Exam 8: Impasse, Strikes, and Dispute Resolution

Bargaining power and the threat of a strike should affect:

A series of quick strikes,lasting a day or just a few hours,is known as an intermittent strike.

Regardless of the nature of the strike,employers are allowed to hire permanent strike replacements if they deem it necessary to preserve their business.

Due to the fact that strikes are often held to be illegal,unions have begun to use alternative tactics to pressure employers such as boycotts and work slowdowns.

Most union contracts contain a no-strike clause prohibiting work stoppages over grievances during the life of a contract.When employees go out on strike in violation of the contract,it is called a(n)_______________________________ strike.

.In 2007-2008,more than 12,000 members of the Writers Guild of America went out on strike after contract negotiations with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP)came to impasse.The strike started in November,2007 and concluded in February,2008 and,by some estimates,cost the industry around $2 billion.Given the expense of the strike to the industry and lost income to the writers,what other alternatives might the writers have considered in their quest to pressure the AMPTP to make concessions? Why do you think the Writers Guild decided to strike instead of pursuing these less costly alternatives?

A(n)_______________________________ is an employer-initiated,rather than worker-initiated,work stoppage intended to force the union to agree to the employer's contract terms.

In the 1980s,black female workers at Delta Pride,a catfish processing plant in Mississippi,embarked on a union organizing drive.As part of this effort,the union was aggressive in publicizing wrongdoings by the employer,pressuring members of the board of directors to disassociate from the company,and sending postcards to over 100,000 Mississippi residents seeking their support for unionization.As a result of these tactics,the union won recognition.The tactics used in this organizing drive can best be described as:

A(n)_______________________________is a pressure tactic used to force employers to concede to union demands by imposing costs through lowered productivity,but without employees leaving their jobs to go on strike.

Employers are allowed to:

(p276-277)Explain the relationship between labor market conditions and the probability of a strike occurring.What other factors do you believe might increase (or decrease)the incidence of strikes nationwide.(5 minutes)

Legislation governing public sector employment relations generally prohibits public sector strikes for all of the following reasons except:

In final offer arbitration,the arbitrator is not constrained in deciding the settlement terms and can create any terms he or she deems fair.

If the NFL football players went out on strike to support the referees in their negotiations over wages and working conditions,it would be considered a sympathy strike.

Corporate campaigns are sometimes criticized for all of the following reasons except:

Picketing that involves multiple employers at a shared work location is called :

Fact-finding could be considered inferior to mediation or arbitration for all of the following reasons except:

If the President thinks a strike will be dangerous to the national health or safety,the Taft-Hartley Act empowers the President to halt a strike while an arbitrator investigates and issues a final and binding decision.

The purpose of a strike is to increase the employer's cost of disagreeing with the union's demands by depriving the employer of its profit-generating ability.

Third-party dispute resolution mechanisms use ____________________ to settle bargaining impasses with the goal of avoiding costly strikes.