McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-1 Box 14.2: POSSIBILITIES FOR 21ST CENTURY LABOR UNIONS PossibilitiesUnions As…Concerns Solidarity Unionism Powerful Solidarity Alliances More adversarial than cooperative. More rules based than flexible. How to achieve competitiveness and quality? Social Movement Unionism Community and Political Activists What about workers’ workplace concerns? Efficiency Enhancing Unionism Productivity and Cooperation Enhancers What is the source of employee power? Is there solidarity across workplaces? Who’s looking out for employee interests? Employee Ownership Unionism Employee OwnersIs employee ownership efficient? How are business decisions made? Is it too risky for employees when their savings are invested in their company? Employee Empowerment Unionism Individual Empowerment Supporters What is the source of employee power? Is there solidarity across workplaces? Associational Unionism Loose Networks of Professional Assoc. What is the source of employee power?

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-2 WHAT SHOULD UNIONS DO? Discussions of future of unionism cannot ignore current weak state of U.S. labor movement. Can weak unions successfully pursue cooperative strategies such as efficiency enhancing or employee empowerment unionism? Cooperative behavior from position of weakness will likely promote efficiency, but is unlikely to revive labor movement and to make positive contributions to equity and voice. Whether unions are secure or threatened depends not only on choices that labor movement must make, but also on corporate behavior and public policies.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-3 WHAT SHOULD COMPANIES DO? Corporate alternatives boil down to question of what is the social responsibility of corporations? Just to make a profit, or something broader? For present, primacy of shareholders, Wall Street, and focus on short-term profitability dominate. Discussions of future of U.S. labor relations should not overlook questions of corporate governance, responsibility, and business norms.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-4 STRENGTHENING THE NLRA: POSSIBLE REMEDIAL REFORMS Create strict timetables for processing unfair labor practices to prevent “justice delayed is justice denied.” Penalize violators with fines, such as triple backpay for illegal firings. Provide immediate reinstatement of illegally fired workers. Allow bargaining orders when employer’s illegal actions prevent union from obtaining majority support.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-5 STRENGTHENING THE NLRA: POSSIBLE SUBSTANTIVE REFORMS Provide equal access for unions during organizing drives. Require instant elections so that elections occur soon after petition is filed to remove opportunities for negative campaigning and selective discharges. Or allow card-check elections for similar reasons. Require arbitration of first contracts if bargaining fails. Broaden scope of mandatory bargaining items to include plant closures, subcontracting, introduction of new technology, and other issues. Ban permanent strike replacements. Prohibit replacements from voting in decertification elections. Allow secondary boycotts.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-6 LOOSENING LABOR LAW Reform focuses on weakening NLRA’s section 8(a)(2) restriction on company-dominated labor organizations. Undoing Electromation-type rulings re: potentially legitimate employee participation mechanisms that give workers a voice and that promote cooperation and competitiveness. Pair this reform with strengthening ability of workers to organize union to promote loosening rather than weakening of NLRA.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-7 TRANSFORMING THE NLRA New legal system is needed to support new forms of unionism. Non-majority unions—bargaining or consultation rights for unions that have support of minority rather than majority of employees in workplace. Mandated works councils Employee free speech, unjust dismissal protections, and right to workplace information.

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2005 The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc., All Rights Reserved. C14-8 STRIKING A BALANCE Laws, processes, and behaviors should seek to handle employment relationship conflict and power imbalances between employees and employers in ways that promote effective organizations, healthy economy, equitable outcomes, respect for human dignity, and fulfillment of principles of democracy. Labor relations and labor law must navigate number of critical dualities: tension between property rights and labor rights, between work rules and flexibility, between bilateral negotiation and unilateral control, and between efficiency, equity, and voice.