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Security Management
home page > Unit 10: Labor Relations
Strikes
Hospital
laundry workers prepare to strike
One of the early, landmark strikes took
place in our own backyard: the 1912 Bread and Roses strike.
Under NLRA,. employees have right to strike for purpose of mutual
aid and protection. It's not an absolute right: in some cases,
if there was a no-strike clause in the contract, and union then
called a strike, it would be breaching agreement, constitute
an unfair labor practice. In other case, if a strike is found
to be abnormally destructive of threatens health or safety
Can be called for a variety of reasons:
- workers don't have complete knowledge about collective bargaining situation, may feel threatened
- may do it as a show of solidarity
- out of desperation
during strike, workers create a picket line, urges others to not cross it.
Employers can respond to strike by staffing with managers and nonunion workers, subcontracting work, or hiring scabs. As long as they haven't engaged in an unfair labor practice, management can hire permanent replacement workers. However, companies are required to reinstate a replaced striker once a suitable vacancy exists in the company. This is what President Reagan did in 1981 when he fired the 11,000 air traffic controllers who were members of PATCO.
Employers can also do a lockout -- prevent employees from entering workplace. Then they can hire temporary, but not permanent replacements. As with the National Hockey League lockout, they can be used as an offensive method by management to force a contract, not just as a defensive measure.
Dispute resolution
These are basically "private
law" systems to solve disputes. "Some of these procedures
are also designed to protect employees against arbitrary authority
and unjust punitive action while providing a systematic review
of complaints and grievances."
Methods include:
- mediation
done by a neutral third party. Most used method. - fact finding
primarily used in public-sector as impasse-resolution process. Fact finder doesn't make decision, but investigates all of the facts in a hearing. Can make non-binding recommendations. The process may make parties rethink their positions, can reduce the number of cases that get to this point. On the other hand, it may not work if there are severe financial conditions. If it is followed by arbitration, which is case in some states, the two processes may be duplicative. Research shows that it leads to a low rate of settlement and doesn't avoid a lot of strikes. - contract arbitration
used primarily in public sector. It deals with creation of a new collective-bargaining agreement, in lieu of a strike if workers aren't allowed to strike.