Collective Bargaining

Answer 1

The labor law encourages trade unions. The law encouraging trade unions came into force in 1842, after there as overturning of the law discouraging trade unions in a case, Commonwealth of Massachusetts v. Hunt. Previously the law was against unionism, a Philadelphia court ruled out an attempt of Philadelphia shoemakers to form a union to protest against the employers wage cuts. There was postulation in the court ruling of 1842 that employees unions were not illegal gangs, online their actions could go illegal if their actions went against the provisions of the labor laws on employee rights. Since then, unionism has gained considerable ground in the United States. Sporadic labor unions sprout out, in the nineteenth and twentieth century outstanding employee unions came into the limelight, initially the American federation of and later the congress of industrial organization. The labor law did not resist the rise of the employee bodies.

The law supports the formation of employee unions for several reasons. The unions stand for employee rights and prevent employers from ill treating their employees. For example, in 1934, labor unions gave in to the passage of minimum wage rates for employees, the authorization for public employees’ unionization and social security for employees. The labor law realizes that without employee unions; there could be limited incentives from employees to foster the rights of their employees as witnessed in the Philadelphia shoe makers’ case. Without trade unions that support the rights of employees, there could be oppression at the work place and low motivation on the side of the employees. The low morale would result into low productivity of the human resources which would lead to poor economic growth. These are some of the reasons why the labor law promotes trade unions in the United States and also in the international front.

Answer 2

I think teaching assistants should have employee rights in the respective institution. This is because the institution place responsibilities on them over and above those of other students. They assist in jobs of the other employees of the institutions. The reason why the institutions bestow the duties on the assistants is because the institutions realize their ability to perform the responsibility. This means that if they perform the tasks as strong as any other employees in the institutions, they should essentially receive similar treatment as that the institutions’ employees. The law provides that responsibility should come with the necessary authority to the executors. Denying employee rights to the assistants would measure up to scrapping their authority in performance of their tasks, this may lead to ineffectiveness. It also may lead to law morale from the assistants due to the unequal treatment. This may lead to low performance in the tasks assigned to them and overall low productivity of labor. There would be no point whatsoever, therefore, in assigning employee duties to the teaching assistants.

The goal of an institution can not be achieved if there is no motivation to its labor force to perform their tasks, which will be the case if employee rights of the assistant teaching staff were scrapped. The assistants have duties similar to those of the other staff; they should be accorded employee rights, or else institutions should not appoint teaching assistants from the student’s body. The teaching assistants commit substantial effort to their assigned duties. These are additional duties to their status as students. They work more than the other students and; therefore, they should receive treatment as both students and employees in their respective institutions, by merely being a student does not mean that they can not have employee rights in their institutions.

Answer 3

Management’s reaction to employees’ interest in unionization changes considerably if the employer has a high union density in other employee groups. This may bring a stand off between the different trade unions. Each trade union will favor the interests of its members. There will be difficulties in the determination of the best way forward between the employer and the employees. The employees will turn to their unions to plead for intervention on their case, in turn; the employer will turn to the high density unions. This means that demands of the employees to the employer may not be fully met because the determination of the ruling will be from the negotiations among the various unions. There will be a union for the employees and unions for the employer. If the unions of the employer are more powerful than the employee union, this means that the employee rights could be overtaken by the high bargaining power of the employer’s unions. This is a strategy that employers can use to offset the efforts of their employee unions. The employer has a cushion from the unions for him against the employee interests. However, the labor law recognizes the possibility of this happening and it has put a maximum of the bargaining power of employers against their employees. This is because employers can effectively stand on such a ground, and suppress the interests of their employees.

Answer 4

Sound reasons abound to the Resident assistants’ concern for union representation. First of all the RAs responsibilities were over and above those of the other students. For example, they arrive to the institution three days before the semester starts. However, their treatment was as the other students who did not have the responsibilities. This was quite unfair for them; they also had to commit twenty hours per week towards the responsibilities; this means that they warranted a status higher than that of the other students; they deserved to be treated as employees as well as students. The institution also advocates for the bargaining power of its employees; the students’ employees are out in collective bargaining; this is an infringement to their rights because they perform duties similar to those of the other employees who have rights to collective bargaining. They had mandates of disciplining the residents. This authority equates them to the other employees, and they should have been accorded rights to collective bargaining. The turnover rate of the RAs was high, up to fifty five percent; this means that many of the Resident assistants were leaving the duty due to the unfair treatment accorded to them.

There were also questionable firings for the RAs; however, the assistants had no voice over the actions of the institution due to the ban on collective bargaining. The firings were unfair because residents who committed similar offences were given written warnings, as opposed to firing as was the case for the Resident assistants. They formed committees to spearhead their rights to the institution’s leadership, but this was to no avail, their concerns fell on deaf years, they were, therefore, left with no other choice. There were also problems with their compensation, which the institution was hesitant to address. With all these issues facing the RAs, I feel that they had the right to push for union representation. They had already done all that in their discretion to restore a sound relationship between them and the institutions, but all their efforts hit on a wall. Although the law does not require collective bargaining for people who offer services as students, they had nowhere else to turn because all their other efforts failed.

Answer 5

Resident assistants opposed to unionization had some legitimate concerns. The move to have union representation was somehow overactive from the students’ body. First of all, the federal law does not require union representation by those employees who offer their services as students. The RAs who opposed the interest had the foreshadowing that the attempts would fail, because such a move would negate the law. The move was also overactive from the perspective of the term of service for students. They would serve as RAs as long as they were students in the institution. Immediately they clear from the institution; their term of service would terminate. Their interest in the institution’s facilities was also low; this was because they were only students in the institution. They did not have the certification whatsoever that enabled them to be employees of the institution. Their mandate as students of the organization was to learn not to be employees.

It the certificates that they got from the institution that would legitimate them to become employees of the institution in the future, the responsibilities to the students was just a way of indicating to the students body that they were significant stakeholders in the students body. As such the institution reserved the right to take any actions concerning the RAs in respect to streamlining its level of administration with the skill, still the responsibilities scrapped would be assigned to fellow students, and hence their move was overactive. The right to collective bargaining would also affect the residents’ culture in the institution. There would be discrepancies in the students’ body. The right to collective bargaining would essentially mean that some of the students would receive employee treatment by the institution. This inequality could cause ramifications by students demanding equal treatment.

Answer 6

Public employees unions are under the umbrella of the National labor relations board while private sector employee unions are under the NRLA. The NRLB provides considerable rights to public employee unions in comparison the private sector. Public employees have the right to form a union at the work place. Private sector employees do not have this right. The unions for the private sector employees are existent, and employees can only enroll in them. The public sector employees can enroll in any union even if the employer does not recognize it. Private sector employees join unions which employers are aware of. Public sector employees have the right to assist unions in organizing their fellow employees. Private sector employees have no rights whatsoever to assist unions in organizing their fellow employees. This is a sole mandate of employers in the private sector. The rights of public employees in union representation were spearheaded by the AFL in 1934; this has seen many rights accorded to them to the present. The NRLA does not provide many rights to the private sector employees, because there are minimum disputes in the private sector employees in comparison with the public sector employees. However, many of the rights of unionism in the public sector are infiltrating into the private sector, and it is evident that the rights to unionism in both sectors will be one and the same thing in the near future.

Answer 7

The Labor relations commission statement that the RAs were employees were in recognition of the role the students played in the institution. The commission’s assent to the proposal of the students to engage in collective bargaining was motivated by the failing attempts that the RAs had made to no avail. The reason why the commission recognizes the students as employees is because they play roles similar to those played by the other employees of the organization. The actions of the institution to compensate the RAs poorly and also fire the students arbitral was an infringement to the rights of the student employees. Their grievances could only be attended if they had union representation. If the institution does not require the services the student employees, it could essentially employ personnel who were not students. This is the reason why the commission placed the RAs in the same status as the rest of the employees of the institution. This would accord the students the rights denied before. However, secret ballot would determine the best way forward for the Residential Assistants.

References

Carrell, M.R. & Heavrin, C. (2012). Labor relations and collective bargaining: Private and public sectors, 10^th Ed. USA: Prentice hall

Employee rights, NLRB, DOI: https://www.nlrb.gov/rights-we-protect/employee-rights. Retrieved on 17th October 2012

Sack, M. S. (2000). The employee rights handbook: The essential guide for people on the job.USA: Business plus

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