MGT 3 Unit 2 AssignmentBriefly answer the following questions:What are the 5 general purposes of the Railway labor Act?What does the Norris-LaGuardia Act enable?Describe the National Labor Relations Board.Explain the concept of “duty to bargain.”What are the responsibilities of the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service?Explain what trade treaties are intended to achieve.Briefly explain the responsibilities and qualifications of a union steward.Briefly describe the structure of national unions.Select for my approval one of the following topics for your paper # 2 due unit 5:What is the Stereotypical Image of Unions Today and How is it Affecting Their Organizing Activities?What are the Standard Organizing Strategies and Tactics of Unions Today and How Effective Are They?What are the Standard Union Avoidance Strategies and Tactics Today and How Effective Are They?How and Why Did the U.S. Automobile Industry Need To Be Bailed Out?How Has Global Competition Affected Labor/Management Relations in the U.S.?How Has the Aging of Our U.S. Population Affected Labor/Management Relations?Reading for Discussion 2.1 Topic: Read andCommentLabor Law Is Broken, Economist SaysBy Steven GreenhouseIn a new paper, Richard B. Freeman, a labor economist atHarvard, said he had some harsh and impolitic news for theNational Labor Relations Act on its 75th anniversary. He declaredthat the law has become an anachronism irrelevant for mostworkers and firms.Mr. Freeman released his paper in Washington on Thursday at asymposium that marked the anniversary of the New Deal lawoften known as the Wagner Act that gave American workers afederally protected right to form unions. He called his paperWhat Can We Learn from N.L.R.A. to Create Labor Law for the21st Century?Mr. Freeman, one of the nations foremost labor economists,wrote that the act was passed to replace the costly unionizationfights of yesteryear often involving strikes, lockouts, violentconfrontations with a laboratory conditions elections processfor ascertaining workers attitudes toward union representationthat would be free from employer pressures or dishoneststatements by employers or unions. He said unionizationelections in the private-sector have turned into massiveemployer campaigns against unions.That, he wrote, is a major reason the percentage of private-sectorworkers in unions has fallen to 7 percent, down from nearly 40percent in the 1950s.He argued that the penalties in the National Labor Relations Actwere weak and have failed to deter firms from illegal actions toprevent unionization. He wrote that in the early 1950s firms firedabout 0.5 workers for every 100 workers who voted in N.L.R.B.elections, but in the 1980s and early 1990s, firms fired 4.5workers for every 100 union voters, with that percentagedropping slightly in recent years.Far from a laboratory conditions experiment in democracy, hewrote, the N.L.R.B. process turned into the same costly fightbetween unions and firms that union organizing was before theact, albeit in a different venue with different weapons. He wrotethat the N.L.R.B. process has failed to make it easy or natural forworkers who want union representation to achieve this goal.He noted that there was a 20 to 30 percent gap between thepercentage of workers who said they wanted unionrepresentation and those who had unions the largest gapamong advanced English-speaking countries.Professor Freeman pointed to one study that found that unionsfound it so hard to organize workers under the N.L.R.B. processthat around 80 percent of new organizing in the late 1980s and1990s occurred outside that process. This usually happenedamong government employees who were not covered by theNational Labor Relations Act, or by private-sector unions thatmounted pressure campaigns to persuade employers to acceptunions through the card check process under which unions arerecognized when a majority of workers sign cards favoring aunion.Professor Freeman said it was hardly surprising that thepercentage of public-sector workers in unions was five times ashigh as the percentage of private-sector workers.One big reason for this, he wrote, is that private-sector employershave sizable monetary incentives to oppose unionism, and thepenalties that N.L.R.B. has at its disposal are too limited to offsetthese incentives. He noted that government officials, unlikecorporate officials, have generally not fought unionizationbecause they have little to gain and much to lose from fightingunions.Unions, he added are an important ally in helping politiciansand public-sector management convince voters to increase taxesor borrow money through bonds for schools, police or other publicgoods.For instance, if a company illegally fires the three employeeleaders of a unionization drive, the law requires the company topay back pay, minus whatever earnings the workers had afterbeing fired. The law does not call for fines or punitive damagesfor such firings.Mr. Freeman pointed to a case involving a unionization effort atYale-New Haven Hospital, where an independent arbitrator ruledin 2007 that the hospital had violated an agreement calling forboth sides to respect principles aimed at guaranteeing a fairelection. The arbitrator wrote that the workers were threatenedwith more onerous working conditions and even loss of their jobsif the union were selected.She said the workers were victimized and ordered the hospital topay the 1,700 workers a total $2.2 million the amount thehospital had paid to antiunion consultants. She also ordered thehospital to repay the union its $2.3 million in organizingexpenses. Professor Freeman noted that this $4.5 million penalty,which was ordered outside the National Labor Relations Act, was20 percent more than the $3.6 million that the labor boardawards on average each year to all workers nationwide for allback pay for being retaliated against for supporting a union. Hecited a paper by Morris M. Kleiner and David Weil stating thatthe Act for decades has been ineffective in curbing behaviorsthat are antithetical to its fundamental aims.Professor Freeman wrote that the failure of the N.L.R.A. processto meet the needs of workers and firms moved the U.S. close tothe union-free world that many opponents of trade unions havelong desired.He suggested that if unions were stronger, the United Statesmight not have the highest income inequality in the developedworld or stagnant real earnings for all but the highest paid. Healso said that if unions were stronger, a liberal coalition wouldpresumably have greater countervailing power to Wall Streetand have helped push through stronger financial reforms.In conclusion, Professor Freeman had four recommendations. Hecalled for strengthening the penalties against illegal actions bymanagement and unions, recommending penalties againstindividual managers or union leaders who break the law. Second,he said labor laws should be amended to protect supervisors frombeing fired or punished if they want to remain neutral or silentand not have to express their firms anti-union views during anorganizing drive.Third, he called for early voting at neutral venues instead ofhaving unionization elections held at the work site on a singleday. Borrowing from an idea of Benjamin Sachs, a professor atHarvard Law School, he wrote that the idea resembled earlyvoting in regular elections. The labor board could set up a pollingplace where workers could vote at any time during the organizingdrive or could set up a confidential mail-in procedure.He said this should reduce intimidation or pressure frommanagement or union activists on workers to vote for againstunion representation by allowing employees to vote outside theconfines of the workplace at a time of their own choosing. Manycorporations oppose a more rapid electoral process, arguing thatit would not give them adequate time to communicate their caseagainst unions.Lastly, Professor Freeman recommends an idea that union leadershate allowing employers to set up employee committees thataddress not just productivity, but also issues that deal withworkers well-being, like hours or pace of work. Throughout theadvanced world works councils perform this function, usually withmembers elected by employees, independent of collectivebargaining, he wrote.He added that American employers who want their workers tohave some representation at their workplace that falls short ofcollective bargaining should be able to do so without having tobreak the law. He said that a similar system in Canada works well.He noted that many American employers were already doing thiseven though the law bans it. Moreover, it would help give unionless workers more of a voice on the job. But unions oppose thisidea, asserting that it could lead to management-dominatedcommittees and could convince many workers that they do notneed a union.The symposium was cosponsored by the National Labor RelationsBoard and George Washington University.Submit a Topic of Your Choice.nit 2 LectureEmployment at-Will and Just CauseAccording to our text (page 77), "under common law in theUnited States, an employer could hire or fire an employee for agood reason, a bad reason or no reason at all. Thus, at its verybasis, employment ‘at-will’ unless a (expressed) contract to thecontrary has been negotiated."The following FAQ and answer is lifted verbatim from the NewYork State Department of Labor website:Q: Can an employee be fired without due cause?A: Yes. New York State is an "employment-at-will," state. Withouta contract restricting termination (such as a collective bargainingagreement) an employer has the right to discharge an employeeat any time for any reason. This also protects the employee’sright to resign. An employer may fire an employee for "no reason"- or even for a reason that might seem arbitrary and unfair — andthe employee is equally free to quit at any time without beingrequired to explain or defend that decision.There are a few exceptions to "employment-at-will." The mostsignificant of these are laws, enforced by the New York StateDivision of Human Rights, which prohibit discrimination basedupon race, creed, national origin, age, handicap, gender, sexualorientation or marital status. For additional information abouthow the New York State Division of Human Rights proceedsagainst unlawful forms of discrimination, go to: www.nysdhr.com.While there are notable exceptions to hiring, firing and promotingemployees on an "employment at-will" basis, such as Federal andstate laws prohibiting discrimination against certain protectedclasses – e.g. race, sex, color, religion, national origin, age over40, disability, etc., most non-union employees have littleprotection from an arbitrary discharge. Typically, unionrepresented employees — by virtue of an expressed written laborcontract — cannot be discharged or disciplined without theestablishment of a "just cause."There are other exceptions to an employer’s employment at-willpowers noted in your text, but the basic concept that both anemployer and an employee may terminate their employmentarrangement at any time for any reason or no reason at all is wellestablished in the U.S..According to Clyde W. Summers in his 1976 Virginia Law Reviewarticle entitled Individual Protection Against Unjust Dismissal:Time For A Statute, "the USA is alone among the industrializednations of the world in providing no protection against wrongfultermination of employment."Why is this so? The prospect for any legal statutory change inthe Employment-at-Will principle in the U.S. is doubtful without astrong lobbying effort that unorganized employees are probablyunable to mount. Strong union support is not likely eitherbecause this kind of statutory reform would take away one of theunions’ principal arguments "that protection from unjustdismissal is available only under a collective bargainingagreement administered by a union-controlled grievancemechanism. "U.S. employers, as you would expect, are well organized and atall times stand ready to lobby against any infringement upontheir absolute right of discharge. Most business people and manybusiness experts believe that the principle of employment-at-willis a basic freedom and has, in part, contributed to theextraordinary work ethic and success of American workers andbusinesses compared to the rest of the world."Just Cause" for Employer ActionsOne of the most important employee rights that Unions havehistorically used to justify and sell workers on the wisdom oforganizing collectively with their employer is the right toworkplace due process or "Just Cause" for discipline, demotion ortermination. Just cause (or "due process" as we often use in alegal context) provides important protections against arbitrary orunfair termination or inappropriate workplace discipline. It hasbecome a common standard in labor relations and is included invirtually all labor contracts as a form of job security.With a just cause requirement an employer must stand ready toprove that their employment actions are fair and reasonablebefore an impartial arbitrator to sustain an employee’stermination, suspension, or other discipline. Just cause usuallyrefers to a violation of a company policy or rule. In some cases,an employee may commit an act that is not specificallyaddressed within the employers policies but one of which theemployer believes warrants discipline or discharge. In suchinstances, the employer must be confident that they can defendtheir decision.In 1966, an arbitrator, Professor Carroll Daugherty, established awell used set of practices into seven tests for just cause that arestill used today. Daugherty’s seven tests are as follows:Was the employee forewarned of the consequences of his or heractions?Are the employer’s rules reasonably related to business efficiencyand performance the employer might reasonably expect from theemployee?Was an effort made before discharge to determine whether theemployee was guilty as charged?Was the investigation conducted fairly and objectively?Did the employer obtain substantial evidence of the employee’sguilt?Were the rules applied fairly and without discrimination?Was the degree of discipline reasonably related to theseriousness of the employee’s offense and the employee’s pastrecord?Avoiding Unionization with Non-Union "Just Cause" PolicyIn Unit 1 it was proposed that the best strategy for avoiding the25 to 35 percent increase in cost of Unionization is to create awork environment for your employees where they do not believea Union is needed to advance and protect their interests. And,one of the steps a Non-Union company could take is to establish,by company policy, a Non-Union Complaint Procedure ("grievanceprocedure" sounds too union) and employ principle of dueprocess or "just cause."According to Delaney, Lewin & Ichniowski, more than one-half ofall non-union medium and large organizations in the U.S. haveformal complaint processes.For your reading pleasure, here are two examples of a Non-UnionGrievance Procedures:http://www.hr.msu.edu/complaints/supportstaff/GrievanceProcedures.htmhttp://hrservices.uchicago.edu/fpg/policies/700/p704.shtmlOn page 210, our text author John Fossum cites studies thatsuggest that Non-Union Grievance Procedures with either peerreview or third-party arbitration tend to be considered morecredible and are used more by employees. Where Managementis included in the final stage (the final word) of the process, notsurprisingly grievance rates are lower. And finally, according toA.J.S. Colvin, in Team-based and High-performance Workorganizations complaints are less frequent. This suggests thatthe best way to avoid unionization is to create a highperformance, highly-aligned team-base working culture!!Employee Rights Protected by the National LaborRelations ActAccording to the National Labor Relations Board website(http://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employee-rights)"Employees covered by the National Labor Relations Act areprotected from certain types of employer and union misconductand have the right to attempt to form a union where nonecurrently exists.Examples of employee rights include:Forming, or attempting to form, a union in your workplace;Joining a union whether the union is recognized by your employeror not;Assisting a union in organizing your fellow employees;Refusing to do any or all of these things.The law also protects employees rights to act together, with orwithout a union, to improve working terms and conditions,including wages and benefits. These are known as protectedconcerted activities.Some concerted activities examples include:Two or more employees addressing their employer aboutimproving their working conditions and pay;An employee speaking to his/her employer on behalf ofhim/herself and one or more co-workers about improvingworkplace conditions;Two or more employees discussing pay or other work-relatedissues with each other;Refusing to do any or all of these things."Unfair Labor PracticesAccording to the National Labor Relations Board website: (http://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employerunion-rightsobligations "the National Labor Relations Act (section 7 of theWagner Act) forbids employers from interfering with, restraining,or coercing employees in the exercise of rights relating toorganizing, forming, joining or assisting a labor organization forcollective bargaining purposes, or from working together toimprove terms and conditions of employment, or refraining fromany such activity. Similarly, labor organizations may not restrainor coerce employees in the exercise of these rights.Examples of employer conduct that violates the law:Threatening employees with loss of jobs or benefits if they join orvote for a union or engage in protected concerted activity.Threatening to close the plant if employees select a union torepresent them.Questioning employees about their union sympathies or activitiesin circumstances that tend to interfere with, restrain or coerceemployees in the exercise of their rights under the Act.Promising benefits to employees to discourage their unionsupport.Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning employees moredifficult work tasks, or otherwise punishing employees becausethey engaged in union or protected concerted activity.Transferring, laying off, terminating, assigning employees moredifficult work tasks, or otherwise punishing employees becausethey filed unfair labor practice charges or participated in aninvestigation conducted by NLRB.Examples of labor organization conduct that violates the law:Threats to employees that they will lose their jobs unless theysupport the union.Seeking the suspension, discharge or other punishment of anemployee for not being a union member even if the employeehas paid or offered to pay a lawful initiation fee and periodic feesthereafter.Refusing to process a grievance because an employee hascriticized union officials or because an employee is not a memberof the union in states where union security clauses are notpermitted.Fining employees who have validly resigned from the union forengaging in protected concerted activities following theirresignation or for crossing an unlawful picket line.Engaging in picket line misconduct, such as threatening,assaulting, or barring non-strikers from the employer’s premises.Striking over issues unrelated to employment terms andconditions or coercively enmeshing neutrals into a labor dispute.National Labor Relations Board Representative Election ProcessesPlease read and study the following link for information regardingthe NLRB representative election processes for Union Certificationand De-certification. http://www.nlrb.gov/what-we-do/conductelectionsUnion Mission, Structure and GovernanceThe mission of the AFL-CIO is as follows, per their website(http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/mission/ ):What We Stand for: Mission and Goals of the AFL-CIOThe mission of the AFL-CIO is to improve the lives of workingfamiliesto bring economic justice to the workplace and socialjustice to our nation. To accomplish this mission we will build andchange the American labor movement.We will build a broad movement of American workers byorganizing workers into unions. We will recruit and train the nextgeneration of organizers, mass the resources needed to organizeand create the strategies to win organizing campaigns and unioncontracts. We will create a broad understanding of the need toorganize among our members, our leadership and amongunorganized workers. We will lead the labor movement in theseefforts.We will build a strong political voice for workers in our nation. Wewill fight for an agenda for working families at all levels ofgovernment. We will empower state federations. We will build abroad progressive coalition that speaks out for social andeconomic justice. We will create a political force within the labormovement that will empower workers and speak forcefully on thepublic issues that affect our lives.We will change our unions to provide a new voice to workers in achanging economy. We will speak for working people in the globaleconomy, in the industries in which we are employed, in the firmswhere we work, and on the job every day. We will transform therole of the union from an organization that focuses on amember’s contract to one that gives workers a say in all thedecisions that affect our working livesfrom capital investments,to the quality of our products and services, to how we organizeour work.We will change our labor movement by creating a new voice forworkers in our communities. We will make the voices of workingfamilies heard across our nation and in our neighborhoods. Wewill create vibrant community labor councils that reach out toworkers at the local level. We will strengthen the ties of labor toour allies. We will speak out in effective and creative ways onbehalf of all working Americans.In the U.S., unions typically have a pyramidal structure much likethat of large corporations. At the bottom are locals that serverepresented workers in a particular geographical area. Certainmembers are elected as local officers and executive committeemembers and shop stewards are designated to serve as gobetweens in disputes between workers and supervisors. Localsare usually organized into national unions that assist with localcontract negotiations, organize new locals, negotiate contractsfor entire industries, and lobby government bodies on issues ofimportance to organized labor. In turn, national unions may belinked by a labor federation, such as the American Federation ofLabor/Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL/CIO), whichprovides assistance to member unions and serves as the principalpolitical organ for organized labor.