Chapter 12 – Dealing with Union and Employee–Management Issues
1. Throughout most of American history, the relationship between managers and employees
has been fairly smooth.
2. Historically, managers were less concerned about productivity and more concerned with
friendly relations with coworkers.
3. One of the things that labor is interested in is fair and competent management.
4. A union is an employee organization that has the main goal of representing its members in
employee-management negotiation concerning job-related issues.
5. Even in their infancy, the main goal of most labor unions was to provide members with
increased management power.
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6. Labor unions played a major role in establishing minimum wage laws, child-labor laws,
and improvements in job safety.
7. Today labor unions have seen a revitalization of support and union membership has
increased significantly.
8. Most historians view the increase in union membership in the United States as an
outgrowth of the transition from an industrial economy to a service economy during the
middle part of the 20th century.
9.
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The presence of formal labor organizations in the United States dates back to the late
1700s.
10. Some contend that the main reason membership in labor unions has declined in recent
years has been the passage of anti-labor legislation in the late 1980s that guaranteed all
employees of a firm the same wages and benefits whether they joined a union or not.
11. The Knights of Labor was the first truly national labor organization in the United States.
12. A craft union is an organization of skilled specialists in a particular craft or trade.
13.
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A union that consists of members who are all skilled specialists in a particular trade is
called an industrial guild.
14. The Knights of Labor, the first national labor organization, offered membership to all
working people, including employers.
15. The first national labor organization, the Knights of Labor sought to gain enough political
power to restructure the entire U.S. economy.
16. Samuel Gompers was the most important leader of the American Federation of Labor
during its early years.
17.
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The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was initially intended to be a single craft
union.
18. During its early years, the AFL tried to expand as rapidly as possible by recruiting both
skilled and unskilled workers.
19. In its early years, the AFL (American Federation of Labor) limited its membership to
skilled workers.
20. Membership in industrial unions was strictly limited to skilled craftspeople.
21.
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John L. Lewis broke with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935 over
membership issues and formed a rival group known as the Congress of Industrial
Organizations (CIO).
22. The initial objective of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was to provide union
membership to workers in all industries.
23. Today, more than 55 national and international labor unions are affiliated with the AFL-
CIO.
24. For 20 years, the CIO was a major rival of the AFL in the contest for leadership of the
labor movement.
25.
Chapter 12 – Dealing with Union and Employee–Management Issues
In 1955, after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, the AFL and CIO merged to create the
AFL-CIO.
26. Union membership is likely to rise in the coming decade, because the same economic and
political conditions that gave rise to unions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are now
reappearing.
Feedback: There is a great deal of debate concerning the future strength and viability of
unions. However, it would be hard to argue that the conditions that plagued workers in the
late 19th and early 20th centuries are reappearing. U.S. workers now have legal protection from
abuse, exploitation, and discrimination, and contemporary managers tend to take a positive
and progressive approach toward dealing with employees.
27. A major difference between early labor organizations in the United States and today’s
labor unions is that the early labor groups often were temporary organizations that
disbanded after achieving a short-range goal, while today’s unions are permanent
organizations.
Feedback: Early labor organizations were often established to achieve a specific short-run
goal. After the goal was achieved, the organization would disband. In contrast, today’s unions
are permanent organizations.
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28. The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor were actually very similar in
their aims, tactics, and membership. The only major difference was in the effectiveness of
their leaders.
Feedback: The Knights of Labor was very broad-based, allowing all working people,
including employers, to become members. It promoted social causes as well as labor goals.
The AFL was a federation of craft unions. As such, membership was limited to skilled
workers. Moreover, the AFL had a narrower focus, concentrating almost exclusively on
fundamental labor issues.
29. The Industrial Revolution slowed the growth of unions by creating a rapidly rising
standard of living for most workers.
Feedback: The Industrial Revolution created harsh working conditions for most workers.
Hours were long, pay was low, and job security was rare. Child labor was common. These
conditions set the stage for the emergence of national labor organizations.
30.
Chapter 12 – Dealing with Union and Employee–Management Issues
Abraham was an unskilled worker who toiled 10 hours a day on an assembly line during
the early and mid 1930s. His hours were long, his wages were low and his working
conditions were unsafe and unpleasant. Abraham would probably be more sympathetic to
the views of John L. Lewis than to those of Samuel Gompers.
Feedback: The primary reason that the AFL did not recognize the CIO in its infancy was a
disagreement over whether to include industrial as well as craft unions in the AFL. The AFL
was founded in 1886, and under the leadership of Samuel Gompers, it initially limited its
membership to skilled workers who belonged to craft unions. In 1935, John L. Lewis,
president of the United Mine Workers, proposed that the AFL also organize unskilled and
semiskilled workers in industrial unions. When his proposal was rejected, Lewis and his
followers broke with the AFL and formed the CIO.
31. The Zendor Corporation operates a manufacturing plant in Bellridge. The work is
arranged in an assembly line and is performed by semiskilled and unskilled workers.
These workers are looking into obtaining union representation. The type of union they
would belong to would be classified as an industrial union.
Feedback: An industrial union is a labor organization of unskilled and semiskilled workers in
mass-production industries such as automobiles and mining.
32. The Norris-LaGuardia Act made it more difficult for unions to legally recruit new
members.
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33. A yellow-dog contract required workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their
employment.
34. The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits firms from requiring workers to agree not to join a
union as a condition of their employment.
35. Samuel Gompers believed that collective bargaining was likely to be an ineffective way
for unions to achieve their objectives.
36. The National Labor Relations Act gave labor the legal justification to pursue collective
bargaining and other key labor issues.
37.
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The process by which a union is recognized by the NLRB as the authorized bargaining
agent for a group of workers is called collective bargaining.
38. Once a union is certified to represent a group of workers, decertification is not a
consideration or future possibility.
39. Collective bargaining is the process whereby union and management representatives
negotiate a labor-management agreement, or contract, for workers.
40. The Wagner Act established the first minimum wage for workers.
41.
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One goal of the Landrum-Griffin Act was to clean up union corruption.
42. The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent
union activities.
43. The National Labor Relations Act gave employees the right to form and join labor
organizations and the right to engage in activities such as strikes and boycotts.
44. The Taft-Hartley Act strengthened unions by giving them the right to engage in
featherbedding and secondary boycotts.
45.
Chapter 12 – Dealing with Union and Employee–Management Issues
The Taft-Hartley Act allowed states to pass laws that prohibited compulsory union
membership.
46. The Taft-Hartley Act gave more power to management.
47. A card check is a method of openly soliciting signatures in favor of the organization of a
union.
48. Under the Wagner Act, the National Labor Relations Board can establish a labor union in
an organization if it finds evidence of substantial labor abuse within that organization.
Feedback: The National Labor Relations Board does not have the right to establish a union. It
does, however, oversee certification elections, and will recognize a union as the authorized
bargaining agent for a group of workers if a majority of those workers vote in favor of union
representation.
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55. Jake remembers his grandfather telling him about going to work at 16 years of age in the
coal mines of southern Illinois. In order to get the job, he had to agree to a yellow-dog
contract. Essentially this meant he would only get the job if he agreed not to join a union.
Feedback: A yellow dog contract made employees agree, as a condition of employment, they
would not attempt to unionize, or join union.
56. Last week, Angie was approached by two of her coworkers during the lunch break
pressuring her to sign a card check in favor of organizing a union. The card check is
currently a NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) approved method of finalizing
unionization.
Feedback: Although union officials would like for the NLRB to allow the card check method
of voting for a union, it is not the currently accepted or legal method for proceeding to
organize a union in any establishment.
57. The main objectives of organized labor, better wages and shorter hours, have remained
remarkably stable over time.
58.
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During the 1980s unions became increasingly concerned with the issues of job security
and union recognition.
59. The AFL-CIO was a major supporter of the NAFTA agreement to expand trade and
commerce among the nations of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
60. The AFL-CIO has supported offshore outsourcing as a method of increasing work
opportunities for union members.
61. Wage rates, hours of work, employee benefits, and job rights and seniority are issues
covered in a typical negotiated labor-management agreement.
62.
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A union security clause in a labor-management agreement stipulates that employees who
benefit from a union must either officially join or at least pay dues to the union.
63. The negotiated labor-management agreement clarifies the terms and conditions under
which labor and management agree to function over a specified period of time.
64. Under a closed shop agreement, workers must agree not to join a union in order to keep
their jobs.
65. Until passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, under a closed shop agreement, a company could
only hire workers who already belonged to a union.
66.
Chapter 12 – Dealing with Union and Employee–Management Issues
Under a union shop agreement, workers must belong to a union before they can be hired.
67. The Taft-Hartley Act made the union shop agreement illegal in all states.
68. A union shop agreement is illegal in states that have passed right-to-work laws.
69. In an agency shop agreement, workers who do not belong to the union must pay a union
fee or pay regular union dues.
70. Under an agency shop agreement, only union members are represented at the bargaining
table.
