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Industrial relations are concerned with the systems

and procedures used by unions and employer to
determine the reward and other conditions of
employment to protect the interest of employed and
their employers and to regulate the ways in which
the employers treat their employees.
    

Ohree parties involved in IR:

‡ EMPLOYEE

‡ EMPLOYER

‡ GOVERNMENO
  
‡ Current trend trade unions in UK are focused towards
union mergers.

‡ Unlike other Western European countries, Britain has

only one main union confederation known as the
³Orade Union Congress´ (OUC).

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*
‡ Has no direct role in the collective bargaining

‡ Considered as µleft-wing¶ and as an important social

partner with the British Labour Party

‡ OUC is considered as coordinating and not controlling

body
c  
‡ Ohe collective bargaining trend in BRIO IN now
focused at the enterprise level, Employment
Relations CO (2002)

‡ collective rights for OU and individual and

represented workers dvisory Conciliation
rbitration Service ( C S)Oripartite Council.

‡ Both individual rights and collective rights dispute

conciliation

‡ C S appoints(experts) mediators and rbitrators

  +  

Government passed acts to improve the status and
functioning of OR
E UNIONS in three ways:

‡ By recognizing their legal entity

‡ By providing voluntary registration with the

certification officer

‡ By defining their functions, rights and

responsibilities .

Government also provided statutory recognition of the

employers association.
  + ( 


‡ Many of these legal rights emanated from the

level of European Union, and the post-1997
period saw a marked increase in the influence of
legal regulation in the employment relationship.

‡ Nonetheless, trade union membership continued

to decline, and in 2008 trade union density stood
at 28%. s of 2009, the UK system of industrial
relations would appear to exhibit a mixture of
characteristics.
  +  


‡ s of 2010, the effect of the crisis on the development

of the UK system of industrial relations is unclear. Orade
unions have responded to the crisis by calling for
greater government intervention to support employment
levels.

‡ t the same time, collective agreements have been

concluded by the UK social partners amt company level
with the aim of reducing working time in order to
preserve employment levels

Ohus, the IR system prevalent in UK relies on

twin mechanism of voluntary negotiation and
joint consultation for resolving differences and
maintaining peace and harmony in the industry.

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‡ Collective Bargaining .

‡ Strike( Boston Oelephone Strike-1912):

telephone rates increased but telephone
operators salary half of that of govt. clerk .

‡ µRight to Organize¶ granted by merican

Constitution: Growth of Orade Union and free
bargaining.
‡ Industrial relation governed by National Labor
Relation ct 1935 .
   

‡ Local Union:
± Works as collectors of fees and dues,
± solve important grievances
± local union power to call strike and negotiate
agreements without formal approval from National
Union
± Officers of Local union- President, Vice President etc
elected

‡ National Union:
± Size varies according to number and size of affiliates
± Complete autonomy in fixing dues, formulate policies,
negotiating agreements, calling strikes and organize
new local unions
± Private sector union members are tightly regulated by
the National Labor Relations ct (1935)
 
  c , *
-. )& / 
 )  + &0 12-334

± 1st and largest federation of Unions in US .

± Ohe Federation of Organized Orades and Labor Unions
merged to form FL Craft union
± Conservative as didn'tt challenge capitalism .
± Ohe FL was always hostile to Communists.
± Prohibition of child labor, a national eight hour day, and
exclusion of foreign contract workers.
± Most FL leaders were not prepared to take advantage
of the labor law reforms enacted during the
administration of Franklin Roosevelt.
± Failed: couldnt organize into industrial unions when
important sectors like auto, steel etc grew.
± Most strikes were assertions of jurisdiction, so that the
plumbers, for example, used strikes to ensure that all
major construction projects in the city used union
plumbers. Oo win they needed the support of other
unions, hence the need for FL solidarity.
å. c  +
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± Organise workers into industrial unions rather than focus

on certain crafts
±
issenters of FL
± Later both merged to form FL-CIO in 1955 which has
regional councils and local units all over US

± Now: 60 unions in US and Canada affiliated to FL-

CIO( merican Federation of Labour- Congress of
Industrial Organizations)

± Major activities of merican Unions:

‡ Represent members at collective agreements
‡ Negotiations over employment relationship
‡ Joint decision with management
c  
‡ Northern states typically model their laws and boards after the NLR
and the NLRB. In other states, public workers have no right to establish
a union as a legal entity. ( bout 40% of public employees in the US do
not have the right to organize a legally established union.)
‡ In US,  %  &0     /%&1# covers most
collective agreements in the private sector. Ohis act makes it illegal for
employers to discriminate, spy on, harass, or terminate the employment
of workers because of their union membership or to retaliate against
them for engaging in organizing campaigns or other "concerted
activities" to form "company unions", or to refuse to engage in collective
bargaining with the union that represents their employees.
‡ t a workplace where workers have voted for union representation, a
committee of employees and union representatives negotiate a contract
with the management regarding wages, hours, benefits, and other terms
and conditions of employment, such as protection from termination of
employment without just cause.
‡ Sometimes there are disputes over the union contract; this particularly
occurs in cases of workers fired without just cause in a union workplace.
   
‡ broad range of forces have been identified as potential
contributors to the drop in union density /  ,
    +     1 across countries.

‡ Ohe first relevant set of factors relate to the receptiveness of

unions¶ institutional environments. For example, the
presence of a (  
(where unions are responsible
for the distribution of unemployment insurance) and of
centralized collective bargaining (organized at a national or
industry level as opposed to local or firm level) have both
been shown to give unions more bargaining power and to
correlate positively to higher rates of union density.

‡ Unions have enjoyed higher rates of success in locations

where they have greater access to the workplace as an
organizing space (as determined both by law and by
employer acceptance), and where they benefit from a
corporatist relationship to the state and are thus allowed to
participate more directly in the official governance structure.
Moreover, the fluctuations of business cycles, particularly the
rise and fall of unemployment rates and inflation, are also
closely linked to changes in union density
( 
7  
‡ fter 1920s non-interventionist policy in
industrial relations
‡ Promoted trade unionism Statutory and
voluntary procedures for settling labour disputes
‡ Free collective bargaining with self- corrective
mechanism

&" &'(
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‡ Norris La Guardia ct, 1932
‡ Wagner ct, 1935 Oaft- Harley ct, 1947
‡ Landrum Griffin ct, 1959
&   
1) % 2& ( 2-5$å

± It established that that employees should be

free to form unions without employer
interference

± Unions could enter into collective bargaining

± No unfair employment contracts

± Ohe act outlawed Yellow dog contracts, which

were documents some employers forced their
employees to sign to ensure they would not
join a union; employees who refused to sign
were terminated from their jobs.
2) ß 2-5$6

± Earlier named: National Labour Relation ct

± Protection of employees¶ rights to organize
± Right to strike
± Secret ballot elections for representative
unions
± Engage in union activities, to bargain
collectively without coercion of employer
± Employer can bargain with union regarding
wage, bonus, terms and conditions of
employment
± National Labour Relations Board: for
representations election and investigate
unfair labour practice and remedy them.
3) +2! 2-589

± Named as Labour-Management Relations

ct
± mended Wagner ct
± Balance powers of Labour and management
in collective bargaining relationship
± Right to self-organize, to form, to join and
assist labour organizations
± Injunction on strikes affecting national health
or safety
± Established Federal Mediation and
Conciliation Service( FMCS): assist in
setting contracts without work stoppages
and maintains arbitrators to decide contract
interpretation disputes
4) &
2(++ 2-565

± Regulates labour unions' internal affairs and

their officials' relationships with employers
± Bill of rights for union members- equal rights in
voting,
± freedom of speech in union matters,
± Right to sue their unions
± No financial dealing between management and
union
± Protect the union members from possible
wrong-doing
   +    
 
 *
‡ Employment from manufacturing jobs and other
jobs represented by unions( railroads and mining) to
services and high technological jobs

‡ More white collar jobs and part-time jobs

‡ Centralized collective bargaining (national and not

local level)
c
  0 
  
 
  
‡ Industrial relations systems and developments play an
important part in determining economic, employment
and social outcomes and are thus a key area of
comparison

‡ c
  + 

 

± Studies about employment practices of British
subsidiaries show that they allow local autonomy and
blend in more to the local style
± US MNCs has shown that they are relatively
centralized and ethnocentric in their HRM and IR
practices.
± In the UK, for example, US MNCs have implemented
innovative human resource practices and there is
evidence of parental influence from the US.
c
 
‡ c
  +   :
± Many employers in the US and to some extent UK
MNCs come from a culture have a unitarist
perspective.
± Ohus Orade unions and collective bargaining are
perceived as something to be deliberately avoided.
± In the US, for example, the non-union sector has
grown rapidly over recent decades.

‡    ", :

±
espite diversity and sometimes division at
national level, trade unionism in the current and
enlarged UK is characterised by a high degree of
unity and coherence than US .
c
 

‡ common trend across the UK the US is towards

consolidation and merger of trade union
organisations.

± Ohe number of UK has been reduced by mergers in

recent years , while the number of member unions of
most national union confederations has declined .

± In the US , the number of unions affiliated to FL-

CIO has fallen from 96 in 1985 to 64 today.
However, many of these unions are still small, and
the 15 largest represent over 75% of total FL-CIO
membership between them
c
 
‡   

0   :

± Overall, union membership has generally been

falling across the industrialised market economies
in recent decades .Ohis decline seems to have
occurred relatively uniformly in both UK and the
US

± Still, the average trade union density in the UK is

more than twice that in the US .

± In gender terms, unionisation levels are higher

among men than women in the US . Ohis reflects
the pattern with low to medium in UK
c
 
‡ c
  + '
   *

± In the UK, there is essentially a single umbrella

organisation (at least for the private sector)
representing companies' employer and business/trade
interests, though accompanied by separate SME
organisations in some cases

± Ohe US has no identifiable national intersectoral

employer body with an industrial relations role.
± special organisation has been created to allow US
employers to be represented by a single intersectoral
body in international organisations and fora -
the United States Council for International
Business (USCIB)
c
 
‡ c
  + c  :
± Ohe level at which collective bargaining is conducted is
one of the most basic differences in industrial relations
between UK on one side, and the US on the other.
± Collective bargaining plays a key role in industrial
relations in UK . In US , bargaining is a relatively
marginal activity

‡
    0:
± In the US , collective bargaining plays a far less
important role in setting overall national pay increases
than in UK
± the US , the issue of working time currently seems to
have a relatively low profile in collective bargaining.
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡ Background
‡ Great Northern Stores : major departmental retail organization
with 120 stores in UK
‡ Sell range of foods, textiles, fancy goods and toiletries
‡ Founded in 1890¶s by the Muller Family

‡ Muller family prided in the welfare of the employees

‡ Established itself as a leading national retailing organization

during post war period.
‡ 1980: 120 stores in various parts of the UK.
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡ Expansion Reasons:
Changing and increasingly competitive environment.
Growth of supermarkets and multiple retailers.
Pressure to reduce profit margins and trim quality standards to
compete.
Foray into new customer areas.

ecrease in sales volume was the consequence.

‡ Good housekeeping:
‡ Reduce in man power and costs while retaining employees at
warehouse.
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡ Centralized Management Structure:
Merchandising by specialist staff at head office and stores.

Store managers losing their discretion to a department at head

office and reporting to area superintendent and functional
executives at head office.
‡
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡ Liverpool Store
ispute:
Management policy: No recognition to trade unions and
collective bargaining for a long established family business.
Failed attempts by a union to recruit employees at Liverpool
store.
July 1982: Normal Monthly Meeting
Sales staff representative submitted a letter
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡ Staff Manager¶s threat to sack agitating employees prior to walkout.
‡ Subsequent strike by the staff outside the store and signing them for union
membership.
‡ Communication between Personnel
irector and Regional Secretary of the
Union.
‡ Conduct of the secret ballot at Great Northern Stores
‡ Result: Employees preference to a staff association over trade union.
‡ ssociation of sales staff to one union and the warehouse staff to another
union.
‡ Strikes by sales and warehouse staff at different stores.
‡ Emergency Board Meeting convened.
 Great Northern Stores,
UK

    0

‡ Management¶s unitary view of the organization stating that no
legitimate conflict of interest is permitted. No faulty
communication. Employee- management to have identical
interests.
‡ No steps to ensure proper store management. No steps to deal
with employee problems at the store management level.
‡ Lack of communication channel and professional advice and
expertise to store management in field of staff relations.
 Great Northern Stores,
UK
‡      
‡ First Option: Maintain Current Strategy

‡ lternative Strategy: Management will be forced to recognize

more than one union. Conciliation is the best possible solution.
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