Collective Bargaining: Does the Employer Have to Negotiate with Unions?

Collective Bargaining, in labor relations, negotiations between employersand employees about terms and conditions of employment. The bargainingprocess is concerned with wages, working hours, fringe benefits, jobSecurity, safety, and other matter relating to working conditions. Any or all of these may be the subject of consideration. Besides representatives of management and unions, private mediators and government officials sometimes participate, especially when a major or vital industry is involved. Collective Bargaining, which began in Britain in the 19th

Century, is now a crucial part of the union movement and an accepted practice in many industrial nations.

Union-Shop Agreement, in labor relations, a clause of a collective bargaining agreement where the employer enjoys the right to hire persons without regard to their membership or nonmembership in the labor union that represents the employees with the provision that the person so hired must become a member of the union after a specific period. During World War II ,the preservation of membership clauses provided that no employee must join a union as a condition of employment but that those who did voluntarily join must remain members in good standing for the duration of the contract.

Since the amendment of the National Labor Relations Act by the Taft-Hartly Act in 1947, the union -shop clause has become prevalent, replacing the maintenance of membership clause and the illegal closed- shop clause. Under the law, a union-shop clause can require employees to join the union not sooner then 30 days of their employment or the date of the union contract. No employee may be fired for lack of good standing in the union for reasons other than failure to pay regular dues and initiation fees.

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Collective Bargaining consists of discussions between an employer and a group of employees to find out the ways of employment should be. The result of collective bargaining dealings is a collective agreement. The employees are represented in bargaining by a union or other labor organizations.

Does the employer have to Bargain with the Union?

Collective bargaining can be divided into three areas they are: the duty to meet and confer; the duty to bargain in good faith, and the duty to cover a particular subject.

What is a Labor Contract?

A labor contract is an agreement by an employer and a labor organization; this contract is very private. An agreement is a form of a legal contract for very different reasons. Employees need to know ahead of time about wages, finge benefits, and other matters. The employer needs to know the same information.

Wages, Hours, and Fringe Benefits

Wages and hours clauses are subject to legal boundaries, such as laws regarding minimum wage and successive hours. Fringe benefits are restricted only by the mind of the workers. The fringes that you usually see are: vacations, holidays, pensions, and health insurance. Other that you may see could be sick pay, severance pay, reporting pay, day-care facilities, financial services, educational loans.

Health and safety

A large number of unions are negotiating health and safety requirements into the contracts. Distinctive needs could establish the right of a union health and safety committee to make inspections and observe records, or a worker to refuse unsafe work.

Management Rights

Management rights mostly include decisions like corporate structure, production levels, and plant size. A management right is open to discussion, and may be named in the contract.Union Security

Labor organization usually seeks to protect by insisting on a security clause. Management and labor can negotiate a contract that when a worker is hires into a job by the contract, after a short time the employer has to join a union. A contract can also provide for a weaker form of union security. For example, no employee is required to join the union.

Health and Dental Costs

The chart that is under this information shows the in state expenditures for health and dental benefits since 1985 to 1986. The reason for the amount to go up is because the slowdown of growth of the number of retirees and premium rates. The slowdown in the growth of numbers of retirees is probably a temporary occurrence caused in part by persons decisions to delay retirement in expectation of performance of early retirement.

Elections

When they hold an election they make sure that the election is fair. There are a lot of rules, if an employer or a union violates these rules it’s argument for objections to the authority of the election or an unfair labor practice charge. The election is held by a secret ballot and this gives the workers to choose weather they would or wouldn’t wont a union. If the choice doesn’t work there is a runoff election will be held. After the election if over 50 percent of the employees votes choose