Union Bargaining Essay

Submitted By mikejade96
Words: 2597
Pages: 11

Abstract

Human resources in most large organizations will have a delegate to deal with the problems, which can come up during Union bargaining. In cases where a bargain is not reached in extreme situations these bargains can go into situations where the union calls for a walk out of the employees and possibly a strike with picketers marching with signs protesting their side of the unfulfilled bargain and the company taking loses as their production is shut down.
This paper looks at different cases, and forms of negotiating in collective bargaining. How comprises can be made to avoided the problems associated with strikes, and bitter standoffs which end up in long negotiating, sometimes going as far as to have a judge have to make a decision which resolves the differences between the parties.
Sometimes Negotiations may go sour because the company is going through expansion and changing the way that manufacturing is done, or there are problems with the fact that the present employees are not qualified to operate the new plant machinery. They are no longer of productive use to the organization, but they have been with the company for many years, and are near retirement. So laying them off is out of the question, as it would cause a problem with other employees and the union. [Word count217] (Yahoo images)
Unions have been a part of the United States since we became a nation. In the early days, not long after the declarations of independence were signed the shoemakers had unionized. As the nation grew so did the unions, getting their strength during the railroad boom while the railroads were battling their ways across the nation, and the unions were beginning to make their stand. During this turbulent time the unions got governmental notice. There were laws passed governing labor, and with the union members complaining about immigrants, there were new laws in acted governing immigration. Since the days of the railroad unions, different unions have been a strong part of our nation, and even influence some people’s political views.
Unions get voted in to an organization when the employees are not getting along with their employers or they feel that union membership would be beneficial to their employment situation we it better wages or more benefits these are the two reasons prevailing for unions to be voted in. the same way that unions gain hold of the work force of an organization, they may also be voted out, “Decertification” while management may want decertification there laws prohibiting companies from coercing employees to decertify by offering bribes or other beneficial the organization can in no way influence the decision of employees to decertify.
In a case at the beginning of the twenty-first century; “one of Bridgestone/Firestone’s human resources managers went around to several of the stores in a work unit and ensured employees that if they voted for decertification they would receive better sick and holiday leave benefits” ( Wiley,John & Sons, 2001), they also refused to release the employee mailing list to the union. When the employees elected to decertify, the union came back and filed suit with the National Labor Relations Board, against the company for unfair labor practices. With the companies’ refusal of the mailing lists, and because of HR’s dealings with the employees, the union had a good case. The NLRB found in favor of the union and recertified their stand as representative of the employees ( Wiley,John & Sons, 2001). Union bargaining has a formal order of operation, in which the collective bargaining is done. The usual things that are being bargained are wages, hours, benefits and working conditions/safety. There is a representative from the management in human resource department of the organization who meets with upper and departmental management to come up with a plan of offers to take to the bargaining table. The union representative meets with the work unit to decide what the employees’ desire