PROFILE: "Getting to Know DON FEHR, Executive Director of the MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL PLAYERS ASSOCIATION". Fehr has been at the forefront of baseball’s highs and lows over the past 15 years.

1. EMPLOYEE-MANAGEMENT ISSUES.
1. The relationship of employees and their managers has always been affected by certain issues
1. The text discusses several of the key employee-management issues: unions, ESOPs, comparable worth, executive pay, and other issues affecting employee-management relations.
2. These issues must be worked out through open discussion, goodwill, and compromise.
2. The discussion of employee-management relations begins with a discussion of unions.
1. UNIONS are employee organizations that have the main goal of representing members in employee-management bargaining over job-related issues.
2. Historically, employees turned to unions to gain specific rights and benefits.
3. However, in the 1990s, unions failed to regain their previous power.
2. LABOR UNIONS FROM DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVES.

Trace the history of organized labor in the United States and discuss the major legislation affecting labor unions.

1. One’s opinion concerning the needs for unions usually depends upon which side of the management fence one is on.
2. The one thing about unions that most people do agree on is the reason unions were started in the first place.
1. The INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION moved workers out of the field and into the factories.
2. Workers were at the mercy of management.
3. UNIONS IMPROVED JOB CONDITIONS and won better wages and job security.
4. Workers learned that strength through unity (unions) could lead to improved job conditions, better wages, and job security.
5. But some argue that organized labor has became a large industrial entity in itself.
3. THE EARLY HISTORY OF ORGANIZED LABOR. CONCEPT CHECK
1. As early as 1792, the CORDWAINERS (shoemakers) met to discuss labor issues in Philadelphia.
1. The cordwainers were a CRAFT UNION, that is, an organization of SKILLED WORKERS in a specific trade.
2. Usually a craft union met to deal with a SPECIFIC PROBLEM AND THEN DISBANDED.
2. The Industrial Revolution changed the economic structure of the U.S.
1. As the Industrial Revolution intensified, the PROBLEMS WERE NO LONGER SHORT-TERM.
2. There was a need for a organization that would attack long-term problems such as child labor and subsistence wages.
3. The first national labor organization was THE KNIGHTS OF LABOR formed by URIAH SMITH STEPHENS in 1869.
1. It included employers as well as workers, and promoted social, labor, and economic causes.
2. The Knights of Labor were short-lived.
4. THE AMERICAN FEDERATION OF LABOR (AFL) was formed in 1886 under the leadership of SAMUEL GOMPERS.
1. The AFL was an organization of craft unions that championed fundamental labor issues.
2. An unauthorized committee in the AFL began to organize workers in INDUSTRIAL UNIONS, that is, organizations of UNSKILLED WORKERS.
5. When the AFL rejected these unions, JOHN LEWIS, president of the UNITED MINE WORKERS UNION, formed a new, rival organization.
1. THE CONGRESS OF INDUSTRIAL ORGANIZATIONS (CIO) soon rivaled the AFL in membership.
2. The AFL and CIO volleyed for leadership of the labor movement until THE TWO ORGANIZATIONS MERGED in 1955 under the leadership of GEORGE MEANY.
3. The AFL-CIO now have 68 labor unions including the Teamsters.
3. LABOR LEGISLATION AND COLLECTIVE BARGAINING.

Outline the objectives of labor unions.

1. The growth and influence of organized labor in the U.S. has depended on two major factors: the law and public opinion.
2. The NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT (WAGNER ACT) gave employees the right to form or join unions.
1. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING is the process whereby union representatives sit down with management and work out a mutually agreed-upon contract for the workers.
2. The Warner Act also established the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), to oversee labor-management relations.
3. CERTIFICATION is the process of a union’s becoming recognized by the NLRB as the bargaining agent for a group of employees.
4. DECERTIFICATION is the process which takes away this union’s right. CONCEPT CHECK
5. The Wagner Act provided clear procedures for both.
3. OBJECTIVES OF ORGANIZED LABOR.
1. Union objectives change according to the needs of the workers.
1. In the 1970s the primary objective of labor unions was additional pay and benefits.
2. Throughout the 1980s, objectives shifted to job security and union recognition.
3. The 1990s also focused on job security, complicated by the issue of global competition.
2. The NEGOTIATED LABOR-MANAGEMENT AGREEMENT sets the tone and clarifies the terms and conditions under which management and labor agree to function over a specific period of time.
3. COMMON TYPES OF LABOR-MANAGEMENT AGREEMENTS:
1. UNION SECURITY CLAUSES stipulate that employees who reap benefits from a union must either join or pay union dues.
2. A CLOSED-SHOP AGREEMENT specified that workers had to be members of a union before being hired for a job. CONCEPT CHECK
3. Under the UNION SHOP AGREEMENT, workers do not have to be members of a union to be hired, but must agree to join.
4. Under the AGENCY SHOP AGREEMENT, employers may hire nonunion workers who are not required to joint the union, but must pay a union fee.
4. Twenty-one states have passed RIGHT-TO-WORK LAWS which give workers the right to have the option to join a union, if one exists, or to not join.
5. Labor unions play a key workplace role in countries other than the U.S. as well.
4. RESOLVING LABOR-MANAGEMENT DISAGREEMENTS.
1. Labor and management do not always agree concerning the interpretation of the labor-management agreement.
2. If such a disagreement cannot be resolved, a grievance may be filed.
3. A GRIEVANCE is a charge by employees that management is not abiding by the terms of the negotiated labor agreement.
4. STEWARDS (union officials who represent employee interests on a daily basis) negotiate the majority of these grievances.
5. MEDIATION AND ARBITRATION.
1. The BARGAINING ZONE is the range of options between the initial and final offers that each party will consider.
2. If negotiations don’t result in an alternative within this bargaining zone, mediation may be necessary.
3. MEDIATION is the use of a third party, called a MEDIATOR, to encourage both sides to continue negotiating.
4. The mediator makes SUGGESTIONS, not decisions, for settling the dispute. CONCEPT CHECK
5. ARBITRATION is the agreement to bring in an impartial third party to render a BINDING DECISION.
4. TACTICS USED IN LABOR-MANAGEMENT CONFLICTS
1. Both sides may use specific tactics if labor and management reach an impasse in collective bargaining.
2. UNION TACTICS.
1. The strike has historically been the most potent tactic unions use to achieve their objectives.
1. A STRIKE means that workers refuse to go to work.
2. Strikers may also picket, or walk around outside the firm carrying signs and talking with the public about the issues.
3. The public often realizes how important a worker is when he or she goes on strike.
4. Often police, teachers, or others engage in SICKOUTS or the BLUE FLU when union members don’t strike but refuse to come to work due to illness.
5. Employees of the federal government can organize unions but are denied the right to strike.
6. Under the provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act, the President can ask for a cooling-off period to prevent a strike in a critical industry.
7. During a COOLING-OFF PERIOD, workers return to their jobs while the union and management continue negotiations.
2. Very few labor disputes lead to a strike, but it still remains a powerful weapon.
3. PRIMARY AND SECONDARY BOYCOTTS.
1. A PRIMARY BOYCOTT is when organized labor encourages its membership not to buy the product(s) of a firm involved in a labor dispute. CONCEPT CHECK
2. A SECONDARY BOYCOTT is an attempt by labor to convince others to stop doing business with a firm that is the target of the primary boycott.
3. Labor unions can legally authorize primary boycotts, but the Taft-Hartley Act prohibits the use of secondary boycotts.
3. MANAGEMENT TACTICS.
1. YELLOW-DOG CONTRACTS (outlawed by the Norris-LaGuardia Act) required employees to agree as a condition of employment not to join a union.
2. LOCKOUTS (rarely used today) put pressure on unions by temporarily closing the business and denying employment to the workers.
3. Management most often uses injunctions and strikebreakers.
4. An INJUNCTION is a court order directing someone to do something or refrain from doing something.
5. The USE OF STRIKEBREAKERS, workers who are hired to do the jobs of striking employees, has been a source of hostility in labor relations.
4. THE FUTURE OF LABOR-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS.
1. Several new labor-management issues have emerged.
2. Many unions have even granted concessions or GIVEBACKS, where members give back previous gains, to management.
3. The UNIONS’ SHARE OF NONFARM WORKERS HAS DECLINED from its peak in 1945 (35.5% to 13.9% today.)
4. In order for U.S. firms to remain competitive with foreign firms, unions are likely to assume a role in maintaining competitiveness.
5. In exchange for cooperating with management, unions may receive improved job security, profit sharing, or higher wages.
5. CONTROVERSIAL EMPLOYEE-MANAGEMENT ISSUES.

Explain some of the controversial employee-management issues such as executive compensation, comparable worth, child-care and elder care, AIDS testing, drug testing, and violence in the workplace, and employee stock ownership plans (ESOPs).

1. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION.
1. Throughout the 1990s government, boards of directors, and stockholders have argued that executive compensation is getting out of line.
2. In the past, executive compensation was determined by the FIRM’S PROFITABILITY or INCREASE IN STOCK PRICE.
1. Today, many executives receive STOCK OPTIONS, the ability to buy the company stock at a set price at a later date.
2. The assumption is that the CEO will raise the price of the firm’s stock, but often executive pay continues to soar, even when the company does poorly.
3. Peter Drucker has suggested that CEOs should not earn much more than 20 times as much as the company’s lowest-paid employee.
1. Some companies followed his advice, but many have not.
2. Today the average chief executive makes 475 times the pay of a typical American factory worker.
4. The imbalance between starting pay and top pay is less for European and Japanese executives.
5. The issue of fair compensation for executives is an interesting topic for class debate.
2. COMPARABLE WORTH CONCEPT CHECK
1. Women make up a larger percentage of the workforce—up from 15% in 1890 to 50% in 2000.
2. COMPARABLE WORTH is the concept that people in jobs that require similar levels of education, training, or skills should receive equal pay.
1. Keep in mind that this is a different concept than EQUAL PAY FOR EQUAL WORK which means that equal wages should be paid to men and women who do the same job.
2. The issue of comparable worth centers on comparing the value of jobs.
3. Women earn approximately 75% of what men earn.
1. One reason for the disparity is that many women try to work as well as care for their families and so fall off the career track.
2. Other women opt for more flexible jobs that pay less.
3. One of the main arguments is that women make less because the labor market is not perfectly competitive and some degree of gender bias still exists.
4. The idea of PAY EQUITY is to correct past discrimination by raising the pay in so-called women’s jobs.
5. It is difficult to determine whether comparable worth creates greater equality or simply chaos.
3. SEXUAL HARASSMENT.
1. SEXUAL HARASSMENT refers to unwelcome sexual advances, requests for sexual favors, and other conduct of a sexual nature (verbal or physical).
2. Both men and women are covered under the Civil Rights Act of 1991 that today governs sexual harassment.
3. SEXUAL HARASSMENT becomes ILLEGAL when:
1. An employee’s submission to such conduct is made either explicitly or implicitly a term or CONDITION OF EMPLOYMENT.
2. An employee’s submission to or rejection of such conduct is used as the BASIS FOR EMPLOYMENT DECISIONS AFFECTING THE WORKER’S STATUS.
3. The conduct UNREASONABLY INTERFERES with a worker’s job performance or CREATES AN INTIMIDATING, HOSTILE, OR OFFENSIVE WORKING ENVIRONMENT.
4. Recent cases have introduced the concept of a HOSTILE WORKPLACE, which is any workplace where behavior occurs that would offend a reasonable person.
5. In 1996 the U.S. Supreme Court broadened the scope of what can be considered a hostile work environment.
6. Managers and workers are now much more sensitive to comments and behavior of a sexual nature.
7. One of the major problems is that workers and managers often know a policy concerning sexual harassment exists, but they have no idea what it says.
4. CHILD CARE.
1. Child-care is an increasingly important issue.
2. Federal child care assistance has risen significantly since the passage of the Welfare Reform Act of 1996.
3. The need for child care is obvious.
1. A sizable percentage of the over 50 million working women are likely to become pregnant during their working years.
2. So who is going to provide child care? Who will pay for it?
4. Many companies are now providing child care for their employees.
5. Working parents have made it clear that safe, affordable child-care is an issue on which they will not compromise.
5. ELDER CARE.
1. By 2005, 40% of U.S. workers WILL BE AGED 40 TO 54.
1. These workers will not be concerned with child care.
2. Instead, they will be faced with the responsibility, of CARING FOR OLDER PARENTS AND OTHER RELATIVES.
2. Over the next five years 18% of the U.S. workforce will be involved in caring for an aging relative.
3. Some firms are already offing elder care programs.
4. Some predict that this will have a greater impact on the workplace than child care.
5. Elder care givers cost employers billions in lost output and replacement costs.
6. Elder care providers are generally older and more experienced employees who are often more critical to the company than the younger workers effected by child-care problems.
6. AIDS TESTING, DRUG TESTING, AND VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE.
1. AIDS.
1. AIDS is a leading cause of death for Americans between the ages of 25 and 44.
2. Clear-cut policies are needed to confront this critical issue.
3. MANDATORY TESTING FOR THE AIDS ANTIBODY is one of the more controversial employee-management issues.
4. Preemployment medical testing CANNOT BE USED TO INTENTIONALLY SCREEN OUT POTENTIAL EMPLOYEES.
1. If used at all they must be given to EVERYONE.
2. Many firms have gone beyond pre-employment testing and suggested that ALL employees should be tested.
5. Many firms have suggested that all existing employees should be tested for the HIV antibody.
2. DRUG TESTING.
1. Some companies feel that alcohol and drug abuse is an even more serious workplace issue.
2. Individuals who use drugs are three and a half times more likely to be involved in workplace accidents.
3. Over 70% of major companies now test workers and job applicants for substance abuse.
3. VIOLENCE IN THE WORKPLACE.
1. Employers are also struggling with a growing trend of violence in the workplace.
2. Many executives don’t take workplace violence seriously and believe it is primarily media hype.
3. Other organizations recognize the threat and hire managers with strong interpersonal skills to deal with growing employee violence.
7. EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLANS (ESOPS).
1. EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLANs are plans which allow employees to buy part or total ownership of the company in which they work.
1. Louis O. Kelso started the idea for ESOPS about 50 years ago when he helped the employees of a newspaper buy their companies.
2. Since then, the idea of employees taking over ownership of their companies has gained much favor.
3. ESOPs have had mixed results.
4. There are about 11,500 businesses with ESOPs. CONCEPT CHECK
2. BENEFITS OF ESOPS.
1. Giving employees a share in the profits of the firm motivates them to enhance their involvement in the firm and increases morale.
2. Productivity also seems to rise.
3. PROBLEMS WITH EMPLOYEE STOCK OWNERSHIP PLANS (ESOPS).
1. ESOPs can be used to refinance a company with workers’ money without giving them more participation or job security.
2. In about 85% of the companies with ESOPs, employees do not have voting rights.
1. The goals of ESOPs are good, but the implementation of such programs is often less than satisfactory.
2. Companies with HEALTHY EMPLOYEE-MANAGEMENT RELATIONS have a better chance to compete.
3. Managers must constantly be aware of emerging issues that affect employee-management relations.