Hrm 324 - Solving Union Issues

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Alternative Dispute Resolutions and Union Membership Reductions

Alternative dispute resolutions, such as an open door policy with management, peer groups, or mediation have given employees opportunities to work out issues when they are not treated fairly or being mistreated. These types of resolution options are not available in a union; therefore, many employees and companies are choosing not to depend on unions and membership is lowering. Union membership fell nearly 50 percent for wage and salary workers from 1983 to 2011 and organizations electing union certification fell 85 percent from 1973 to 2009 (Milkovich, et.al., 2014). The drop in membership may exist because of the changing times, which could mean workers do not feel the need to use unions to solve their problems and organize their efforts; as well, “management is taking an increasingly hard stance against unions in general and union demands in particular” (Milkovich, et.al., 2014, p.517).

Union-Management Relations and Hypothetical Scenario

Facing management and union dilemmas in an organization that is union certified may produce challenges. A scenario is presented to an HR director where the company has accepted a bargaining agreement with the union, but then employees ask to be rid of the union only after six months. A few challenges will have to be faced if employees want to discontinue an established union representation.

According to Workplace Fairness (2016), the NLRA offers a few options to rescind election with a union. One way is petitioning the NLRB, with more than 30 percent approval of the bargaining unit, to hold a decertification election. If the petition is successful, the employees are no longer be represented by the union (p.11). Another option is to write the union requesting to withdraw membership. According to the National Labor Relations Board (2016), an election to rescind an agreement with the union will not be allowed until one year after the union agreement (p.11). The HR director should be fully aware of their position in the union agreement and not offer any assistance or advice on organizing employees to discontinue the union agreement.

Conclusion

Union management relationships have several positive and negative aspects. Questions posed in the UPS video were answered and covered several areas on unions and the effects on growth, creativity, and compensation. Other questions that were answered include alternative dispute resolutions and how many workers are considering these options over the need for unions, which is reducing union memberships. Finally, a scenario regarding bargaining and employees requesting withdrawal of union membership was discussed.

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References

Milkovich, G., Newman, J., Gerhart, B. (2014). Compensation (11th ed.). New York, NY: McGraw-Hill.

National Labor Relations Board. (2016). National Labor Relations Act. Retrieved from https://www.nlrb.gov/resources/national-labor-relations-act

Wheeler, G. (Speaker). (2013). UPS: Union management [Video podcast]. Retrieved from http://mediaconsole.pearsoncmg.com/pls/us/phoenix/1323228152/hrm_0802_512.html