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Answer questions on topics from Chapters 5 and 6 of textbook below: Fossum, J. (2015). Labor relations: Development, structure, process (12th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw Hill. 1. How can unions secure economic gains?Explain the ramifications. 2. Briefly explain why organized labor was opposed to the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA). 3. List the forms that union political action can take. 4. Briefly explain endorsements and get-out-the-vote drives. 5. Explain the debate over union dues being used for political activities. 6. List the factors that the NLRB considers to determine a bargaining unit. 7. Explain the communication-related rule during organizing campaigns. 8. Explain the process and implications of Union Representation Election certifications. Each answers should be 1- 3 paragraphs long
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Twelfth Edition
Labor Relations
Development, Structure,
Process
Chapter 06
Union Organizing
Campaigns
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written consent of McGraw-Hill Education.
Introduction
• Employees become unionized only if a single
union can demonstrate that a majority of
employees in the unit desires representation
• The concept of exclusive representation
establishes a “winner-takes-all” outcome in
representation elections
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Organizing and Union Effectiveness
• Unions create an opportunity through:
– Negotiated contracts for employees to have a voice
in addressing workplace problems
– A labor supply monopoly
• Monopoly power generally leads to a union
wage premium
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Organizing and Union Effectiveness
• Unions have a strong interest in organizing
workers in markets where nonunion
competition reduces their monopoly power
– With increasing globalization, eliminating nonunion
competition in the product market is impossible
• Unions depend on members’ dues to operate
– More members create economies of scale
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Organizing and Union Effectiveness
• Mechanisms used to expand membership and
enhance union effectiveness
– Organizing new units
– Accreting expanded
– Facilities
– Merging with or absorbing other unions
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Figure 6.1 – Sequence of Organizing
Events
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How Organizing Begins
• Campaigns to organize unrepresented workers
begin at:
– The local union level
– The national union level
• Organizing begins with an authorization card
campaign and most often ends with the NLRB
certifying the election results
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Figure 6.2 – Authorization Card
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Authorization Card
• This campaign tries to enroll employees in the
union in the unit the union seeks to represent
• Organizers contact employees individually to
persuade them to sign cards authorizing the
union to act as their agent in negotiating:
– Wages
– Hours
– Terms and conditions of employment
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Recognition Picketing
• If a majority of employees signs authorization
cards, the union can request recognition as the
employees’ bargaining agent
• A union may picket an unorganized employer
for up to 30 days, demanding recognition as
the employees’ bargaining agent
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Recognition Picketing
• The employer can petition the NLRB for an
election in the employee unit the union seeks
to represent
– If the union loses, further recognitional picketing
would be an unfair labor practice (ULP)
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Figure 6.3 – Avenues to Election Petitions
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Representation Elections
• Held to determine whether a majority of
employees desires union representation and, if
so, by which union
• Certification elections: Elections in units where
employees are not currently represented
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Representation Elections
• Decertification election: Held if at least 30
percent of the employees represented, indicate
they do not want continued representation
– If a majority votes against representation, the
union loses representation rights
• Raid elections: Occur when at least 30 percent
of employees indicate they would prefer a
different union to represent them
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Election Petitions
• The union may petition the NLRB to hold an
election in the unit it is trying to organize:
– The NLRB checks the signed cards against a roster
of employees in the unit
– The employer frequently contests the makeup of
an appropriate bargaining unit
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Election Petitions
• If the union receives a majority of the eligible
votes cast
– The board certifies it as the employees’ bargaining
agent
• If the union loses:
– The board certifies the results
– Elections are barred in that unit for one year
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Preelection Board Involvement
• There are two types of elections
– Consent elections, in which the parties agree on:
• The proposed bargaining
• Which employees will be eligible to vote
– Board-directed (petition) elections, in which the
NLRB regional director determines, after hearings,
an appropriate :
• Bargaining unit
• Voter eligibility
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Preelection Board Involvement
• Excelsior list: Contains names and addresses of
employees in the designated bargaining unit
– It should be provided within 7 days in a petition
election
– The election is normally held after 10 days but
within 30 days
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Figure 6.4 – Specimen NLRB
Ballot
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The Election
• The NLRB conducts the secret-ballot election
• Company and union observers may challenge
voter eligibility but cannot prohibit anyone
from voting
• After the votes are counted and challenges
decided, the choice receiving a majority is
declared the winner
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Bargaining-Unit Determination
• The NLRB considers a variety of factors to
determine the bargaining unit
– Legal constraints
– The constitutional jurisdiction of the organizing
union
– The union’s likely success in organizing and
bargaining
– The employer’s desires to resist organizing or
promote stability in the bargaining relationship
– Its own philosophy
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Bargaining-Unit Determination
• Bargaining units can differ depending on
whether the focus is on organizing or contract
negotiations
– For example, several retail stores in a given chain
may constitute an appropriate bargaining unit for
representation election purposes
– While for negotiating purposes, several retail stores
owned by different companies may practice
multiemployer bargaining
• Legal constraints limit the potential scope of a
bargaining unit
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Figure 6.5 – Conflicting Unit Desires
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NLRB Policy
• Community of interests factors include:
– Degree of functional integration
– Common supervision
– The nature of employee skills and functions
– Interchangeability and degree of contact among
employees
– Work situs
– General working conditions
– Fringe benefits
– Extent of organization
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Craft Severance
• A group of employees with a substantially
different community of interests is allowed to
establish a separate unit
• It can occur during:
– Initial unit determination
– When a group of employees votes to leave their
bargaining unit
• It is easier during initial organizing
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Other Issues in Unit Determination
• Accretion: Occurs when a new facility is added
to the bargaining unit or when an existing
union in an employer wins representation
rights for employees previously represented by
another union
• Reorganization and Reclassification
• Successor Organizations
• Joint Employers
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Figure 6.6 – Theoretical Model of the
Certification Election Process
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The Organizing Campaign
• Organizing campaigns have three distinct
sequential goals
– Obtaining signed authorization cards from a
majority in the unit the union seeks to represent
– Obtaining voluntary recognition based on a card
count or a board-directed election
– Achieving the negotiation, ratification, and
implementation of a first contract
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The Organizing Campaign
• Organizing needs to gain the support of
workers and also may need to proactively blunt
management’s campaign or potential
retaliation
– Where the employer is a significant economic
entity in the local area, community action is an
important adjunct
– When the employer is not particularly dependent
on the local community, but is well known to the
public, the union may also undertake a corporate
campaign to inform the public and pressure the
employer to conduct a fair campaign
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The Role of the NLRB
• The NLRB conducts the election and certifies
the results:
– If a union won, it becomes the employees’
exclusive representative and can begin contract
negotiations
– If a union lost, and challenges are unsuccessful,
then an election bar takes effect, barring elections
for one year
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The Role of the NLRB
• The board considers an employer’s totality of
conduct:
– If the board finds the employer conduct
undermined an actual union majority, it issues a
bargaining order
• It requires the employer to recognize and negotiate with
the union
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Contextual Characteristics Related
to Election Results
• Union Characteristics
• Environmental Characteristics
• Worker Characteristics
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First Contracts
• Even after winning a representation election,
the union can still face formidable barriers in
bargaining with the employer
• The union needs to shift its tactics from an
organizing to a negotiating mode
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First Contracts
• Adversarial and undermining tactics need to be
eliminated early
• With few real NLRB penalties, newly organized
employers have been taking a harder line in
negotiating first contracts
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Worker Centers
• An alternative mechanism to help lesseducated and lower-skilled workers to obtain
work-related outcomes
• Functions include:
– Assisting with claims
– Publicizing disputes
– Contacting employers with specific complaints
• Receive substantial financial assistance from
international unions
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