Collective Bargaining and Labor Relations

Under what conditions is management most able to take a strike? The following factors are important:
Product Demand management is less able to afford a strike when the demand for its product is strong because
that is when the revenue and profit are lost.
Product Perishability a strike by certain kinds of employees (farm workers at harvest time, truckers
transporting perishable food, airline employees at peak travel periods) will result in permanent losses of
revenue, thus increasing the cost of the strike to management.
Technology an organization that is capital intensive (versus labor intensive) is less dependent on its employees
and more likely to be able to use supervisors or others as replacement.
Availability of replacement workers when jobs are scarce, replacement workers are more available and
perhaps more willing to cross picket lines.
Multiple production sites and staggered contracts multiple sites and staggered contract permit employers to
shift production from the struck facility to facilities that, even if unionized, have contracts that expire at
different times.
Integrated facilities when one facility produces something that other facilities need for their product, the
employer is less able to take a strike because the disruption to production goes beyond that single facility.
Lack of substitutes for the product a strike is more costly to the employer if customers have a readily available
alternative source from which to purchase the good or services the company provides.

Resolution Procedures: Alternatives To Strikes
Mediation is the least formal but most widely used of the procedures (in both the public and private sectors)
Fact finder most commonly used in the public sector.
Arbitration the most formal type of outside intervention, under which a solution is actually chosen by an
arbitrator.
Employee - initiated grievance:

Step 1: Employee discusses grievance or problem orally with supervisor. Union steward and employee may discuss
problem orally with supervisor. Union steward and employee decide (a) whether problem has been resolved or
(b) if not resolved, whether a contract violation has occurred.

Step 2: Grievance is put in writing and submitted o production superintendent or other designated line manager.
Steward and management representative meet and discuss grievance.

Step 3: Grievance is appealed to top line management and industrial relations staff representative.

Step 4: Union decide on whether to appeal unresolved grievance to arbitration according to procedures specified in its
constitution and/ or by laws. Grievance is appealed to arbitration for binding decision.

Discharge grievance
Procedure may begin at step 2 or step 3.
Time limits between steps may be shorter to expedite the process.

Union or group grievance
Union representative initiation grievance at step 1 or step 2 on behalf of affected class of workers or union
representative.

Labor Relation Outcomes
The effectiveness of labor relation can be evaluated from management, labor, and societal perspectives.
Management seeks to control and enhance productivity and quality. Labor unions seek to raise wages and benefits and
exercise control over how employees spend their time at work (such as through work rules).