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The Union's Demand for Recognition & Bargaining Rights

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The Union's Demand for Recognition and Bargaining Rights

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The Union's Demand for Recognition and Bargaining Rights

Case 15-1: The Union’s Demand for Recognition and Bargaining Rights

In case study 15-1 a union representative made claims against a company of unfair labor practices. The Union also claimed that this was in violation of Section 8(a)(1) of the LMRA. The Union organizer claimed that the company had interrogated the employees to decipher if a union was being established in the company. Melton, the supervisor of the employees at the time of these discrepancies, did engage in questioning three employees of their union activity within the organization. The Union organizer also argued that the company had threatened employees. The Union rep was based this argument off of the comments of the new supervisor of these employees when he made the comment that if a Union was elected the janitors helpers would lose their rent free apartments and the janitors charged for second bedrooms. My opinion is this was a statement by the supervisor but did seem intended to coerce the voting. The last argument that I find most persuasive for the favor of the Union is the unique timing of new health benefits of the company (Schoen & Gilbert, 1989), which seems to be a direct persuasion to the employees to not vote for the Union.
As with all arguments there is a different view point. The company believed that because Melton’s comments were not intended to coerce employees this was not in violation. I tend to agree that despite the inquiries Melton never indicated any loss of benefits to employees. Also that Melton was terminated prior to the election so any indication of threats would be obsolete since that employee was no longer employed with the company. The company also makes the statement that the health benefits were scheduled after the company’s annual review of their current benefits package (Schoen & Gilbert, 1989).
The last position of the company was that the new supervisor’s comments were not a threat but a valid prediction. I personally believe that the most...

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