Labor-Management Disputes

 

Peaceful Methods of Solving:

 

1. Collective Bargaining

     representatives of both sides meet,

     negotiate and complete a contract

 

2. Mediation

     a non-involved third party (who is

     approved by both sides) creates an

     agreement by getting both sides to make

     concessions

 

3. Arbitration

     employer and union agree on a neutral

     third party to hear both sides and to

     hand down an “award” or decision

 

     both sides agree in advance to accept the

     judgment

 

4. Fact finding

     the President may appoint a fact-finding

     board (in cases that affect national

     welfare) to hear the dispute and hand

     down recommendations

 

     the decision is NOT binding but is usually

     followed anyway

 

Cost of Labor-Management Disputes:

 

Owners lose production, profits and gain bad publicity

 

Workers lose wages and unemployment

 

Consumers experience a shortage of goods or services

 

Government loses tax revenues and goods that might be essential

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weapons of Labor Unions:

    

Strikes: employees refuse to work until the

     employer yields to union demands

 

Strike Fund: fund that sustains union

     members and pays for union activities

     during a strike

 

Picketing: Parading outside the striking

     business to gain public support and to

     stop strikebreakers (scabs) from taking

     their jobs

 

Boycott: Workers request consumers NOT to

     buy the strike bound company’s products

 

Publicity: mass demonstrations, mass media

     to gain public support

 

 

 

 

 

 

Weapons of Employers:

    

Strikebreakers: to fill the jobs of strikers, the

     boss hires scabs

 

Financial Resources: many corporations

     have enough financial resources to last

     through strikes

 

Lockout: the employer locks workers out of

     their jobs until the union accepts his or her

     demands

 

Injunction: court order (requested by the

     employer or the government) forbidding

     striking, boycotting, or picketing on the

     grounds that these unfairly hurt the

     employer or is may damage the national

     welfare

 

 

Publicity: the employer presents his case to the public through the mass media