

What is an Open Shop?

Answer 7

No one is required to join union or pay dues as conditions of employment. Anti-union right to work movements promote open shops

Question 8

What is a Closed Shop?

Answer 8

Employees can hire only union members and employee must remain in union to keep job. Taft-Hartley Act banned this practice.

Question 9

What is a Union Shop?

Answer 9

Employers can hire nonunion workers, but they must join union once hired or at least pay union dues and fees

Question 10

What is an Agency Shop?

Answer 10

No one is required to join union, but eligible employees still pay dues and fees because they are covered by collective-bargaining agreement

Question 11

What is a Runaway Shop?

Answer 11

Employer moves operations to different location to escape union contract at old site

Question 12

What are the top 3 reasons employees unionize today?

Answer 12

1. Higher wages
2. Better benefits (health & retirement)
3. Dissatisfaction with management

Question 13

What are first contacts?

Answer 13

An employee contacts a union, or a union targets a workplace or industry.

Employees work with the union to build awareness and support in their workplace.

Question 14

What are recognition demands?

Answer 14

The union tells management that employees want to unionize. If more than 50% of the unit has signed cards, the union can ask for immediate recognition without an election.

Question 15

What is collective bargaining?

Answer 15

The union and employer negotiate a labor contract for the bargaining unit. They must meet at reasonable times, bargain in good faith, and put deals in writing.

Question 16

What is card campaign?

Answer 16

The committee needs to obtain signed authorization cards from 30% of employees in the group before the committee can demand recognition or hold an election.

Question 17

What is election?

Answer 17

The NLRB helps employer and union resolve issues and then conducts a vote. A simple majority of all ballots cast (50% +1) certifies a union

Question 18

What is Leafleting?

Answer 18

Fliers or pamphlets that urge colleagues to sign authorization cards or vote in an election

Question 19

What is Salting?

Answer 19

Union-paid job candidates who start organizing process when hired

Question 20

What is Bannering?

Answer 20

Signs, billboards and other public advertising that call out an employer’s or industry’s business practices

Question 21

What is Picketing?

Answer 21

People gathered to publicly admonish or expose an employer’s business practices or union status

Question 22

What is Social Media?

Answer 22

Twitter chats and closed or secret FB groups, also to answer questions and share information

Question 23

What is Canvassing?

Answer 23

One on one meetings or conversations with every member of a bargaining unit to share information or get feedback

Question 24

What are face to face meetings?

Answer 24

Happy hours, lunchtime meetings, and one on one conversations outside work to answer questions and share information

Question 25

What is Raiding?

Answer 25

Attempts to recruit away a member of another union

Question 26

Why are unions undesirable to employers?

Answer 26

Organized labor costs more because employees get higher wages
Workers can legally strike and remain employed.
Employers cede some control over HR functions

For what’s unfair, use the acronym TIPS: Employers can’t Threaten, Intimidate, Promise, or Spy.

Question 27

What are large units?

Answer 27

It’s easier for unions to organize small groups than large groups, so it can be beneficial for employers to structure larger departments of workers with shared responsibilities.

Remember, the union needs 30% of the bargaining unit to sign authorization cards before demanding recognition

Question 28

What are small units?

Answer 28

Alternatively, the employer might attempt to minimize the size of the potential bargaining unit when many of the proposed members are likely to show up to the union election and vote no. In that case, the union needs 50% +1 of those who vote to vote yes.

Question 29

What are positive relationships?

Answer 29

Satisfied workers don’t unionize, so it’s important to keep employee morale high and communication open. This is one area where HR can play a huge role. Respond quickly when issues arise, listen to employees’ concerns, and keep a finger on the pulse of the organization.

Question 30

What is early intervention?

Answer 30

An astute HR department will know when trouble is brewing—it will see the rising complaints, turnover, and general mood shift. HR should encourage the employer to create a union response plan that addresses the stages of organization so that management can act quickly to deter employees from unionization.

Question 31

What is consent election?

Answer 31

NLRB agree to no further hearings

Question 32

What is an Excelsior list?

Answer 32

Names, positions, and contact information of all employees in a bargaining unit which employer provides to NLRB before election

Question 33

What are the steps to Unionization?

Answer 33

1. First contacts
2. Card campaign
3. Recognition demands
4. Election
5. Collective bargaining

Question 34

What happens during collective bargaining?

Answer 34

In collective bargaining, the employer and representatives of the bargaining unit negotiate an employment contract.

Both sides must bargain in good faith on mandatory subjects, under the NLRA. These include wages, hours, overtime, holidays, seniority, grievance resolution, and discipline.

Question 35

What are Employer/HR Role?

Answer 35

HR will help set up meetings, research market data, provide analysis, and anticipate and assess legal and compliance issues.

The employer cannot bypass the union to negotiate directly with employees or make changes to a contract without union agreement.

Question 36

What is Union Role?

Answer 36

A union representative negotiates fairly and equally on behalf of all employees in the bargaining unit
this is their “duty of fair representation.”

Members select the bargaining representative by a vote; they can’t be in an authority position in the bargaining unit.

Question 37

What are Bargaining Impasse?

Answer 37

When sides can’t agree during contract negotiations

When negotiations break down and an agreement is impossible, it’s called a bargaining impasse bargaining impasse.
HR might facilitate mediation or conciliation talks, but the employer can also implement its most recent offer to the union.

Question 38

What are non-mandatory subjects?

Answer 38

Permissive subjects are of the union’s and employer’s choosing and don’t directly relate to the work

illegal subjects are illegal activities that can’t be enforced even if they are in a contract. Neither side is required to bargain on these.

Question 39

What is Arbitration?

Answer 39

If the union and employer disagree about how to implement or interpret the collective-bargaining agreement in the workplace, the dispute might go into arbitration.

An impartial third party makes a binding decision on the issue.

Question 40

What is Escape Clause?

Answer 40

A union member can choose to leave the union during a specific timeframe; if they don’t, they remain a dues-paying member for the rest of the contract term.

Question 41

What is a Wildcat Strike?

Answer 41

A wildcat strike is when workers strike without authorization from the union. They are not backed by the NLRB and may or may not be illegal.

Question 42

What is Illegal Striking?

Answer 42

A strike can be deemed illegal and shut down:

• when supporting the union’s unfair labor practices.
• when trying to force an employer into an unfair labor practice.
• when contracts include a no-strike clause
• when strikers commit illegal acts or engage in misconduct.

Question 43

What are Security Agreements?

Answer 43

Union security agreements require that all employees in a bargaining unit pay fees or dues to maintain employment, even though they are not required to join the union.

Union security agreements are illegal in right-to-work states

Question 44

What is Landrum-Griffin Act?

Answer 44

The Labor–Management Reporting and Disclosure Act, or Landrum–Griffin Act, allows union members to sue their union, protects them from retaliatory disciplining, and requires regular elections of local and national officers.

Question 45

What are Labor Lockouts?

Answer 45

Employers have the right to lock employees out when a contract expires and to pressure the union to agree to proposals.

In a lockout, employees can’t be permanently replaced and may be eligible for unemployment benefits.

Question 46

What is decertification?

Answer 46

Removing union as the bargaining representative

Question 47

What is deauthorization?

Answer 47

Removing a union security clause

Question 48

What is unfair labor practice?

Answer 48

An action by an employer or a union that’s illegal under the NLRA. Examples of ULPs are discriminatory rules and attempts to restrain or coerce the other