Summary of the Case
In the given case, it has been observed that some of the supervisor nurses within the California hospital were supporting the union representation within the hospital. These charge nurses used to supervise the other nurses and they encouraged and appreciated the nurses who support the union in election. After the hospital took notice of this event, the charge nurses stopped supporting the union, but the union won the election . The hospital challenged the election, but the NLRB and court supported the victory of union. As per the research by different sources, the hospitals or other organizations oppose the interruption and representation of unions because there are certain rules and regulations that must be taken into consideration while dealing with the unions.
Q1: Why would an organization care whether its supervisors speak in favor or against union representation?
It has been witnessed that the supervisors deal with the employees more frequently as compared to the employers. In this regard, the supervisors can influence the decisions and practices undertaken by the workers. In this regard, the organizations care about the fact that the supervisors must not be supporting the union representation. As mentioned earlier that a number of rules and regulations for making a deal with the unions are present, and most of these rules and regulations support the right of unions so the organizations discourage the involvement of unions within its operations because the employees backed by the unions may go in an opposite direction of the company’s policies. In addition to this, the supervisors must be careful while sharing information to their subordinates because some information is confidential and must not be shared at all employment levels. Further, sharing confidential information may lead to legal problems and in case of any violation; the NLRB and court usually support the union representation. Finally, it can be said that if an organization does not want unionization then it must make the employees satisfied from their job roles and compensation. The provision of incentives, rewards and other benefits can lead to employee satisfaction, which can mitigate the chances of unionization.
Q2: How could the hospital in this example have prepared its supervisors to understand their proper role during an organizing campaign?
There are a number of ways in which the hospital can monitor and prepare its supervisors in order to understand their roles and responsibilities while organizing a campaign. First of all, the hospital must provide information about the labor laws and regulations to the supervisors or charge nurses so that they can develop an understanding about their role boundaries. Moreover, in this regard, they can sense the sensitivity of the issue regarding unionization. It will also help the charge nurses in clarifying the misunderstanding about their role and rights. Apart from this, in order to control the unionization, the hospital can monitor the nurses who were supporting the union and asking other nurses to support it . The hospital can held a meeting with these nurses in order to know that why they consider that a workplace environment being a union employee is better so that the hospital can make attempts to improve the working conditions for the satisfaction of the nurses. Finally, all the workers must understand the labor laws and regulation in order to prevent misconception and miscommunication during elections or other campaigns conducted and organized by the hospital.
References
Fortney, M. (2009). Union salting: Supervisor do's and don'ts. Retrieved July 2015, from http://www.fklaborlaw.com/articles/Union-salting-Supervisor-dos-and-donts.html
Garber, P. E. (1972). The Role of Supervisors in Employee Unions. The University of Chicago Law Review , 185-205.
Robins, S. (2012). Top 10 Mistakes of New Supervisors. Retrieved July 2015, from https://ascendtraining.wordpress.com/2012/02/02/top-10-mistakes-of-new-supervisors/
