Chapter 12: Dealing with Employees and Labor-Management Issues

Flashcards covering labor-management relations, union history, key legislation, negotiation tactics, and contemporary workplace issues based on Chapter 12 notes.

Labor

A collective term for nonmanagement workers who are interested in fair management, human dignity, and a reasonable share of the wealth their work generates.

Union

An employee organization whose main goal is representing its members in employee–management negotiations over job-related issues.

Craft union

An organization of skilled specialists in a particular craft or trade, typically local or regional, and originally used to achieve short-range goals.

Knights of Labor

The first national labor union, formed in $1869$ by Smith Stephens, which offered membership to all private working people and promoted social causes.

American Federation of Labor (AFL)

An organization of craft unions founded in $1886$ by Samuel Gompers that championed fundamental labor issues and originally limited membership to skilled workers.

Industrial unions

Unions consisting of unskilled and semiskilled workers in mass-production industries such as automobile manufacturing and mining.

Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO)

A union organization of unskilled workers that broke away from the AFL in $1935$ and rejoined it in $1955$.

Norris-LaGuardia Act

Legislation passed in $1932$ that paved the way for union growth and prohibited the use of yellow-dog contracts.

Yellow-dog contract

A type of contract that required employees to agree as a condition of employment not to join a union; prohibited by the Norris-LaGuardia Act.

National Labor Relations Act (Wagner Act)

A $1935$ law that provided labor unions with legal justification to pursue collective bargaining and obligated employers to bargain in good faith.

Collective bargaining

The process whereby union and management representatives form a labor-management agreement, or contract, for workers.

National Labor Relations Board (NLRB)

An administrative agency consisting of $5$ members appointed by the president to oversee labor-management relations and investigate unfair labor practices.

Certification

The formal process whereby a union is recognized by the NLRB as the bargaining agent for a group of employees.

Decertification

The process by which workers can take away a union’s right to represent them.

Negotiated labor-management agreement

Also known as a labor contract, this agreement sets the tone and clarifies the terms under which management and labor agree to function over a period of time.

Union security clause

A provision in a labor agreement stipulating that employees who benefit from a union must either officially join or at least pay dues to the union.

Closed shop agreement

A clause specifying that workers had to be members of a union before being hired; it was outlawed by the Taft-Hartley Act in $1947$.

Right to work laws

Legislation that gives workers the right, under an open shop, to join or not join a union if it is present.

Grievance

A charge by employees that management is not abiding by or fulfilling the terms of the negotiated labor-management agreement.

Shop stewards

Union officials who work permanently in an organization and represent employee interests on a daily basis.

Bargaining zone

The range of options between the initial and final offer that each party will consider before negotiations dissolve or reach an impasse.

Mediation

The use of a third party who encourages both sides in a dispute to continue negotiating and makes non-binding suggestions for resolution.

Arbitration

An agreement to bring in an impartial third party to render a binding decision in a labor dispute.

Strike

A tactic where workers collectively refuse to go to work in order to attract public attention to a labor dispute and pressure management.

Sickouts (blue flu)

An action where a group of public sector workers, who may be prohibited from striking, arrange to be absent from work claiming illness.

Cooling off period

A period of up to $80$ days, requested by the U.S. president under the Taft-Hartley Act, in which workers in critical industries return to work while negotiations continue.

Primary boycott

When a union encourages its members and the general public not to buy the products of a firm involved in a labor dispute.

Secondary boycott

An attempt by labor to convince others to stop doing business with a firm that is the subject of a primary boycott; prohibited by the Taft-Hartley Act.

Lockout

An attempt by management to put pressure on union workers by temporarily closing the business.

Injunction

A court order directing someone to do or refrain from doing something, such as ordering striking workers back to work.

Strikebreakers (scabs)

Workers hired by management to do the jobs of striking employees until a labor dispute is resolved.

Sozialpartnerschaft (social partnerships)

A European system where workers have a say in company management and are entitled to seats on the board of directors.

Codetermination

A policy that calls for cooperation between management and workers in decision making.

Equal Pay Act of 1963

A law requiring companies to give equal pay to all genders who do the same job.

Pay equity

The concept that people in jobs requiring similar levels of education, training, or skills should receive equal pay.

Comparable worth

A concept suggesting that different jobs (e.g., hairstylist vs. plumber) of equal value to the organization based on skill and education should receive the same pay.

Sexual harassment

Unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual nature that creates a hostile work environment.

Quid pro quo sexual harassment

A situation where an employee's submission to or rejection of sexual conduct is used as the basis for employment decisions. Example: "Go out with me or you’re fired."

Hostile work environment sexual harassment

Conduct that unreasonably interferes with a worker’s performance or creates an intimidating or offensive work environment.

Bullying (at work)

Repeated, health-harming mistreatment consisting of threatening, humiliating, or intimidating conduct, or work interference that prevents work from getting done.