Deck 12: Dealing With Union and Employeemanagement Issues

Question 1

Throughout most of American history, the relationship between managers and employees has been fairly smooth.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

Membership in industrial unions was strictly limited to skilled craftspeople.

Answer 2

False

Question 3

Even in their infancy, the main goal of most labor unions was to provide members with increased management power.

Answer 3

False

Question 4

A union that consists of members who are all skilled specialists in a particular trade is called an industrial guild.

Question 5

A craft union is an organization of skilled specialists in a particular craft or trade.

Question 6

Labor unions played a major role in establishing minimum wage laws, child-labor laws, and improvements in job safety.

Question 7

The Knights of Labor was the first truly national labor organization in the United States.

Question 8

The AFL (American Federation of Labor) was initially intended to be a single craft union.

Question 9

In its early years, the AFL limited its membership to skilled workers.

Question 10

Today labor unions have seen a revitalization of support and union membership has increased significantly.

Question 11

A union is an employee organization that has the main goal of representing its members in employee-management negotiation concerning job-related issues.

Question 12

The Knights of Labor, the first national labor organization, offered membership to all working people, including employers.

Question 13

The presence of formal labor organizations in the United States dates back to the late 1700s.

Question 14

Historically, managers were less concerned about productivity and more concerned with friendly relations with coworkers.

Question 15

Most historians view the increase in union membership in the United States as an outgrowth of the transition from an industrial economy to a service economy during the middle part of the 20th century.

Question 16

The first national labor organization, the Knights of Labor, sought to gain enough political power to restructure the entire U.S. economy.

Question 17

Samuel Gompers was the most important leader of the American Federation of Labor during its early years.

Question 18

During its early years, the AFL tried to expand as rapidly as possible by recruiting both skilled and unskilled workers.

Question 19

One of the things that labor is interested in is fair and competent management.

Question 20

Some contend that the main reason membership in labor unions has declined in recent years has been the passage of anti-labor legislation in the late 1980s that guaranteed all employees of a firm the same wages and benefits whether they joined a union or not.

Question 21

Abraham was an unskilled worker who toiled 10 hours a day on an assembly line during the early and mid-1930s. His hours were long, his wages were low, and his working conditions were unsafe and unpleasant. Abraham would probably have been more sympathetic to the views of John L. Lewis than to those of Samuel Gompers.

Question 22

Once a union is certified to represent a group of workers, decertification is not a consideration or future possibility.

Question 23

Union membership is likely to rise in the coming decade, because the same economic and political conditions that gave rise to unions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries are now reappearing.

Question 24

The process by which a union is recognized by the NLRB as the authorized bargaining agent for a group of workers is called collective bargaining.

Question 25

The Norris-LaGuardia Act made it more difficult for unions to legally recruit new members.

Question 26

The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibits firms from requiring workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their employment.

Question 27

John L. Lewis broke with the American Federation of Labor (AFL) in 1935 over membership issues and formed a rival group known as the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO).

Question 28

The Industrial Revolution slowed the growth of unions by creating a rapidly rising standard of living for most workers.

Question 29

In 1955, after the passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, the AFL and CIO merged to create the AFL-CIO.

Question 30

A major difference between early labor organizations in the United States and today's labor unions is that the early labor groups often were temporary organizations that disbanded after achieving a short-range goal, while today's unions are permanent organizations.

Question 31

For 20 years, the CIO was a major rival of the AFL in the contest for leadership of the labor movement.

Question 32

Today, more than 55 national and international labor unions are affiliated with the AFL-CIO.

Question 33

Samuel Gompers believed that collective bargaining was likely to be an ineffective way for unions to achieve their objectives.

Question 34

Collective bargaining is the process whereby union and management representatives negotiate a labor-management agreement, or contract, for workers.

Question 35

The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor were actually very similar in their aims, tactics, and membership. The only major difference was in the effectiveness of their leaders.

Question 36

The Zendor Corporation operates a manufacturing plant in Bel Ridge. The work is arranged in an assembly line and is performed by semiskilled and unskilled workers. These workers are looking into obtaining union representation. The type of union they would belong to would be classified as an industrial union.

Question 37

A yellow-dog contract required workers to agree not to join a union as a condition of their employment.

Question 38

The initial objective of the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was to provide union membership to workers in all industries.

Question 39

Today's labor leaders claim that the tragedy at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company is proof of why labor unions are crucial to maintain workplace balance in the U.S.

Question 40

The National Labor Relations Act gave labor the legal justification to pursue collective bargaining and other key labor issues.

Question 41

A union security clause in a labor-management agreement stipulates that employees who benefit from a union must either officially join or at least pay dues to the union.

Question 42

The Norris-LaGuardia Act prohibited courts from issuing injunctions against nonviolent union activities.

Question 43

Under the Wagner Act, the National Labor Relations Board can establish a labor union in an organization if it finds evidence of substantial labor abuse within that organization.

Question 44

The workers at the Kerriton Company are unhappy with the way their union has been representing them. The Wagner Act allows these workers to take away the union's right to represent them through a process known as decertification.

Question 45

The Taft-Hartley Act allowed states to pass laws that prohibited compulsory union membership.

Question 46

Jake remembers his grandfather telling him about going to work at 16 years of age in the coalmines of southern Illinois. In order to get the job, he had to agree to a yellow-dog contract. Essentially this meant he would only get the job if he agreed not to join a union.

Question 47

The NLRB oversees the decertification of unions. An employer (the company owners) can petition and seek the signatures of 30% of the employees in order to decertify the union; in other words, officially, the union could no longer represent the employees in any bargaining negotiations.

Question 48

One goal of the Landrum-Griffin Act was to clean up union corruption.

Question 49

Under a closed shop agreement, workers must agree not to join a union in order to keep their jobs.

Question 50

The main objectives of organized labor, better wages and shorter hours, have remained remarkably stable over time.

Question 51

The Taft-Hartley Act gave more power to management.

Question 52

Until passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, under a closed shop agreement, a company could only hire workers who already belonged to a union.

Question 53

During an interview with Zytex company representative, Hillary was told that Zytex faces intense competition and management believes that the only way the company can survive is to have a nonunion workforce. Therefore, all workers Zytex hires must sign an employment contract stating that they agree not to join a union while they work for Zytex. This requirement by Zytex is illegal in the United States.

Question 54

The negotiated labor-management agreement clarifies the terms and conditions under which labor and management agree to function over a specified period of time.

Question 55

Wage rates, hours of work, employee benefits, and job rights and seniority are issues covered in a typical negotiated labor-management agreement.

Question 56

The Wagner Act established the first minimum wage for workers.

Question 57

The National Labor Relations Act gave employees the right to form and join labor organizations and the right to engage in activities such as strikes and boycotts.

Question 58

The NLRB (National Labor Relations Board) has created procedures that union advocates must follow in order to organize a union at a place of business. The multi-step procedure culminates with a secret vote by the employees of the organization.

Question 59

Jenna is a member of a union team that is negotiating with management to obtain a labor contract for the workers represented by the union. Jenna is involved in contract arbitration.

Question 60

The Taft-Hartley Act strengthened unions by giving them the right to engage in featherbedding and secondary boycotts.

Question 61

Arbitration is an agreement to bring in an impartial third party to render a binding decision in a labor dispute.

Question 62

Under a union shop agreement, workers must belong to a union before they can be hired.

Question 63

In an agency shop agreement, workers who do not belong to the union must pay a union fee or pay regular union dues.

Question 64

Mike began working for a company that operates under an open shop arrangement. Under this type of arrangement, Mike must join the union at his company within 90 days or he will lose his job.

Question 65

The sources of many grievances include overtime rules, promotions, layoffs, and job assignments.

Question 66

In the past, a variety of professionals have served as mediators. If a labor dispute were to break out between the management at an auto manufacturer and the local union that represents workers at the auto manufacturing plant, it would be highly unusual for a university professor who has studied labor relations to be asked to mediate. The disputing parties would save his time for something more serious like arbitration.

Question 67

A grievance is a charge by managers that the union is not abiding by the terms of the negotiated labor-management agreement.

Question 68

A mediator has the power to impose a binding settlement on labor and management.

Question 69

Winona was recently hired to work at a production plant for Additup Manufacturing. When hired, she was told she must join the union at the plant within 90 days in order to keep her job. Winona is employed in an agency shop.

Question 70

Labor and management at the Brookwood Company have reached an impasse in their efforts to negotiate an acceptable labor-management agreement. The two sides have agreed to bring in an arbitrator. If the arbitrator issues a ruling that the union does not like, it can veto the decision.

Question 71

Marina works for a company in which a union is recognized as the bargaining agent for the workers who perform her type of job. However, under the arrangements at her company, Marina is not required to join the union, nor is she required to pay any fees or dues to the union. Marina works under an agency shop agreement.

Question 72

A bargaining zone is the time period during which a third party is used to reach agreement on union disputes.

Question 73

Mississippi has passed a right-to-work law, which means that union shops are illegal in the state.

Question 74

The vast majority of grievances filed by union members are negotiated and resolved by shop stewards and supervisory managers.

Question 75

Under an agency shop agreement, only union members are represented at the bargaining table.

Question 76

Arbitration and mediation are alike in that both involve an impartial third party to help in the negotiation process. The differences in these two approaches is that an arbitrator's decision is binding and both parties agree to this on the front end; a mediator encourages the two conflicting parties to continue to negotiate and may make suggestions in pursuit of a resolution.

Question 77

A union shop agreement is illegal in states that have passed right-to-work laws.

Question 78

The Taft-Hartley Act made the union shop agreement illegal in all states.

Question 79

Under an open shop agreement, workers have the option to join or not join a union, if one is present in the workplace.

Question 80

Many of the negotiated labor-management agreements in the United States call for the use of an arbitrator to end labor disputes.