Title: Management as an Actor in Industrial Relations
1Management as an Actor in Industrial Relations
- Nonunion or Union
- Nonunion
- Direct Effects
- Lowers profitability
- Indirect Effects
- Productivity
- Wage Distribution
- Internal Labor Markets
2BUSINESS STRATEGY AND MODERN (UNIONIZED) PRIVATE
SECTOR INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS
- TWO DISTINCT PERIODS
- 1930s - 1970s
- Since 1970s
3Unionized Labor Relations Models 1935 Through
1970s
- Institutionalized Adversarialism (New Deal Model)
- mutual recognition of institutional legitimacy of
other party - sharply defined roles
- Management manages the organization
- Union protects and represents the workers
- Long-term contracts
- Rights of each party
- Workplace laws
- structured communication - negotiations and
grievance procedure
4Nonunion Models Developing in 1960s
- Emulate Union Models in some ways
- Written Policies
- Corporate or Division Wide
- Removed discretion of first-line supervisors
- With flexibility because policies can be changed
or interpreted to fit changing environment
5Bifurcated Private Sector ER System
- By late 1970s
- Unionized (partially) sector
- Older Manufacturing Companies
- Construction
- Utilities
- Transportation
- Old Telecommunication
- Nonunion sector
- Newer Manufacturing Companies
- Retail
- Business Services
- Emerging Unionized Sector
- Health Care
6THREE POST-1970S EMPLOYER CB STRATEGIES
- DEUNIONIZATION
- CONFLICT
- INVESTMENT
- TRADITIONAL ADVERSARIALISM
- COOPERATION
- MANAGEMENT NO LONGER NECESSARILY WILLING TO
ACCEPT NEW DEAL SYSTEM AS THE MODEL OF
BARGAINING
7DEUNIONIZATION - Conflict
- Use of legal right to bargain without concessions
- Union Options
- accept an unacceptable contract
- strike and risk replacement
- Er may permanently replace strikers
- Claim good faith doubt about unions majority
status - Pyramiding of legal rights by employer
8Deunionization/ConflictExamples
- Detroit Newspapers
- International Paper
- Greyhound
- Continental Airlines (mid 80s)
9DEUNIONIZATION -Investment
- Company invests in nonunion facilities
- greenfield
- older nonunion facilities
- Examples
- rubber tire industry
- some paper processing firms
- auto industry (Mexico)
10TRADITIONAL ADVERSARIALISM
- Examples
- Trucking Industry
- Aerospace
- Airlines
11COOPERATION
- Creation of non-adversarial structures for
communication - Reduce labor costs by reducing the costs of
adversarialism - Permits firm to better exploit knowledge of
workers - Focus on common, rather than conflicting,
interests
12MANAGEMENT COLLECTIVE BARGAINING STRATEGIES
Institutionalized Adversarialism (Traditional)
Conflict/ Deunionization
Cooperation
13Different Bargaining and Contract Administration
Models
- Bargaining
- Adversarial Positional Bargaining
- Each side provides position to other party
- Listens
- Modifies position
- rationale
- bargaining power
14CooperativeInterest-Based Bargaining Processes
- Example Mutual Gains Bargaining
- Define problems and interests - separate
- Discussion of problems and interests - joint
- Brain-storming of solutions - joint
- Recommendations of possible solutions -
separate - Presentation of recommendations and selection
of solutions - joint
15Administration Process
- Longer-Term Agreements
- Problem-Solving Teams
- Team-Based Production
- Joint Committees
16Examples of Cooperative Relationships
- National Steel and United Steelworkers of America
- Ford and UAW
- GM and UAW
- Philip Morris (Trenton, Ohio) and UAW
17Fundamental Question
- Does Management challenge the institutional
legitimacy/status of the union? - No
- Cooperation
- Institutionalized Adversarialism
- Yes
- Deunionization