Deck 14: Labor Relations in Multinational Corporations and in Other Countries

Question 1

The majority of all workers in the United States are protected against termination without cause.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Highly developed,sophisticated patterns of labor relations,such as those in Germany,have spread rapidly and are now commonplace in Russia and other former states of the U.S.S.R.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

The majority of Mexican collective bargaining agreements contain a protection clause that protects employers from having to deal with a more demanding union.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

In Germany,"codetermination" provides works councils with rights to information and consultation on subjects such as manpower planning,change in work processes,working environment,and job content.

Question 5

A number of large MNCs are so enormous that their sales are frequently larger than the entire economy of the countries in which they conduct business.

Question 6

Unions in Cuba represent a broad array of constituents including current workers,retired pensioners,and even the unemployed.

Question 7

Pressure on a MNC by a local union strike may be reduced because MNC operations in other countries continue to generate products and profits.

Question 8

Employees of all private firms in Japan are guaranteed lifetime employment.

Question 9

Given the high costs involved,evidence indicates that it is relatively rare for MNCs to shift production to other countries in order to intimidate local unions.

Question 10

Hourly compensation costs in the United States exceed those of most countries in Western Europe.

Question 11

American jobs have been lost in major industries,such as the automobile,steel,textile,footwear,and consumer electronics,whereas jobs in the aircraft,computers,entertainment,and finance industries have increased.

Question 12

Transnational collective bargaining will be commonplace in the near future because international labor organizations are so well organized and active in coordinating with one another.

Question 13

There is no such thing as a "right-to-work law" in Canada.

Question 14

In Australia,the Workplace Relations Act of 1996 (WRA)introduced individual contracts called Australian Workplace Agreements (AWAs)which enhanced ''choice'' by placing individual and collective agreements on an equal footing.

Question 15

Unionization in most Western Europe countries is far more widespread than in the United States.

Question 16

Unions and corporations in the United States have a substantial influence on labor relations in Canada.

Question 17

Organized labor in the United States is generally supportive of MNCs because they believe that MNCs improve wages for workers in the U.S.

Question 18

As a result of NAFTA,real wages have grown rapidly for Mexican workers.

Question 19

Collective bargaining in South America is far more common and unions are more sophisticated than in the United States.

Question 20

In Great Britain,labor unions have substantial power because companies are compelled to negotiate with them by law.

Question 21

Which of the following statements about the North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC)is false?

A) The NAALC has been judged to be very successful due to the increased cooperation it has fostered between NAFTA member nations in dealing with labor relations problems.
B) The NAALC is a side agreement of NAFTA that deals with labor principles.
C) It is difficult to sanction the individual national governments when they violate NAALC labor principles.
D) The NAALC provides for arbitration of occupational safety and health, child labor, and minimum wage issues.
E) No worker has ever been reinstated nor has any financial sanction ever been imposed as a result of a NAALC case.

Question 22

Compensation costs tend to be the highest in Western European countries. Which of the following groups of countries have relatively low compensation costs?

A) Japan & Australia.
B) Switzerland & Sweden.
C) United States & Canada.
D) Korea & Taiwan.
E) France & Denmark.

Question 23

Three unique characteristics of Japan's industrial relations system are:

A) appropriate bargaining units, exclusive bargaining agent, industry unions.
B) exclusive bargaining agent, lifetime employment, industry unions.
C) enterprise unions, lifetime employment, seniority-based wage system.
D) lifetime employment, wage system, exclusive bargaining units.
E) labor-management conflict, lifetime employment, enterprise unions.

Question 24

Which of the following is NOT one of the benefits that has been realized from the expansion of free trade and globalization?

A) There has been a reduction in poverty in developing nations due to globalization.
B) Workers in developed economies, such as the U.S., have benefited from increased employment in the high-paying manufacturing industries.
C) Consumers have gained because of lower prices.
D) National economies have gained because of increased economic efficiency.
E) Workers in developing nations have gained from increased wages and employment.

Question 25

Which one of the following concepts does NOT exist in Western European labor relations systems?

A) Bargaining with unions in addition to work councils.
B) Exclusive representation of a bargaining unit.
C) Bargaining between representatives of employer associations and representatives of a confederation of unions.
D) Benefits obtained more quickly through the political arena.
E) A great commitment to and high expenditures on training.

Question 26

Canada's labor relations system is affected by:

A) a harsh climate resulting in pronounced cyclical fluctuations in its economy.
B) foreign influences, especially from the United States.
C) differences in provincial law leading to a disjointed, regionalized/localized approach to labor relations.
D) two different cultural and linguistic groups within the country.
E) all of these

Question 27

Which one of the following elements characterizes labor relations in Australia?

A) Industry-wide or company-wide "awards" similar to collective bargaining agreements in the United States.
B) A highly centralized labor relations system.
C) A prohibition against strikes in firms engaged in interstate commerce, except when negotiating a new employment agreement.
D) Nonunion bargaining.
E) All of these

Question 28

Which of the following is NOT true about MNCs?

A) Smaller countries can feel intimated by MNCs because of the enormity and economic power of large MNCs.
B) The majority of the largest 100 economies in the world are MNCs rather than sovereign nations.
C) The 1,000 largest MNCs account for 80 percent of the world's industrial production.
D) The size (i.e., sales) of a large MNC is greater than the entire economies of many nations in which they do business.
E) MNCs have relatively little economic influence in most of the countries in which they operate.

Question 29

Which of the following statements about NAFTA is true?

A) While many of the promised benefits due to NAFTA have not been realized, at least NAFTA has not resulted in serious unemployment in the United States and Canada.
B) The NAFTA agreement includes the countries of the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
C) NAFTA has caused a large loss of Mexican farm jobs because of lower barriers on the importation of crops to Mexico from other NAFTA nations.
D) Wages in Mexico have essentially been stagnant since NAFTA was enacted.
E) All of these statements are true.

Question 30

Which method have unions been the most successful in implementing in their dealings with MNCs?

A) boycotts in multiple foreign markets
B) transnational bargaining
C) threat of widespread strikes in multiple nations
D) adoption of international codes of conduct to regulate MNC behavior
E) all of these

Question 31

Which of the following is true about labor relations in Great Britain?

A) Shop stewards are volunteers that serve without pay.
B) Collective bargaining is voluntary and unenforceable by law.
C) Unions have great power and refuse to work with any employer they find to be in bad standing.
D) Labor disputes are confined to specific locations and secondary activities (e.g., boycotts) are prohibited.
E) All of these are true.

Question 32

Which of the following is a criticism that organized labor in the United States levels at U.S.MNCs?

A) They export U.S. technology to exploit low-cost foreign labor, depriving U.S. workers of the benefits of this technology.
B) Their foreign investments deplete capital resources available for investment in the U.S. economy.
C) They substitute imports from their low-cost foreign operations for American-made goods.
D) They displace exports of American-made goods by producing cheaper goods for foreign markets using low-cost foreign labor.
E) All of these criticisms are leveled at MNCs.

Question 33

Which of the following is a false statement about labor relations in Mexico?

A) Many collective bargaining agreements in Mexico contain an exclusion clause that requires workers to be union members before they can be hired.
B) The Mexican constitution gives workers the right to form independent unions.
C) Under the Mexican constitution, workers are entitled to participate in the profits of the enterprise.
D) If a strike is ruled legal in Mexico, managers have the right to keep working and hire replacement workers.
E) Many collective bargaining agreements in Mexico contain a protection clause that protects management from having to recognize and deal with a more demanding union.

Question 34

Which of the following is false about labor relations in China?

A) Today there is little flexibility for employers when it comes to staffing as all workers have a right to appeal any termination.
B) Traditionally, the relationship has been between workers and the government, not workers and individual enterprises.
C) Rather than serving workers, trade unions were used in the past to keep an eye on and control workers.
D) At one time, workers were assigned to state-owned enterprises and guaranteed lifetime employment.
E) Although unions have been given the right to engage in collective bargaining, Chinese workers have little faith in the unions and see them only as social welfare agents.

Question 35

Which of the following activities can frequently be found in the labor relations of Germany?

A) Low levels of unionization, especially in the engineering industries.
B) Union organization on a localized level only.
C) Arbitration at the individual plant level on wages.
D) Collective bargaining over wages and conditions of employment (job classification, working time, and working conditions) occurs formally outside the plant.
E) All of these

Question 36

Countries in Central and South America generally characterized as having comparatively advanced collective bargaining arrangements are:

A) Mexico and Argentina.
B) Chile and Brazil.
C) Ecuador and Nicaragua.
D) Costa Rica and Ecuador.
E) Brazil and Nicaragua.

Question 37

MNCs have an internal source of products and profits from facilities in several countries that can be used as leverage to bargain down wages,benefits,and other employment conditions. This practice is known as ________________ the union.

A) double-bargaining
B) shafting
C) whipsawing
D) torching
E) interest-playing

Question 38

Among those countries listed below,which has a lower percentage of the work force in unions than in the United States?

A) Germany
B) Spain
C) Switzerland
D) Australia
E) United Kingdom

Question 39

All of the following are present obstacles to transnational bargaining with MNCs except:

A) organized and active MNC resistance.
B) cultural differences (e.g., between free trade unions and socialist-linked unions).
C) differences in international labor relations law systems.
D) a lack of coordination of activities between organized labor in different countries.
E) different national priorities among different nations as it relates to labor organization.

Question 40

Which of the following is NOT true about the practices of Japanese MNCs in their operations in the United States?

A) It is much easier for labor to organize the operation of a Japanese MNC than it is a U.S.-based firm.
B) Japanese MNCs transfer a number of their practices (e.g., elimination of executive perks, use of work teams, emphasis on trust between workers and management, etc.).
C) Sometimes the transfer of Japanese MNC practices is not successful, especially when sales decline.
D) Even though Japanese MNCs do transfer Japanese practices to U.S. facilities, the truth is that employment practices still tend to be similar to those of U.S.-based firms.
E) Language and cultural barriers can present a big problem for Japanese managers of U.S. operations.