Why Do Employees Join Unions?

1. Why Do Employees Join Unions? • Employees in the United States seek union representation when they: • are dissatisfied with certain aspects of their job • feel that they lack influence with management to make the needed changes • see unionization as a solution to their problems • The union’s best ally is bad management.

2. Labor Relations and the Legal Environment • The Wagner Act (1935), also known as the National Labor Relations Act, established five unfair labor practices that can be remedied by the National Labor Relations Board: • Interfering with, restraining, or coercing employees to keep them from exercising their rights to form union, bargain collectively, or engage in concerted activities for mutual protection. • Dominating or interfering with the formation or administration of a union or providing financial support for it. • Discriminating against an employee to discourage union membership. • Discharging or otherwise discriminating against an employee who has filed charges or given testimony under the act’s provisions. • Refusing to bargain collectively with the union that employees chose to represent them.

4. Labor Relations and the Legal Environment (cont.) • The Landrum-Griffin Act (1959) includes these key provisions: • Each union must have a bill of rights for union members to ensure minimum standards of internal union democracy. • Each union must adopt a constitution and provide copies of it to the Department of Labor. • Each union must report its financial activities and the financial interests of its leaders to the Department of Labor. • Union elections are regulated by the government, and union members have the right to participate in secret ballot elections. • Union leaders have fiduciary responsibility to use union money and property for the benefit of the membership and not for their own personal gain.

5. Labor Relations in the United States • Business Unionism • Business unionism is unionism that focuses on “bread-and-butter” issues so that workers get a larger slice of the economic pie. • The key concerns of U.S. unions are shop-floor issues that relate directly to workers. U.S. labor laws reinforce this tendency by making wages, hours, and working conditions mandatory topics for bargaining. • Unions Structured by Type of Job • In contrast to unions in some other countries, U.S. unions tend to be organized by type of job (craft unionism and industrial unionism). • Focus on Collective Bargaining • Under a collective bargaining system, unions and management negotiate with each other to develop the work rules under which union members will work for a stipulated period of time.

6. Labor Relations in the United States (cont.) • Labor Contracts • Labor contracts are an important feature of the U.S. labor relations system. In many other countries, such as Germany and Sweden, working conditions and employee benefits are codified into labor laws, but in the United States labor and management have historically established workers’ economic benefits without government interference. • The Adversarial Nature of Labor-Management Relations and Shrinking Union Membership • U.S. labor laws view labor and management as natural adversaries who will disagree over the distribution of the firm’s profits. For this reason, rules have been put in place so that the pie is distributed peacefully. • The Growth of Unions in the Public Sector • As the percentage of unionized workers in the private sector has declined, the percentage of unionized workers in the public sector has increased substantially.

7. Union Membership in the U.S., 1930 - 2005 2009: 12.3% of wage and salary ees were union members (7.2% in private sector, 37.4% in public sector)

8. Differences Between Public and Private Sector Labor Relations • Union membership trends • Service/white-collar • Role of Er resistance • Legal framework • State laws • Bargaining rights • Strike rights • Note error @ p. 480: New York and Michigan do not provide limited strike right to public sector ees

9. Quick TIPS for Preelection Conduct • The acronym TIPS is a quick way to remember the following guidelines developed by labor lawyers and consultants to guide managers’ preelection conduct: • Threats • It is unlawful to threaten employees with theoretical dire consequences should the union win the election. • Intimidation • Employers by law cannot intimidate or coerce employees to vote against the union. • Promises • Management cannot promise employees benefits or reward if they vote against the union. • Surveillance • It is unlawful to secretly or overtly spy on organizing meetings.

10. Mandatory Bargaining Topics

11. Contract Administration A Union Grievance Procedure

12. Labor Issues in Nonunion Workplaces • Paid Union Organizers as Job Applicants • Must be treated like all other applicants • Protected Concerted Activity • Section 7 not restricted to union-related activity or union-represented Ees • Workplace Committees • Labor organization? • Dominated by Er?

13. LEGAL ISSUES RE: EMPLOYEE INVOLVEMENT • EI and “Company Union” Problem • “Labor Organization” • “… any organization of any kind … or Ee representation committee or plan … in which Ees participate and which exists, in whole or in part, for dealing with Ers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.” • Unilateral mechanisms such as suggestion boxes by which individual Ees make proposals are not at issue • Committees acting with authority delegated by management do not “deal with” management • “Unlawful Domination or Assistance” • Includes management determination of membership, agenda