Collective bargaining.
This is a negotiating process between employers and employees, through their unions, to determine employment terms. Collective bargaining refers to business done in good-faith mechanisms, and the opinions raised are meant for the well-being of a group of workers. The results of collective bargaining are referred as collective bargaining agreement, which establishes conditions, terms, and rules of employment, and is legally binding.
A potential collective bargaining agreement includes; compensation, personal procedures and policies, employee’s rights and responsibilities, and employer’s rights and responsibilities. Compensation implies the terms of work such as wages and salaries, vacations and holidays, benefits including fridge benefits, vacations, shift premiums, and profit sharing ratios. Personal procedures and policies involve promotion, layoffs, transfer policies, and vacation and overtime rules. This component provides rules of firing, transfers, and layoffs. The personal procedures and policies component is considered as an ant-discriminatory clause that protects the interests of both the employer and employee.
Under the employee’s rights and responsibilities, the following clauses are established; seniority rights, work place rights, and job standard. On signing such an agreement, the employee is expected to adhere to the expectations, and practice expertise. Employer rights and responsibilities refer to management rights, subcontracting, discipline and discharge, and safety standards. It provides an outline of what the employer expects from the employees, and how to make decisions in cases of work related disputes. It gives the employer the right to fire and subcontract if an employer is found to overlook his/her rights and responsibilities.
The components of compensation have been brought into the lime light in an article developed by Howard Beck of the New York Times (Kuriloff 2012, par 3). The National Basket Association (NBA) was facing a collective agreement where the owners proposed that the NBA’s economic system should have a fundamental overhaul. This was inclusive of shorter contracts to players, hard salary caps, and a 38% reduction on the player’s salaries. While the NBA disputed the provided figure, the league was up, basket ball being among professional sports on the lookout. This led to the need of a collective agreement between NFL and NBA, for distributive sharing of profits.
Nicholas Riccardi’s article on Los Angeles Times on the fight in the Wisconsin union explains the extent of employee’s rights and responsibilities. The Democratic state senators had blocked a controversial bill that could eliminate collective negotiations for public serving employees (Riccardi 2011, par 2). Scott Walker, the Republican governor of Illinois warned that if this proposal was not passed, the state could miss an opportunity to refinance bonds and save up to $100 million. If this happened, Walker warned that 1500 workers could be laid off to fill the gap (Riccardi 2011, par 4).
In the second case, public servants should be treated as workers and not as government property. Whether the government loses or not, every employee in the government is entitled to his or her salaries, benefits, and job security. Dismissal or firing these workers as a result of loss is against the collective bargaining agreements, and considered as an unfair labor practice (Riccardi 2011, par 8). The two articles depict the components of compensation and employee’s rights and responsibilities of collective bargaining. In my opinion, the two components were denied by the employers. The employers were not trustworthy in the profit sharing system and went beyond the provisions of the union. They acted against the employee’s rights of dismissal. In such a case, the employee’s rights are interfered with, and this can only be resolute by coming up with a collaborative agreement.
Kuriloff, Aaron. NFL Files Unfair-Labor Practices Complaint against Union in Contract Talks. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from Bloomberg: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-02-14/nfl-files-unfair-labor-practice-charge-against-union.html
Riccardi, Nicholas. Fight over Wisconsin union heats up. New York Times. February 22, 2011. Retrieved from: http://articles.latimes.com/2011/feb/22/nation/la-na-wisconsin-governor-20110222
U.S laws that support collective bargaining, and examples of employer unfair practices.
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). NLRA of 1935 is the landmark of Federal laws that support collective bargaining. The law was endorsed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt. The laws legalized formation of labor unions, and engage in negotiations in collective bargaining. The law gives broad power to the Federal government to control labor relations while at the same time prohibit discrimination at work.
Labor-Management Relations Act. Established in 1947 by Taft-Hartley, the Labor-Management Relations Act provides the government with powers to oversee union activities, including the President’s rights to stop strikes if deemed dangerous to the welfare of the nation. The Act prohibits union’s participation to politics, and only allows unions to be established after a majority votes from employees.
Labor-Management Reporting and Disclosure Act. This law was passed in 1959 by President Dwight Eisenhower. It is also called the Landrum-Griffin Act and protects rights of union associates within labor unions. The law requires reporting procedures, and codes of conduct expected on unions and employees.
Every employee has a right to join a labor union, and participate in its lawful activities. The Labor Relations Code forbids any act that may in one way or another interfere with this provision. Anyone who participates or engages in conducting of such prohibitive act is said to commit an unfair labor practice. Employers should be keen on what they can or cannot say while the employees are forming a labor union. An example of unfair labor practice is being denied the right to strike. Section 7 of NLRA provides that employees have the right to participate or engage each other in a strike for the purpose of mutual aid or protection or for collective bargaining. However, such a strike should adhere to law from its purpose, timing, and conduct of the strikers.
Another example of unfair labor practice is discrimination against an employee’s rights. An employee has the right to file charges or petitions. Discharging or discriminating such an employee is considered by NLRA as an unfair labor practice. Just like the employers, unions are also expected to restrain from unfair labor practices. For example, unions are restrained from organizing collective bargaining meetings at the employer’s residence or during work time without the consent of the employer. However, this does not limit employees from having such discussions during free time like lunch hours or other breaks, provided they do not interfere with their working hours and daily schedules.
Chris Sieroty, a writer in Las Vegas Review-journal provides an example of unfair labor practices in Las Vegas Nevada. The article discusses allegations of employee discrimination that was based on their ethnicity or nationality. The protesters urged Station Casinos to be in support of establishment of new standards that could avoid discrimination (Sieroty 2011, par 4). In return, the Culinary Local 226 attempted to form a union of at least 13000 workers of the hotel casinos operated by Station Casinos in Southern Nevada.
Steven Green house, a writer with the New York Time, also developed an article that depicts unfair labor practice. The article involved a supervisor who fired a worker after being criticized on a Face book page (Greenhouse 2011, par 3). The NLRB stepped in to shed light of the statute, which provides that workers should not be fired for criticizing their employer under the NLRA. The Act provides that rights to the formation of unions are federally protected, and prohibits employers from punishing such workers. The labor board said that the Face book page rule limited employees in expressing their opinions, and compromised their freedom of speech.
NLRA law is significantly clear when it comes to matters of employee’s and employer’s rights and responsibilities. An employer has no right of firing a worker from a nationality perspective. Employers are expected to respect the opinions of the workers provided they are not against the law. The labor law and collective bargaining agreements protect workers who express any discriminative acts, and provide workers with rights of freedom to expression.
Greenhouse, Steven. The New York Times. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from Company Accused of Firing over Face book Post: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/09/business/09facebook.html?_r=1&hp
Sieroty, Chris. Culinary union workers arrested during Station Casinos protest. Retrieved February 19, 2011, from Las Vegas Review-Journal: http://www.lvrj.com/business/culinary-union-workers-stage-protest-in-front-of-palace-station-116442699.html?ref=699
Process of establishing and decertifying a collective bargaining unit.
The first stage is the initiation of an organizing drive. This involves creating a representation from interested workers from an issue of concern. The representation forms an organizing committee, which gathers an employee’s list as well as information from the employer regarding a contentious issue. Then follows building and documenting of support: A minimum of 30% of fellow co-workers need to show interest in the union. This also involves the signing of Authorization cards. By virtue of these signatures, the desire of forming a collective bargaining union is expressed.
Thirdly alternatives to voluntary recognitions are determined. If one manages to gather more than 50% of signatures, the employer may recognize the union. However, a strike may act as a substitute if the employer fails to recognize the interest. This strike should last not more than 30 days without coming up with an agreement. If this fails the NLRB recognizes filing a petition for election in a 5 to 7 wks period, the final step involves holding elections. The NLRB sets polling policies, and place usually the employer’s property. It supervises the lections when the workers vote in favor of their union. The union must win the majority of worker’s votes if the agreement is to be signed between the employer and the committee of workers. If this passes, then the union is issued with a certificate of a collaborative agreement.
The opposite of a certificate of election is referred to as decertifying election. At least 30% of the employees must file a decertification in the request of such an election. A petition asserts that the current certified union does not represent the employees. The union representation must be in effect for at least 12 months, and the petition filed in a time frame of between 2 to 3 months to the contract expiration. The NLRB requires that decertification should be free from managerial influences, and that all signatures of the petition are collected during non-working hours or off the working place. After the verification of these signatures, the NLRB schedules the decertification election within 60 days. The union can only be decertified if a majority of the members vote against the union’s representation as its bargaining unit.
Process of administering a CBA and the role and function of an arbitrator.
The establishment of a collective bargaining unit starts from a preparation phase, which involves a composition of a negotiation group. The first step is to determine the need for negotiations, an understanding of issues on working conditions, norms of production, and other relevant issues. The next phase involves discussion where the parties decide on the rules to guide the negotiation process. An environment of understanding and mutual trust is established in this stage.
Next follows proposing phase. In this phase, the parties provide the initial opening remarks, and the available options of resolving the statements. This is the brainstorming stage where opinions from both parties are discussed. The forth step is referred as the bargaining phase where a draft of the proposed agreements is presented. The settlements phase then follows where a consequential agreement is reached. The parties agree to a common decision and a joint implementation of the agreement, which comprises of visions, strategic planning, and negotiated issue is presented. The settlement phase concludes the certification process.
During the administration process, it is required that a neutral third party or an arbitrator be present. The role of the third party is to issue a ruling that specifies the terms of the settlement. The role of an arbitrator is to uphold fairness and integrity in the arbitration process. An arbitrator’s role is extremely crucial in maintaining impartiality, without prejudice or any other form of bias. Arbitration is used as an incentive in making CBA’s legally binding.
In a recent decision involving the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, the applicable standards of an arbitrator were brought forward. The facts of the case involved an arbitrator employed by an intermediate unit to aid an emotional support classroom. The aide had no pending disciplinary matters, but one day reported to class and complained of being unwell. She informed the class teacher that she would have a substitute for the day, left the classroom but never returned. With a follow up procedure aide was found with a fentanyl patch alleged to be her friends’, which made her feel unwell. The Westmoreland International unit suspends aid with no pay, and issued termination charges on her on immoral conduct (Maiello, Brungo and Maiello n.d, par 1).
In this article, Maiello brings forward the expected codes of conduct of an arbitrator. An arbitrator is expected to be impartial, and present whenever any decision by the parties is being developed. In this case aid failed to attend negotiations between UI and Education Support Personnel Association (PSEA) on pursue by the latter to discharge proceeding on whether to take appeals from awards considered as unfavorable.
Maiello Brungo & Maiello. Retrieved from: http://www.mbm-law.net/newsletter-articles/pa-supreme-court-narrows-standard-of-review-for-arbitration-awards/1045/
