Presence and Growth of Unions

---

Unions formed in the early nineteenth century did well during prosperous times, but were abandoned when hard times arrived. With the growth of membership in the 1930s, this pattern began to change. During the Great Depression, mass production industries felt a growth in permanent trade union membership, as did the traditional craft unions. This trend continued until the end of World War II when union growth began to slow down.

Private sector union membership has fallen rather dramatically, from 39 % of all workers in 1958 to less than 9% more recently and said to be the lowest percentage since 1901 (Mondy & Noe, 2005). It is suggested that any growth in union membership will be unlikely in the manufacturing environment but rather in the service arena (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

However, in the public sector, union membership has increased. Denholm tells us that 37.5% of all public employees belong to unions (Denholm, 2002). And this includes those in various employee association which have in effect become unions. In fact, the National Education Association now has 2.7 million members and is the largest public sector union in the United States (National Education Associations, 2006). The American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees now has approximately 1.3 million members including the public service and health fields (AFSCME, 2007).

So what about the International Association of Firefighters? According to materials on their website, the IAFF represents some 270,000 professional firefighters and emergency medical personnel throughout the United States and Canada (IAFF, n.d.).

Union Certification and Decertification Processes

So how does a union come into existence? We have already discussed some of the reasons why people join unions --- or form a union. How are they formed?

First of all, in order to become a union with collective bargaining rights, the "union" must become certified. The first formal step is to determine if in fact the employees are interested in becoming a union. This is accomplished through the distribution and signing of "authorization cards." By signing an authorization card the employee indicates his or her interest in being represented by a union.

The next step is petitioning for an election. Once the authorization cards are signed, a petition for an election is sent to the appropriate regional NLRB office, which subsequently conducts an investigation. The investigation addresses such things as whether or not there is enough interest, whether or not representation exists, and if the proposed group includes appropriate employees, whether or not the representative named in the petition is qualified, and whether there is anything already in existence which would preclude the election (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

Assuming the office finds an election appropriate, the election is normally held within 10 days and is monitored by NLRB representatives who ensure only eligibles actually vote and count the actual votes.

Assuming a positive outcome, the NLRB then issues a certificate, giving the local union recognition as the collective bargaining unit for the employees in that unit.

During the election campaign it is usual for both labor and management to "campaign" for their respective sides. If there exists any reason to believe that management interfered with the employees' freedom of choice, the election results will be declared invalid (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

While we are not going to cite all of the various things management may not do, keep in mind, in representing management it is critical the spokesperson(s) be honest and up front and refrain from doing anything that can be construed as intimidation or retribution nor on the other hand, bribery.

It was not until the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act that a mechanism for decertification became available. The NLRB rules spell out the conditions for filing a decertification petition. At least 30% of the bargaining unit membership must request an election to decertify the union. The request for decertification must be made within 30 to 60 days prior to the expiration of the existing contract. If all of the conditions are met, the NLRB will schedule a decertification election.

Management must be just as careful during the decertification election campaign but there are pro-active steps that management may take that are unlikely to result in an unfair labor charge. Some examples of the things management can do include explaining to members individually and/or collectively the benefits of being union free and providing legal assistance to members preparing for decertification (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

As with the certification election, for the decertification election, NLRB representatives will monitor the voting and count the votes. If a simple majority of votes cast are against the union, the union per se will dissolve and employees are free from the union.

Labor / Management Relationships

So, once a bargaining unit is formed and certified, what types of relationships characterize labor-management relations?

While they may vary on certain issues and may change over time, etc., generally speaking labor and management relate to one another in one or a combination of ways; according to Sloane and Whitney. The different types of relations range from conflict (in which labor and management continuously challenge the other) to collusion (in which labor and management actually cooperate to the extent that the legitimate interests of employees, the community, and other stake holders are adversely compromised) (cited in Mondy & Noe, 2005).

Other relationships include the following:

• Armed truce. While overt and unnecessary conflict is avoided to the extent possible, there exists a lack of trust on both sides.

• Power bargaining: Both labor and management try to gain advantage over the other (and take advantage of each other).

• Accommodation: A relationship in which both sides tolerate one another and in an effort to avoid overt conflict, adopt somewhat of a que sera sera approach.

• Cooperation:Both sides accept one another and both work together collaboratively to address labor issues.

As one would expect, relationships vary and change over time and circumstances. National or local issues may influence these relationships. External and internal factors can come into play. Certainly the local economy can influence attitudes. Even personalities can impact relationships.

While collaboration in reality is the most productive -- and honest and ethical -- and facilitates healthy working relationships between union and management and has actually enjoyed some success given economic realities, there is some speculation today that employers are not willing to accept unions and are in fact stepping up anti-union activities (Bernstein, 1999).

Unfortunately this can lead to more adversarial relationships than have been experienced before.

References

American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, AFL–CIO. (2007). About AFSCME. http://www.afscme.org/members/aboutindex.cfm

Bernstein, A. "All's Not Fair in Labor Wars " In Business Week. July 19, 1999.

Denholm, D. " Does Unionism Mean Higher Earnings or Higher Taxes?" Government Union Review. 20 (2002).

IAFF. (n.d.). Democracy in Action. http://www.iaff.org/index.asp

Mondy, W. & Noe, R. Human Resource Management. 9th Edition. Upper Saddle River: Pearson, 2005. (Mondy & Noe, 2005).

National Education Associations. (2006). About.http://www.nea.org/aboutnea.html.

Sloane, A. & Witney, F. Labor Relations. 4th Edition. Englewood Cliffs: Prentice Hall, 1981. p 28-35. as cited in Mondy and Noe.

---