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In this lesson we're going to discuss the basics of labor unions.
What is a labor union?
How are they formed? What are the consequences of forming a labor union?
What are the different types of unionized companies?
Welcome to the first of our two part series on labor unions.
In this lesson and the next lesson we're going to talk about,
what is a labor union?
How are they formed?
What are the consequences of forming a labor union?
What types of companies are unionized?
What actions can labor unions do to get what they want basically?
So, let's start at the beginning. What is a labor union?
A labor union is nothing more than a group of
similarly situated employees that band together to demand wages,
benefits, some sort of better treatment from
their employer than they believe that they're getting at the current time.
Now, can anybody join or form a labor union?
Well, this is kind of tricky,
management in a company can usually not unionize,
it's usually for the workers,
it's traditionally been factory workers.
But in recent decades it's expanded to,
nurses are frequently unionized,
teachers are almost always unionized.
But the management so the principal at a school
wouldn't be a union member but the teachers could be.
Also a lot of States have adopted what are called Right to Work Laws.
States with Right to Work Laws,
prohibit an employer from requiring someone to join a union at their company,
and also prohibit them from requiring a worker to pay what's called fair share fees.
We'll talk about fair share fees here in a minute.
Now, how do you form a union?
Well, the first step is to identify a bargaining units,
so a bargaining units in the parlance of
labor law is just a group of similarly situated employees.
So, if you're at a hospital and you are a nurse,
well, the nurses at your hospital could be a bargaining unit,
they are similarly situated employees.
The nurses and the doctors
probably couldn't be one bargaining unit because there are different roles,
they can be separate bargaining units but not the same.
So once you've identified your bargaining unit,
the people in that bargaining unit hold
an election to decide whether they would like to create a union.
They vote, and this can be really controversial.
There are frequently allegations of corruptions from both sides.
The company side and the union side,
because frequently union drives are participated in by
the employees but also by outsiders who are trying to form a union at a company.
So, the company management could resist and
accuse the outside labor union of unfair practices.
The labor union or the employees can accuse the management of unfair practices.
So for this reason a government entity called the National Labor Relations Board,
the NLRB usually oversees these contentious elections in a company.
But if an election happens and the employees vote to unionize,
then they start the long and arduous process of collective bargaining.
Collective bargaining is when the bargaining unit or
its representatives sit down with
management from the employer and hammer out an agreement.
The final agreement is called a CBA or a collective bargaining agreement.
Now, the collective bargaining agreement usually is
a very thick document and there are certain subjects that it has to deal with.
There are some subjects that it can deal with,
and there are some subjects that is prohibited from dealing with.
So, some of these mandatory subjects include
things that you would think you would have to have in an employment agreement, right?
Wages, hours, benefits, grievance
procedures if you feel like your rights under
the agreement have been violated, that has to be in there.
Those are mandatory subjects.
Now, some permissive subjects includes more ancillary things,
like what's the format of a bargaining procedure and negotiations?
How do we conduct peer evaluations?
What sort of employee committees will exist to provide advice and
guidance to management or to the labor management? Those types of things.
Those are permissive, you can have stuff in there if you want but you don't have to.
Then finally illegal subjects,
these things cannot be in a collective bargaining agreement.
These include any sort of discriminatory agreements,
any agreements to engage in illegal behavior that's obvious,
any agreement to create a Closed shop.
What's a Closed shop?
What's a type of unionized business that requires the company
to only hire new employees who are already union members and that is illegal.
So, having a closed shop in your collective bargaining agreement violates the law,
you cannot operate a Closed shop.
What you can operate it's what's called an Agency shop or a Union shop.
An Agency shop is an employer where new employees have the option to join the union,
but they're not required to.
If they don't, they will have to pay what's called a fair
share fee because they get some benefits from the union even if they're not members.
Now, remember if you're in Right to Work State,
you can't require someone to join the union
and you can't require them to pay fair share fees.
But in all other States, you can.
So, here in Illinois,
we are not a Right to Work State.
So, if you go to work for a unionized employer,
they can give you the option to join the union.
But if you don't, they can force you to pay fair share union fees.
Next door in Indiana, they are a Right to Work State,
so they can also give you the option to join the union,
and if you don't, they cannot force you to pay those fair share fees.
Then the last type of unionized business is what we call a Union shop,
similar to an Agency shop except that every new employee must join the union,
and therefore, must pay union dues.
Again, if you're in a Right to Work state,
you can't have a Union shop,
you could only have Agency shops and Right to Work States.
But in all other States Union shops are permitted.
You can't require someone to already be a union member when you hire them,
but you can require them to join the union once they are hired.
Professor Michael R FrickeTeaching Assistant Professor
