Chapter

Union Organizing And Bargaining Structures

7

McGraw-Hill/IrwinAn Introduction to Collective Bargaining & Industrial Relations, 4e Copyright © 2008 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.

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Union Organizing

• Negotiations cannot take place until a bargaining representative has been certified

- Normally, a union must win an election to be certified as the exclusive representative of the employees

- An employer may voluntarily recognize a union if the union can demonstrate that it represents a majority of the employees

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The Organizing Process

• The NLRB is responsible for scheduling representation elections

• Before the NLRB will schedule an election, at least 30 percent of the election unit must have signed an authorization card

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Example of informational flyer and authorization card

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Why workers might want union representation

• For workers to express a preference of unionizing, they:

• Must be deeply dissatisfied with their current employment conditions

• Believe that unionization can be helpful in improving those conditions

• Must be willing to overcome the negative stereotype of unions held by the population as a whole

- Also, a worker may be angered by a management decision

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Union Campaign Practices

• Unions commonly rely on organizers to rally employee support during an election campaign

- They are often paid and full-time staff who travel to the site

- Group meetings are often held after work hours in a local church or community room

- Sometimes unions have an opportunity to move around the plant (often these are craft workers) to spread the message during work hours

• The NLRB can eliminate this practice if it interferes with the business operation

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An Example of a Union’s Campaign Literature

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Sample of Actual Ballot

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Management’s Campaign Practices

• Management is rarely a passive observer in the election process

- Management tries to design personnel and other corporate policies in advance of any election to dissuade employees from union representation

- Businesses do not always have the will or foresight to put all of their defensive policies in place

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The Election Unit

• The election unit serves as the basis for the bargaining unit

- It is the group of employees that the NLRB or state agency determines is eligible to vote

- Two main decisions are made to define the unit:• The range of employees to be included• Who functions as the supervisor or manager

- Since the passage of Taft-Hartley, supervisors have been excluded from coverage of the act

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The Scope of the Unit—The NLRB’s Criteria

• The scope of the election unit can be a hotly contested issue

- The NLRB and state boards normally consider the following criteria:

• The community of interests among the employees

• Effects of alternative units on stability in the labor relationship

• Sufficient choice for the employees• History of bargaining at employer

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Election Unit Determination in Hospitals

• Hospitals have a wide range of distinctions among professional and quasi-professional employees

- Vast differences in the nature of worker tasks• The NLRB established separate units for:

- Registered nurses and laboratory specialists- Business office and clerical employees- Service and maintenance employees - In 1990, the NLRB reversed itself and narrowed

the units

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Union Organizing Success Rates

- In 2005, unions won 61.5% of elections • 1,302 out of 2,117 elections

- This figure has risen steadily since 1996- In 2005, unions organized 63,700 workers through

NLRB elections, down from 84,00 in the previous year

- Organizing activity and win rates vary by union- New strategies by unions include organizing

professional employees

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Does the election campaign influence how workers vote?

• Workers are less inclined to vote for a union if the election is delayed

- Illegal or aggressive behavior of the employer reduces the likelihood of a first contract

- Firms with poor worker-supervisor relations and low wages are more likely to commit unfair labor practices during election campaigns

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Union Decertification

- The 1947 Taft-Hartley amendments to the NLRA prescribed procedures for decertifying a union

- Such elections are fewer than certification elections, but the number is growing and unions are losing an increasing percentage

- In 2005, unions won 33.5 percent of the 331 decertification elections

- Despite these data, union members appear to be satisfied with their unions and leaders

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The Debate Over Labor Law Reform

• Unions’ low win rate led to the debate over whether the endorsement of collective bargaining in the NLRA is being fulfilled

• Advocates of labor law reform argue that penalties imposed on employers who commit unlawful election behavior are too weak

- They claim procedures for remedying unfair practices are too protracted, and that employers close or move operations to avoid unions

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Nontraditional Union Organizing Tactics

• Corporate Campaigns- These involve union efforts to bring public,

financial, or political pressures to bear on top management

- In the corporate campaign against J.P. Stevens in the 1970s, The Amalgamated Clothing and Textile Workers Union waged a successful national boycott of their products and threatened to withdraw union pension funds from banks that had officers on Stevens’ board

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The Justice for Janitors Campaign

• The SEIU went outside the NLRB procedures to gain union representation

• They try to organize on a multi-employer basis and avoid representation elections by inducing employers to voluntarily recognize the union

- They put pressure on employers that use subcontractors for janitorial services

- Also use alliances with community groups such as churches to gain public support for organizing

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The AFL-CIO Organizing Institute and the New AFL-CIO Organizing Department

- In 1989, the AFL-CIO created a new organizing institute

- This was unique with it exclusive focus on organizing and its clinical programs to train new organizers

- After John Sweeney’s election, it was given a higher budget

- The summer camp funds college interns on summer union organizing projects

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A Rank and File Organizing Approach

• Unions that used young, well-educated organizers, involve extensive communication, and have links to community groups achieved above-average success

- This approach has been labeled a “rank-and-file” style

- It contrasts with the more top down, traditional organizing that relied on appointed organizers and formal communication strategies

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Representation Election Employer Neutrality

• Collective bargaining language regarding union organizing has become more common

- Often included is language regarding employer neutrality in the organizing process

- CWA, UAW, and USWA contracts define this as “neither helping nor hindering” union efforts

• But they do allow managers to communicate facts to workers

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Voluntary Recognition

• The NLRA allows employers to voluntarily recognize a union

• The law also allows an employer to remain neutral• In the 1940s and 1950s, it was not uncommon for

employers to adopt voluntary recognition or maintain neutrality

• Employer voluntary recognition or neutrality has declined since the 1950s

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The Southwest Airlines Case

• Founder and CEO Herb Kellerher was viewed as cooperative with the workforce

- This was a key competitive advantage for this service-oriented business

- Southwest did not oppose unionization• It is one of the most unionized airlines

- Southwest’s success is attributed to flexible contracts and cooperative relationships

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The GM Case

• In the 1970s, GM opened nonunion plants in the south and was successful in keeping the UAW out

- But in 1976, the UAW won an agreement that GM remain neutral in organizing new plants

- The UAW won an “accretion” clause, which provided that any new plants opened that did work traditionally done by the UAW would automatically be included in the bargaining unit

- The UAW would not cooperate with quality of working life or other joint activities if the company continued to fight union organizing

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Bargaining Structure

• Definitions of Bargaining Structure- Formal bargaining structure is defined as the

employees and employers who are legally bound by the terms of the agreement

- An informal bargaining structure is defined as the employees or employers who are affected by the results of a negotiated settlement through either pattern bargaining or other non-binding process

• About 180,000-194,000 agreements exist in the U.S.

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The Decentralization of Bargaining Structure in the United States

• Compared to other countries, the U.S. has a highly decentralized bargaining structure

- In many European countries, contracts cover entire industries or broad regions

- However, in recent years, many European employers have argued for greater decentralization

- U.S. employers want even greater decentralization

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Types of Bargaining Units

• The two primary characteristics are:- The scope of union or employee interests in the

unit• These interests can be either narrow craft or

broad industrial or multiskill - The scope of the employer interests

• Can be multiemployer (centralized), single-employer-multiplant, or single-employer-single plant (decentralized)

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Determinants of Bargaining Structure

• Bargaining Leverage- Unions can increase their bargaining leverage by

organizing a large share of the product market• An early example by John Commons was the

shoemakers in Philadelphia- In some cases, employers prefer centralized bargaining

structures• Employers in the local service industries, such as hotels

and local truck haulers, form associations and bargain in multiemployer units to prevent whipsawing

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Centralized Bargaining Can Stabilize Competition

• Employers in small firms in highly competitive industry may find it advantageous to bargain centrally

- This prevents whipsawing- In the event of a strike, no employer gains

advantage- In the apparel industry, employers gain stability

while union workers have wage standardization that ensures that competition across the firms does not depend on low wages

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Public Policies

• If the NLRB certifies the proper unit as an “industrial” unit, then “craft” structure is precluded

- The NLRB allowed coalition bargaining at GE, over management’s objections

• Meant that several unions would sit at the table even when only one union’s contract was discussed

• Arguments against centralization include the reduction in employee free choice and a reduction in the ability of the employee to influence the union

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Organizational Factors

• The growth of large corporations and centralization of management decision making have led unions to seek centralized bargaining structures

- Unions believe they are better off when bargaining is coterminous with the level at which critical management decisions are made

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Bargaining Structure in the Telephone Industry

• The telephone industry illustrates how management organizational structure influences bargaining structure

• The gradual centralization of decision-making at AT&T led to the merger of unions into the CWA

• The breakup of the Bell System into regional phone companies in 1984 forced a return to decentralized bargaining

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Bargaining Structure in the Trucking Industry

• The trucking industry illustrates how management may attempt to counter union centralization with a centralization of managerial decision-making

• In the 1950s, James R. Hoffa, president of the Teamsters, sought to improve bargaining power by centralizing the over-the-road truckers

• Employers countered by creating a national trucker’s association to centralize bargaining

• Many employers left the association when the Teamsters lost members to non-union firms

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Coordinated Bargaining

• Where no single union dominates a firm’s employees, the AFL-CIO has attempted to coordinate bargaining

- At its peak, the AFC-CIO’s Industrial Union Department (IUD) coordinated some 80 contracts with affiliated unions

- Such agreements were found in electrical products, glass, machinery industries, and in a number of highly diversified conglomerates

- The IUD was closed in 2000 and coordination now carried out by AFL-CIO staff

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The Influence of Diverse Labor and Management Interests

• In order to participate in centralized bargaining, unions and managers must give up some of their authority and conform to centralized decisions and leaders

• Union leaders’ opposition to consolidated bargaining units or formal union mergers acts as an additional constraint on the centralization of negotiations

• Union leaders can lose influence, status, and perhaps even their jobs in consolidation

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Resolving Different Issues at Different Bargaining Levels

• Even with centralized bargaining, many issues are still negotiated on a local basis

- In most cases, the master agreement is negotiated at the centralized level and covers broad issues such as wage rates and fringe benefits

- Issues that are either company or plant specific such as health and seniority provisions are often left to more decentralized bargaining

- Sometimes individual work groups and supervisors negotiate unwritten side agreements, know as “fractional bargaining”

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Pattern Bargaining

• Pattern bargaining is an informal means to spread the terms of one formal agreement to another

- It is an informal substitute for centralized bargaining aimed at taking wages out of competition

- The War Labor Board encouraged pattern agreements in WWII to reduce disputes

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Patterns within a Firm

• Employees in a firm are usually aware of what other employees are receiving in pay and fringe benefits

- Internal promotion tends to heighten such comparisons

- It is most common across the blue-collar employees of the same firm

• Can also occur where unions represent both blue- and white-collar employees

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Pattern Bargaining in Other Countries

• Japan’s “Spring Wage Offensive”• Management, government, and labor leaders

share information and create a general view of the overall rate of wage increase

• Then, individual companies and unions negotiate increases that are consistent with the overall rate

• Great diversity and decentralization make that impractical in the United States

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Intraindustry Pattern Bargaining

• The greatest extent of pattern bargaining in the U.S. is the intraindustry variety

- It stabilizes competition over wages- Examples are in auto, aerospace, and airlines- Intraindustry bargaining has drawbacks

• Overextension is likely to reduce employment opportunities, encourage new entrants, and reduce the ability of the union to take wages out of competition - which was the original purpose

• In moderation, it reduces strikes and establishes norms of equity for workers

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The Trend toward Greater Decentralization

• From the 1980s, a number of bargaining units underwent decentralization in their structure

• The steel industry is an example• The number of firms in the coal and trucking

industries declined substantially as well• There were major declines in the number of

workers covered by multiemployer contracts- Some of the decentralization in bargaining has

been induced by public policies, such as deregulation

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Summary

• Union organizing and bargaining structures are two central issues that emerge early in the bargaining process

• Union organizing determines whether there will be any bargaining, and then the parties decide the structure of the bargaining

• The organizing campaign is initiated by the union