Dispute Resolution and Regulation

1. Dispute Resolution and Regulation Interest Disputes Those that arise during a contract negotiation when the parties cannot agree on the terms of a new contract.

2. Dispute Resolution and Regulation Rights Disputes Those that occur during the term of an existing contract and involve disagreements over how the contract should be interpreted.

3. Diversity in Impasse Resolution Private Sector Interest Disputes Mediation - Strikes Rights Disputes Grievance procedure Binding arbitration

4. Diversity in Impasse Resolution Public Sector Interest Disputes Mediation - Fact-finding - Arbitration Strikes (in some states for non essential employees only) Rights Disputes Grievance procedures - Binding arbitration

5. Historical Patterns of StrikesWork stoppages involving 1,000 workers or more - 1947-96 Number of Stoppages

6. Historical Patterns of StrikesWork stoppages involving 1,000 workers or more - 1947-96

7. Historical Patterns of Strike 1930’s was a period of rapid growth of unionization and a substantial increase in the number and size of strikes. During WW II the labor movement pledged to refrain from strikes to aid the war effort. Despite this pledge there was no drop in the number of strikes but there was a decline in their duration.

8. Historical Patterns of Strike After the war, readjustment to a peacetime economy was accompanied by a wave of strikes of unprecedented proportions.

9. Historical Patterns of Strike Time lost due to strikes over the past decade and a half has been relatively small when measured against the economy’s available work time. Put in perspective, however, the time lost to strikes during this period has been one-tenth the time lost due to work-related accidents.

10. Historical Patterns of Strike Historically, most strikes (60%) occur during negotiations,with less than 9% involving negotiations of an initial agreement. Only about 13% occur during the term of the agreement. Most strikes involve wages. Other issues contributing to strikes include Union Security, Job Security, and Plant Administration.

11. Historical Patterns of Strike Studies of strike at the aggregate level indicate that strike activity increases during periods of low unemployment and high inflation. At such times, it is harder for employers to find replacement workers and easier for strikers to find temporary employment during a work stoppage.

12. Historical Patterns of Strike Studies of Strikes Reveal Certain Causal Factors Strikes tend to take place in highly unionized regions of the country. Strikes are more likely in large bargaining units including high proportions of males.

13. Historical Patterns of Strike Strikes are less likely where bargaining unit wages have kept up with inflation. Additionally, strike activity correlates positively with more labor-intense industries and with declines in product market demand.

14. Historical Patterns of Strike Research indicates that strikes in previous contract rounds decrease the probability of strikes in subsequent negotiations. Individual willingness to strike for higher pay has been found to correlate positively with youth, minority status, and the absence of expected financial hardship.

15. Types of Strikes • Economic Strikes (Primary - Secondary - Partial) Intended to resolve a “Bargaining Impasse”. Can only occur in connection with contract negotiations. • Unfair Labor Practice Strike Purpose is to force the employer to cease committing what the union believes to be unfair labor practices. It may or may not occur during negotiations.

16. Types of Strikes • Wildcat Strikes Conducted by groups of workers without the authority and consent of the union. • Sympathy Strike Refusal by one union to work for its employer to pressure another (or the same) employer in it dealings with a second union.

17. Types of Strikes • Jurisdictional Strike To pressure an employer to assign work to the members of one bargaining unit rather than another or to pressure an employer to recognize one union as representative of its employees when it already recognizes another. • Lockout Management's equivalent of a strike. It can only occur legally when an existing labor agreement has expired and there is truly an impasse in contract negotiations.

18. Corporate CampaignsStrike Substitutes and Supplements With the significant decrease in strike activity over the last 15 years the unions have been forced to seek new methods for pressuring management. One such strategy has been the Corporate Campaign

19. Corporate CampaignsStrike Substitutes and Supplements Examples of such tactics include: Appealing for help from outside parties having interests in the employer’s organization, such as creditors, stockholders, interlocking directors, and the public,

20. Corporate CampaignsStrike Substitutes and Supplements Examples of such tactics include: Running sophisticated public relations campaigns; Building coalitions with other unions and nonlabor groups;

21. Corporate CampaignsStrike Substitutes and Supplements Examples of such tactics include: Conducting boycotts; Lobbying legislative and regulatory bodies; Employing nonstrike in-plant actions, and anything else that might work.

22. Corporate CampaignsStrike Substitutes and Supplements Corporate Campaigns are used most successful when used to compliment organizing drives. J. P. Stevens Company vs. ACTWU

23. Impasse Resolution Impasse means that the parties have exhausted their own efforts to reach agreement. Resolution of the situation is difficult at best for the parties to deal with alone and next to impossible when either one or both parties do not want to reach a settlement.

24. Impasse ResolutionWhy Not Settle ? Break the Union Slit the Membership Undermine the Leaders Empty the Treasury Hold off for a better offer

25. Impasse ResolutionThe Nonparticipative Observer Sometimes it helps a discussion merely to have an outside observer present. A third party can sometimes be tactically useful merely by encouraging both sides’ negotiators to talk.

26. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator Full-fledged mediation is participation of a third party in the negotiation process, but with the final decision still resting with the principals.

27. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator The mediators role can be; Tactical Strategic or Both

28. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator The traditional use of bargaining tactics requires one to try to learn the other side’s resistance point while hiding one’s own. Mediators can be vary effective when they identify the resistance points of both sides.

29. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator The mediator’s job is one of assisting communications and perhaps offering alternatives. To discover resistance points, the mediator must have the almost absolute trust of both sides.

30. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator They must trust him to be discreet about what they reveal, and each side must trust him not to use such confidences to its disadvantage.

31. Impasse ResolutionThe Active Mediator The mediator does not need confidential information from the parties to perform the Strategic Function. It does not necessarily require high trust from the negotiating parties in so far as the mediator is not in a position to violate a confidence that he or she did not receive.

32. Impasse ResolutionFMCS Historically, the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service has provided mediation services to parties in the private, federal, and nonfederal public sectors.

33. Impasse ResolutionFMCS The FCMS was established as an independent agency in 1947 (Taft-Hartley) with the stipulation that government facilities for mediation and conciliation should be made available to the parties “in order to prevent or minimize interruption of the free flow of commerce growing out of labor disputes, to assist parties to labor disputes [and] …to settle disputes through conciliation and mediation.”

34. Impasse ResolutionFact Finding A variation of mediation in which an outsider (or panel of outsiders) assist in certain ways in achieving a settlement, but with the settlement itself still remaining entirely in the voluntary and mutual control of the parties.

35. Impasse ResolutionFact Finding The typical report of a fact-finder traces the history of the particular dispute, identifies the issues, and states the position of both the parties on each issue……the fact-finder may or may not recommend terms of settlement

36. Impasse ResolutionFact Finding There are several objectives of this procedure: Postpone a strike Public disclosure - public pressure Identify new facts Justify a concession to constituents Help a negotiator become uncommitted. (save face)

37. Impasse ResolutionArbitration Once a new contract case (interest) has been assigned to an arbitrator, both parties lose control over the outcome. And where as in grievance arbitration, (rights) the nature of each case limits the amount of damage that can be done by an arbitrator’s decision.

38. Impasse ResolutionArbitration For a number of very good reasons, most private-sector unions, and managements in the United States persistently avoid interest arbitration, and adamantly oppose it imposition by law. Interest arbitration delegates more power to outsiders than the parties are usually willing to allow.

39. Alternative Impasse Resolution Methods Labor-management conflict can be resolved through various dispute resolution systems. Some systems are based on POWER, some on RIGHTS, and some on INTERESTS and RECONCILITATION.

40. Alternative Impasse Resolution Methods A strike is an example of a Power system. Arbitration is a system based on Rights. Mutual-gains-bargaining and win-win are approaches that stress Reconciliation and Interests.

41. Alternative Impasse Resolution Methods Strikes and arbitration are expensive and time-consuming. In the last ten years a new has emerged that stresses reconciliation and the interests of each side; the approach is referred to as win-win or mutual gains bargaining (MGB).

42. Alternative Impasse Resolution Methods Utilization of mutual gains approach changes the negotiations process, affects the resolution of negotiation impasses, and introduces the concept of Interest Mediation.

43. The Public Interest in Impasse The problem of public emergency strikes, and how to prevent them or soften their impact is a matter of serious concern.

44. The Public Interest in Impasse Section 8(d) of the Wagner Act, as amended by the Taft-Hartley Act, requires a 60-day written notice to the other party by either party intending to terminate a contract when it expires.

45. The Public Interest in Impasse The FMCS must also be notified within 30 days of the notice to the other party. In the case of hospitals the notice requirements are 90 and 60 days.

46. The Public Interest in Impasse Whether some strike causes an “emergency” is a matter of both intensity and scope.

47. The Public Interest in Impasse A strike in a small hospital may create an intense situation while a national coal strike effecting 50 million people would effect few lives in any immediate or significant way could never-the-less have a devastating impact on the general economy.

48. The Public Interest in Impasse Q. Can strikes be prevented? A. No. Not with any real effectiveness.

49. The Public Interest in Impasse Compulsory Waiting Period A compulsory waiting period in emergency situations is the course our society has taken. Taft-Hartley incorporates provisions for the handling of national emergency labor disputes.

50. The Public Interest in Impasse Compulsory Waiting Period Action under the law is initiated by the president when “a threatened or actual strike or lockout affecting an entire industry or a substantial part thereof…will, if permitted to occur or to continue, imperil the national health or safety.”