Business Labor Relations: Collective Bargaining, Union Trends, and Worker Protections

Who are the main parties involved in the collective bargaining process and what are their roles?

Collective bargaining agreement refers to the process of negotiation to resolve any kind of industrial disputes which is made between the employer and employee or a group of employees. The agreement is aimed at regulating the working condition, salary and payments, benefits and any other aspects of the compensation and rights of the worker. In the collective bargaining process, two parties are involved which include the employer and the employee (s), who are required to eventually come to an agreement during the recruitment process and after all the discussion and negotiation, employment is decided for the worker (Ingle et al, 2015). The main role of the employer in the collective bargaining process is to set terms and conditions for employment and negotiate for the working conditions, salaries and other aspects of the employment to the potential employee. He or she is also required to perform the drafting and administration of the process buy interpretation of the necessary documents such as call letter, agreement, etc. It is also important for the employer to follow fair labour practices discrimination and termination and respect the employee. On the other hand, the main role of the employee in the collective bargaining process is to negotiate his or her salary and working conditions along with other terms, show a positive attitude to the employment process, submit their documents, make statement and outline options and try to come to the final agreement with the employer. Once the bargaining has been done and both parties reach an agreement, all the agreement should be in writing to incorporate the terms and condition (Ingle et al, 2015).

The year 2009 was significant in the trends of union membership in the United States. Explain.

According to the Bureau of labour statistics, there has been a significant decline of 11.9% in the number of American employees which is the lowest in the last 70 years. The record also stated that around 612,000 employees from the American Union have been reduced due to the economic crisis. Today the American Union mainly consists of private-sector workers, who are also facing significant decline continuously, however, in 2009, it was the first time in the history of America that the Government employees accounted for around half of the union membership of the country (Inwood et al, 2016). During that time, the number of workers in the public sector was much higher and there was a steep decline in the private sector workers from the union, especially in the manufacturing sector. In 2009, the world was not only relieving from the Global economic crisis but due to Outsourcing and globalisation, the private sector was not able to perform well which is the main reason of the increase in Government employees in the union. This shows that 2009 was the year where the union membership witnessed a significant trend in the ratio of private employees and Government employees where the public employees seem to be increasing due to global recession which impacted manufacturing unit along with other private sectors in the country (Inwood et al, 2016).

Did the Great Depression have any impact on the U.S. labor movement? If so, what?

The Great Depression was a phenomenon which impacted the economy of the world in 1930 and pushed them into depression. Various labour unions suffered from the economic crisis which also included the US labour movement (Inwood et al, 2016). It changed the entire view of the American Union which fell to below 3 million due to large scale unemployment. Around one-third of the American workforce became unemployed which greatly affected the US labour movement by reducing the number of participants significantly. Over the last decade, there was full employment in the country and the labour movement was going in its full potential, however, the Great Depression broke the backbone of the movement due to the economic hardship faced by the American workers which created sympathy for them. It was after the election when President Franklin D Roosevelt became the President in 1932, the government took some solid steps in order to improve the employment and bring back the labour movement on its feet (Inwood et al, 2016). Which included the introduction of numerous policies such as national labour Relations Act of 1935 which Pernicious any kind of unfair labour practices and organising elections when the employees wanted to form Union (McFarland, 2015).

What are profit-sharing plans and COLAs? What are the advantages and disadvantages of each?

Profit-sharing plans refers to a defined contribution plan which allowed the companies to help their employees save for retirement. It requires developing an IRA based set up by the employer and contributes to the retirement savings for the employees. The main advantages of the profit-sharing plan are that it provides a company with a competitive advantage are and help save money (Lin, 2017). Apart from that, potential and skilled employees are encouraged to work for the company due to their vision and develop an atmosphere of accountability. It can also improve the efficiency rate of the company by motivating employees due to their loyalty. Some disadvantages of profit-sharing plans include high cost of profit-sharing and it can only be effective if it is equally shared among the employees. Similarly, it does not guarantee value for the organization and can create challenges of entitlement. On the other hand, the cost of living adjustment (COLAs) refers to the increase of social security and supplemental income in order to overcome the negative effect of inflation. It is adjusted on an annual basis as per the increase in the consumer price index (Lin, 2017). The advantages of COLAs is that employees will have Expectations that there is a will increase which will motivate them to work with their full potential. It is also easy to administer as compared to other merit based plants such as profit as it does not require individual assessment. COLAs can also help the company to maintain market pay rates. Possible disadvantages of COLAs include it does not guarantee motivation of the employees and can also create issues related to pay raises if the performance of the employee is poor.

Which paid LOA (leaves of absence) are typically provided by labor agreements?

In labour agreement, there are different types of leaves of absence (LOA) provided to the employees which the worker takes for an extended period of time without giving up his or her employee status. The leave of absence can be either paid or unpaid. Some of the most usual leaves of absence under the labour agreement include bereavement leave, parental leave and military leave (Aprato et al, 2017). In the bereavement leave, which comes under the family and medical leave act (FMLA) allows the employees to take unpaid leave or up to 12 weeks for any family related issue such as health condition and serious illness. The number of days associated in the bereavement leave can differ from one employer to others. The parental leave is another usual leave of absence which is provided to the Employees for Maternity and paternity. It allows the new parent to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to take care of their child. Similarly, military leave, which comes under the uniformed services employment and reemployment rights act (USERRA) allows any uniformed service member to take paid leave for a longer duration of up to 5 years (Aprato et al, 2017). The employer can choose to pay the difference between the civilian salary and military salary.

Why is seniority often used in layoff and recall actions?

Seniority plays an important role in decision making related to employees search as designated work time, employee wages, overtime, employee benefits and privileges. It is also used in layoff and recall actions because employers tend to recall employees who are skilled and experienced if they have cutoff jobs due to bad economic condition (Garey et al, 2017). Similarly, employers also want to encourage the employees to dedicate themselves for productivity on performance and laying off senior employees can demotivate other employees in career planning and company loyalty. In layoff conditions, unskilled and part-time employees will be first to laid off and senior employees tend to be the last one. Similarly, any kind of new job opening will be first attracted by laid-off senior employees.

How does the NLRB review an unfair labor practice charge of surface bargaining?

Surface bargaining refers to the strategy where either party just go with the motion during the process without any intention of reaching the agreement. It is also known as bad faith bargaining and is considered as unfair labour practices along with the breach of bargaining duty in good faith (Ingle et al, 2015). Some of the factors which the NLRB uses to review any kind of unfair labour practices charge of surface bargaining include prior bargaining history of the parties, communication between employee and other employees, unilateral changes which are made during the bargaining process which subject to bargaining, the willingness of the parties to make concessions, the imposing conditions by the parties in order to reach the agreement and any other unfair labour practices during the bargaining process.

References

Aprato, A., Joeris, A., Tosto, F., Kalampoki, V., Rometsch, E., Favuto, M., ... & Massè, A. (2017). Are work return and leaves of absence after acetabular fractures predictable? Musculoskeletal Surgery, 101(1), 31-35.

Garey, B., & Banks, E. (2017). Layoff Policy for Staff 1.0 Purpose. Policy, 1, 19.

Ingle, W. K., Willis, C., & Fritz, J. (2015). Collective bargaining agreement provisions in the wake of Ohio Teacher Evaluation System legislation. Educational Policy, 29(1), 18-50.

Inwood, K., Minns, C., & Summerfield, F. (2016). Reverse assimilation? Immigrants in the Canadian labour market during the Great Depression. European Review of Economic History, 20(3), 299-321.

Lin, Y. P. (2017). The productivity effect of employee profit sharing programs: A methodology note. Southwestern Economic Review, 44, 117-128.

McFarland, S. (2015). The impact of the labor movement and social transitions at the urban level. Dialogues of Sustainable Urbanisation: Social Science Research and Transitions to Urban Contexts.