Human Resources Assignment
As mentioned in the week’s announcement, Employee Relations and Labor Relations are two sides of the same coin. Both involve how employees are treated by a company. Employee Relations is the term used in non-union workplaces (aka union avoidance) and Labor Relations is the term for HR interactions with employees in unionized workplaces.
Unionized companies usually hire HR professionals with law degrees. This makes sense since day-to-day operation and employee treatment is dictated by a legal contract (Collective Bargaining Agreement – CBA). In this module, we take a quick look at the history of unions and the pros/cons. The next piece is particularly important in actual HR practice .Understanding the Unfair Labor Practices and the types of bargaining. ULPs arguably matter more to non-union workplaces than ones that are already unionized because ULPs revolve around the initial organizing process. All management need to be aware of these points, though.
The written assignment is a case study of an incident within a union environment. You will have the opportunity to put yourself in an HR manager’s shoes and apply the week’s concepts to the scenario.
Unions
History of Unions in America
It is important to understand how work has changed over the years and what prompted people to ban together to form unions. Read the following article for context on the topic.
The Rise and Fall of labor Unions in the U.S.
Pros/Cons of unions
The controversy continues on whether unions are still needed in America. Review the following
articles about some of the pros and cons of having unions and use this information in the discussion this week.
What Have Unions Done for Us
What Unions do: How Labor Unions Affect Jobs and the Economy
Unions Affect on Wages & Firm Performance
What are Unfair Labor Practices?
As unions became more common, a set of rules were established as part of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). The following information from the Legal Institute of Cornell University explains what are known as Unfair Labor Practices (ULPs). Consider how these rules play out in the workplace as you respond to discussion questions this week.
Bargaining
In unionized environments, every component of the employer-employee relationship is included in a binding contract. These contracts are negotiated using different techniques to agree on terms. Review the differences between different types of collective bargaining, including interest-based. Use this along with additional research and personal experience to help formulate responses to questions in this week’s discussion.
Types of Collective Bargaining
Can We Bargain—Amicably? A Primer on Interest-Based Bargaining
Family-friendly workplaces
Organizations typically try to avoid unionization and improve employee engagement by creating a pleasant work environment. The buzz phrase for this is ‘family-friendly workplace’. Read the following article, paying particular to the variety of policies businesses can adopt and how they may help companies succeed.
Promoting Family Friendly Policies (Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License