Unit 2 Lesson 7 Flashcards
Collective agreements are binding documents that…
set out the terms of employment, including the process whereby workplace conflicts are resolved. They also recognize the union as the exclusive bargaining agent
and stipulate rights that are reserved for management.
specific terms of each collective agreement
membership, seniority, union security, management rights (sometimes called “reservation to management”), grievance handling, and job classifications.
For rank-and-file members, seniority…
was the most important feature of any collective
agreement since it guided other clauses that governed layoff and recall, vacation entitlement, and movement through job-progression steps. Longer seniority meant more protection from job loss, greater compensation,
and better access to other jobs in a plant.
Seniority
the length of an employee’s unbroken service with the company measured from their seniority date
Union security was…
another key aspect of the postwar labour relations system. Justice Ivan Rand’s arbitration decision over a 1946 strike at Ford Motor Company settled the issue of union security when he, in a decision that led to the term Rand Formula, argued that workers need not join the union in their workplace but could be required to pay a membership fee since they benefited from the union’s representation.
Another important aspect of union security clauses was that they did not…
change once they were initially negotiated.
Four specific types of grievances
individual, group, policy, and grievance of former employees.
Each step in the grievance process was governed
by a specific timeline and delineated who would be involved in the process
Grievances that were unresolved at the final step could proceed to
arbitration
Although arbitration could be considered the culmination
of the grievance process
it is nonetheless a distinct process within a collective agreement. Arbitrators were generally jointly selected by labour and management, except in cases where they could not be jointly agreed upon. Some agreements stipulated that in such cases, the Ontario Ministry of Labour would be asked to appoint an arbitrator.
A smaller number of classifications would have made it easier for management to
assign workers to different tasks across a plant. Being able to perform a wider range of tasks did not necessarily mean that a worker would be paid more money, just that she/he would be expected to do more
for the same wages.
cost-of-living allowance (COLA) is important because
it linked workers’ wage raises to increases in inflation, protecting wages from erosion due to inflation. Furthermore, those linked increases were in addition to regular percentage hourly raises
Local 27 was part of the UAW COLA system from its first collective agreement negotiations — a major accomplishment for the UAW in Canada, and for Local 27.
It clearly signalled to employers that the local had
won wage inflation protection from the wealthiest employer with whom it bargained and that similar provisions would be a priority in subsequent
bargaining rounds. It also signalled that the UAW would pursue the same bargaining objectives in Canada as it did in the United States
COLA clause calculations were initially based on the
Dominion Bureau of Statistics Consumer Price Index and later on the Statistics Canada
Consumer Price Index. COLA provisions were often among the more complex clauses in collective agreements.
The 1951 GM Diesel COLA clause quoted above shows that those provisions could have had an impact on wages, but only in the event of higher inflation. For instance
the cost-of-living index increased from 171.1 to 172.5 in
early 1951, and prices on consumer goods rose to 179.8.42 However, lower fuel and lighting costs balanced out the higher price of consumer products. Thus, the GM Diesel COLA clause would have activated, but perhaps not at a sufficiently high level to cover the higher cost of consumer goods.
