Part II The Collective Bargaining Process
Chapter 4 Establishing a Bargaining Unit and the Organizing Campaign
United Parcel Service (UPS) voluntarily recognized new Teamster members after it purchased Overnite Transportation. Voluntary recognition by an employer, like UPS in this situation, is a seldom-used alternative to a secret-ballot election as a means for a union to obtain the right to represent employees.
Source: © Jim West / Alamy.
You cant do it unless you organize!
Samuel Gompers (Founder and First President of the American Federation of Labor)
Chapter Outline
1. 4.1. Bargaining Unit Determination
2. 4.2. Union Structure
3. 4.3. Bargaining Unit Determination in the Public Sector
4. 4.4. Public Sector Unions
5. 4.5. The Organizing Drive
6. 4.6. Union Organizing Strategies
7. 4.7. Union Avoidance Strategies by Management
8. 4.8. Representation Election Procedures
Labor News UPS Freight Workers Peacefully Join Teamsters
UPS has had a generally positive relationship with the Teamsters Union. Thus, when UPS purchased Overnite Transportation (which became UPS Freight), management decided not to fight any attempt by the newly acquired workers to join the Teamsters Union, which already represented UPS employees. Instead, management chose to remain neutral and to recognize any Teamsters local union that collected signed authorization cards from a majority of its workers and not to require a secret-ballot election. The result was majorities of UPS Freight workers signed cards and were recognized in Milwaukee, Minneapolis, Southern California, Oakland, Seattle, New England, Memphis, Detroit, and Louisville. By 2010 the Teamsters represented over 12,400 UPS Freight workers in 42 states. Ira Rosenfeld, UPS executive, explained why management chose to recognize the new workers voluntarily: UPS Freight and UPS have always respected the wishes of the employees and will continue to do so.
Source: Adapted from Bill Wolfe, UPS Freight Workers Sign Up for Teamsters, Louisville Courier-Journal (January 26, 2008), p. A1.
The collective bargaining process is at the heart of the employeremployee relationship. That process, however, is not a simple one. The 1935 National Labor Relations Act, as subsequently amended, defines the process and limits the parties to it. A group of employees cannot simply present their requests to the employer. Procedures must be followed to determine if those particular employees are protected by the act. A union purporting to represent the employees must prove that it does indeed represent them. And any particular group of employees who feel they have similar interests and desires and therefore should negotiate together may not satisfy the requirements of the act as an appropriate unit of employees for collective bargaining purposes. This chapter explores the process by which a group of employees can organize for purposes of collective bargaining and be recognized by the NLRB as a bargaining unit. The organizational campaign strategies of both the union (in support) and management (in opposition) and representational election process are also discussed.
Bargaining Unit
