HRS 106 - Labor Relations

1. Describe key elements in the labor relations process in terms of organizations, work rules, principal federal laws, changing conditions, the labor movement, and key organizing participants.
2. Understand the bargaining process, goals, strategies, rights of entities, and trends affecting economic and negotiation pressures, and be able to identify examples of outcomes.
3. Differentiate between administering contracts, arbitrations, and employee discipline.
4. Apply different theories as to why labor relations processes exist in a systematic way.

1. Explain due process, the employment-at-will principle, and the implied contract.
2. Identify the job expectancy rights of employees.
3. Explain the process of establishing disciplinary policies, including the proper implementation of organizational rules.
4. Discuss the meaning of discipline and how to investigate a disciplinary problem.
5. Explain two approaches to disciplinary action.
6. Identify the different types of alternative dispute-resolution procedures.
7. Discuss the role of ethics in the management of human resources.
8. Identify and explain the principal federal laws that provide the framework for labor relations.
9. Cite the reason employees join unions.
10. Describe the process by which unions organize employees and gain recognition as their bargaining agent.
11. Describe the overall structure of the labor movement and the functions labor unions perform at the national and local levels.
12. Describe the differences between private-sector and public-sector labor relations.
13. Discuss some of the effects that changing conditions are having on labor organizations.
14. Discuss the bargaining process and the bargaining goals and strategies of a union and an employer.
15. Describe the forms of bargaining power that a union and an employer may utilize to enforce their bargaining demands.
16. Cite the principle methods by which bargaining deadlocks may be resolved.
17. Give examples of current collective bargaining trends.
18. Identify the major provisions of a labor agreement and describe the issue of management rights.
19. Describe a typical union grievance procedure.
20. Explain the basis for arbitration awards

1. Employee Rights
   1. Employment Protection Rights
   2. Job Expectancy Rights
   3. Examples of employment-at-will statements
   4. Alternatives to body-fluid testing
2. Disciplinary Policies and Procedures
   1. The results of inaction
   2. Setting organizational rules
   3. The Hot-Stove Approach to rule enforcement
   4. Defining discipline
   5. Investigating the disciplinary problem
   6. Approaches to disciplinary action
   7. Compiling a disciplinary record
   8. Discharging employees
3. Appealing Disciplinary Actions and Procedures
   1. Process
   2. Organizational policy and procedures
4. Organizational Ethics in Employee Relations
   1. Policy
   2. Procedure
5. Governmental Regulation of Labor Relations
   1. The Railway Labor Act
   2. The Norris-LaGuardia Act
   3. The Wagner Act
   4. The Taft-Hartley Act
   5. The Landrum-Griffin Act
6. The Labor Relations Process
   1. Why employees unionize
   2. Organizing campaigns
   3. How employees become unionized
   4. Impact of unionization on managers
7. Structures, Functions, and Leadership of Labor Unions
   1. Structure and functions of the AFL-CIO
   2. Structure and functions of national unions
   3. Structure and functions of local unions
   4. Union leadership approaches and philosophies
8. Labor Relations in the Public Sector
   1. Public-sector legislation
   2. Political nature of the labor-management relationship
   3. Strikes in the public sector
9. Contemporary Challenges to Labor Organizations
   1. Foreign competition and technological change
   2. Labor’s unfavorable public image
   3. Decrease in union membership
   4. Employers’ focus on maintaining nonunion status
   5. Strategies to remain union-free
10. The Bargaining Process
    1. Good-faith bargaining
    2. Preparing for negotiations
    3. Conducting the negotiations
    4. The union’s power in collective bargaining
    5. The employer’s power in collective bargaining
    6. Resolving bargaining deadlocks
11. Trends in Collective Bargaining
    1. Changes in collective bargaining relationships
    2. Facilitating union-management cooperation
    3. Definition and forms of cooperation
    4. Joint Union-Management Cooperation Committee: Statement of Principles and Philosophy
    5. Concessionary bargaining
12. The Labor Agreement
    1. Items in a labor agreement
    2. The issue of management rights
    3. Forms of union security
13. Administration of the Labor Agreement
    1. Negotiated grievance procedures
    2. Grievance mediation
    3. Grievance arbitration