Unions and Collective Bargaining
The union (Union) member-employees of the Erie Resistor Company (Company) struck Company over the terms of a new collective bargaining agreement that was being negotiated between Company and Union. Company continued production operations during the strike by hiring new hires and crossover union members who were persuaded to abandon the strike and come back to work.
Company promised all replacement workers super seniority. This would take the form of adding twenty years to the length of a worker’s actual service for the purpose of future layoffs and recalls. Many union members accepted the offer. Union filed an unfair labor practice charge with the NLRB. Is Company’s offer of the super seniority lawful?
N.L.R.B. v. Erie Resistor Co., 373 U.S. 221, 83 S.Ct. 1139, 1963 U.S. Lexis 2492 (Supreme Court of the United States)
Your initial post must be in your own words, be a minimum of 350 words in length, and be supported with a reference.
Unions and Collective Bargaining
The economic effects on the union are evaluated to equalize competitiveness by the use of equitable wages to enhance the working conditions of an organization (Addison, Portugal, and Vilares, 2015). Unions change the rule of legislative restriction of employees to protect workers’ rights while workers decline about rolling back bargaining rights. Collective bargaining is an organized practice that involves employees negotiating contracts with their employer or manager to solve disputes and issues related to payments, safety policies and solves other workplace issues. The paper discusses union members of Erie Resistor Company and collective bargaining.
Employees neglect and violation of the national labor relations board leads to penalties where according to section 8 workers are restricted from controlling the union (Guivarch, and Hallegatte, 2012). The Erie resistor company conduct is an illegal practice for holding a super-seniority award regardless of the union members agreement to the additional benefits of going on with the company’s activities during the strike. Super seniority is a way of discrimination which is against employees’ rights of replacement according to Mackay. The national labor relations board is adamant by being strict to employees especially in cases of super seniority where legality and illegality of the super seniority are determined by the motives of the employees.
According to the caseworkers, business is at stake id inducement are required to attract replacement as well as if the workers are encouraged by the need to secure and continue with work (Addison, Portugal, and Vilares, 2015). The super seniority policy is discriminatory but the main motive was to discourage strike and union membership of which the practice brought about unavoidable results which granted preference those never joined the union’s strike.
Allowing the workers to use super seniority to reward non-strikers and as a weapon against striking employees is against Mackay. Based on the economic conditions of the company, the employer had no right to hire replacements to protect the business because employees had the right to strike. The act goes beyond securing replacements against.
References
Addison, J. T., Portugal, P., & Vilares, H. (2015). Unions and collective bargaining in the wake of the great recession.
Guivarch, C., & Hallegatte, S. (2012). 2C or Not 2C? SSRN Electronic Journal. doi: 10.2139/ssrn.1988201
