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Security Management
home page > Unit 10: Labor Relations
Security's role in organized labor settings
Security
personnel can often be seen as an extension of management's power.
"This fact requires that the security function, whether
it be contractual or proprietary or at the line or supervisory
level, understand that its actions can lead to labor problems."
(my emphasis)
Security must be trained and understand the company's collective-bargaining agreement.
- the book cites an example of a contract security guard in a union company helping the clerical staff answer a phone. He did it as a goodwill gesture, but a union staff member complained to the shop steward that the guard had infringed on a union position.
- The security force's activities
could lead to a union complaint: another example from the book
describes a situation where a security guard asked an employee
for her name while she was handing out handbills, followed her
in when she started shift, asked the employee's manager for her
name, and, when she refused, asked to speak to the director after
he did learn her name.
another potential problem is management surveillance to document union trespass or issues regarding union violence. The book mentions an incident in which the employer was found in violation of NLRA when security officers videotaped union members congregating and participating in organizing activities while on lunch break. NLRB ruled this kind of activity "chills" union activities and intimidates union members. "The key to unlawful surveillance is related to the degree of intrusiveness in union activities " -- no reasonable expectation of privacy on or near the facility, and employers can observe union-related activities if they don't interfere the activities. However, if the management personnel get too close to the organizing activity, or appear to interfere, that may not be allowed. Photographic union activities may constitute an unordinary and intrusive activity and violation of NLRA -- burden of proof is on management. "The NLRB concluded that "purely 'anticipatory' photographing of peaceful picketing in the event something 'might' happen does not justify [an employer's] conduct when balanced against the tendency of that conduct to interfere with the employee's right to engage in concerted activity." However, management can photograph union activities to establish individuals were trespassing or demonstrating on the employer's property.Also permissible if the employer can establish the previous union activities involved violence directed at the employer's property and working employees. - During a strike, unions can't
be held liable for actions of members unless there's "clear
and convincing proof that the labor organization had ratified,
participated in, or authorized violent activity." Use of
security personnel during a strike to protect assets can lead
to complaints of unfair labor practices, so management must be
extremely careful to use them in a lawful manner. While employers
have the right to maintain security forces "necessary for
the furtherance of a legitimate business interest" (which
may even require more guards than usual, guards must be careful
not to do surveillance of strike activities that aren't necessary
to protect the property: that can create impression of surveillance
and may violate NLRA. Practices such as repeated observations
of strikers, taking notes and photographing employees are examples
of activities that have resulted in findings of unfair labor
practices.