1

Union and Employer Organization

Structure
Organizations tend to be structured in
ways that reflect their Purpose, Goals,
Philosophy, and Mission.

They must also be responsive to the
dynamics of their environment and the
vicissitudes of the market place.
2
Union and Employer Organization
Structure
Unions and businesses face similar
challenges but separate perspectives.

While management must stay focused on
the competitive challenges of the
marketplace it is the unions role to
represent the interests of their members.
3
Union Structure
Craft Unions

Represent a group of workers who have
as a common bond the same set o skills,
the same occupation.

Plumbers - Carpenters - Electricians


4
Union Structure
Industrial Unions

Represent workers with a variety of
different skills who tend to be located in
the same industry of industrial site.

Primarily confined today to site specific
unions

5
Union Structure
Amalgamated Craft Unions

Union combining several related crafts.

International Brotherhood of Boilermakers,
Iron Ship Builders, Blacksmiths, Forgers, and
Helpers - ACTWU - ILGWU

6
Union Structure
Multi-industrial Unions

Unions combining several related
industries.

OCAW - UAW - URW - IBT - USA

7
Union Structure
Pure craft and pure industrial unions
are rare in the United States.

Rather than following any rigid
patterns, unions tend to organize in
whatever direction or area that
seems most likely to bring them
members.
8
The Local Union
Nearly all union structure in the U.S.
is built on the basic local unit.

Normally confined to a geographic
area small enough for all members to
attend a single meeting.

Geography - Population - Industry
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The Local Union
A formally constituted Democratic
Organization with ultimate power
vested in it members.

Operated under a set of by-laws that
define the number, terms, duties,
election, and salary (if any) of local
officers.
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The Local Union
Sets procedural matters, such as
calling and terminating strikes,
ratifying contracts, selecting
convention delegates, frequency of
meetings, auditing, dues, fees and
other details.
11
The Local Union
Many locals elect or appoint
Business Agents to do the detailed
work.

The President, Vice-president, and
Secretary-Treasurer perform the
duties normal to those offices and
are elected by the members.
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The Local Union
Some local officials may serve as
contract negotiators but this task is
usually assigned to staff representatives
from the national union or its appropriate
district.
13
The Local Union
Shop Stewards

Normally elected and are responsible for
consulting with employees who have or
think they have a grievance against the
employer.
14
The International Union
The national or international union is the
locus of power in the labor movement.

Locals are bound to the national and
operate under its constitution.
15
The International Union
The local union pays dues to the national
for each local member

The national may be affiliated with the
AFL/CIO but retains sovereignty over its
operations.
16
The International Union
Legislative power in national unions is
vested in the convention and Landrum-
Griffin requires that conventions be held
at least every five years and most unions
hold them more often.
17
The International Union
National officers are usually elected by
the convention or by referendum.
(President, VPs, Secretary-Treasurer)

They serve on a full-time basis with hired
staff.


18
Election of Union Officers
Every national or international labor
organization shall elect its officers not less
often than once every five years.

Local organizations not less often than once
every three years.
Officers of intermediate bodies (general
committees, system boards, joint boards, or joint
councils), not less often than once every four
years.
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The Whole Union
The totality of the national or international
office, state or regional offices, if any, plus all
the locals.

Industries operating on a national scale usually
look to the national officers for most of the
important negotiation.
20
The Whole Union

Negotiations in building trades, transit
companies, bakeries, and laundries are
normally conducted at the local level by the
local union.


21
The Whole Union

Creation of new local unions is the
principle purpose of organizing activities,
which are relatively expensive.

Workers in some industrial nations take
unionization for granted and do not wait to
be recruited, American workers usually do
not form a union until they feel an explicit
need for one.

22
The AFL-CIO

Any national union accepting the principles
and objectives of the federation can apply
for and presumably obtain membership.

A local may affiliate directly with the
federation if there is no national union in its
field. This is know as a federal union.
23
The AFL-CIO

The AFL-CIO is not a union. Its function is
to bring about organized cooperation of the
constituent unions on behalf of labor as a
whole.

The federation receives income from a per
capita tax on the affiliated unions.
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The AFL-CIO

The officers consist of a president, executive
vice president, secretary-treasurer, and 51
vice presidents.

Jointly they constitute the Executive Council

The General Board consist of the Executive
Council and the principle officers of each
affiliated union.
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The AFL-CIO

The major functions of the federation
include:
Legislation, civil rights, political education,
international affairs, social security,
economic policy, community services,
housing, research, public relations, safety
and occupational health, and organization
and field services.
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The AFL-CIO

The federation also has subdivisions called
departments which coordinate groups of unions
having related problems.

Building Trades - Food Trades - Metal Trades
Industrial Unions - Maritime Trades
Transportation Trades - Professional Employees
Public Employees - Union Label
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The AFL-CIO

Three areas in which the Federation has sought
increased influence are:

Jurisdictional Disputes - Civil Rights

Corruption and Communism
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The AFL-CIO

The sole disciplinary power of the
Federation is limited to suspension or
expulsion.

A fair number of local unions have never
affiliated with either a national union or a
federation. These unions are usually
confined to a single establishment,
employer, or locality.
29
Democracy In Unions

Democracy in its ideal state involves the
active participation of all its members.

Unions,not unlike other democratic
institutions, tend to operate with a high
degree of indifference and complacency
among its members.
30
Democracy In Unions

Employees are essentially concerned with
the state of affairs of their work environment.

Rules - Regulations - Working Conditions
Compensation

If the union and management create a good
plant environment the members tend to care
little about how the union is run.
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Democracy In Unions

Businessmen tend to be critical of unions
who lack democratic practices

While on the other hand

These same businessmen tend to complain
that unions with strong democratic
orientations are obstacles to effective labor
management relations.
32
Democracy In Unions

Effective union leaders are relatively scarce.

This is one reason the union leader is
normally returned election after election.
(most especially at the national level)

Turnover at the local level is often quite high.
33
The Employer Organizational
Structure

Although there is wide disagreement as
to whether any particular employer
needs such a thing as a union, no one -
not even the union - seriously
questions the need for management.
34
The Employer Organizational
Structure

The Private Profit Economy

Over time, the management of a firm
must ensure that its income equals or
exceeds it expenditures.

and
35
The Private Profit Economy

In the United States both sides in a
collective bargaining operate
under a limited contractual
relationship.


36
The Private Profit Economy

The employer usually does not assume
responsibility for the economic welfare
of the employee or the employees
family beyond payment of the
contracted wage and related fringe
benefits for as long as the employee
continues to perform satisfactorily and
is needed by the employer.

37
The Private Profit Economy

On the other hand, the employee has
no responsibility for the economic
welfare of the employer beyond the
satisfactory performance of specified
tasks.



38
The Private Profit Economy

Overall, neither the laws nor the customs
of our country obligate an employer to
retain unneeded employees.



39
The Labor Component

An employer has a particular labor
structure, which is defined by the
numbers and ratios of different types of
employees.
Labor and Capital intense industries
Simple and Complex job structures
Simple and Complex pay systems


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The Labor Component

The employer with only a few types of
labor has a simple wage structure,
making it easy to compare wages with
competing employers.


41
The Labor Component

The large firm with a variety of workers
may find it more important to maintain
proper differentials among the jobs
within its own organization than pay the
same as other employers.


42
The Labor Component

Both strategically and practically,
employers in mass production industries
generally find it preferable to deal with a
single union(of the industrial type) for all
employees rather than with a separate
union for each group.

43
The Labor Component

Beyond the single employer and the
conventional work environment there is a
substantial mix of complex circumstances
and varied conditions of employment that
demand unconventional bargaining
solutions.

44
The Labor Component

Despite objections to some specific
actions of the union, an employer in a
highly competitive labor-intense industry
will often recognize that a strong union
covering all of his competitors may benefit
him as well as his employees.

45
The Labor Component

Where industries consist of many
comparatively small employers, it is
common for them to form an employer
association and engage in multi-employer
bargaining.

46
Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

The firm is a complex arrangement of
people, machines, materials, and money.
and
Management, at least in the larger firms,
has access to a large body of expertise
about the effective use of its human
resource assets.
47
Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

The problem is that while management
seeks expand it freedom to act with
respect to human resource utilization..

The union does not always agree and
intervenes by exercising its right to
question managements motives.
48
Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

Some researchers view managerial
structure with respect to industrial
relations as having three tiers:

Strategic - Functional - Shop Floor
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Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

Strategic Level

Where most fundamental business
decision are made, such as what
business to be in, where organizational
expansion and contraction should take
place, and what corporate values are.
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Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

Functional Level

Where collective bargaining takes
place.
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Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

Shop Floor Level

Where the day-to-day interaction
between the workers and their
supervisors actually take place. Much
of the implementation of the
agreement takes place at this level.
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Some Internal Aspect of the Firm

The attitude of each of these three
levels of management toward
unions need not be and indeed
frequently is not the same.
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Management Attitudes Toward
Unions

The Small Individual Enterprise

To many such employers the idea that
the employees should form a union to
bargain, or even strike, and ask to
participate in the making of decisions
about which he or she knows so much
more that they can ever know is utterly
shattering.
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Management Attitudes Toward
Unions

The Large Corporation

The outlook and philosophy in its
relations to unions is different.

Since the corporate officers are
themselves employees, they have an
important psychological bond with the
rank and file.
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Management Attitudes Toward
Unions

The Large Corporation

They see the union as just one more
pressure to which they must adapt and
in the process create a new entity to
deal with it creating in its wake an
internal force with a vested interest in
the continuance of the union.
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Management Attitudes Toward
Unions

The Intermediate Types

Some managements view unions as a
challenge and an interference.
Others see unionization as a reasonable
expression of workers desire for
representation and take the union in
stride.
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Complex Organizational Structures

Conglomerates, Mergers,
Multinationals , and the current
passion for Restructuring has
presented a new set of problems to the
collective bargaining process.