Recent Developments in Labor-Management Relations

In recent years, management and labor have looked for new ways to reduce conflict and increase produc­tivity. Some of America's largest corporations have adopted three of the most talked-about results of these efforts-flextime, peer review panels, and employee involvement programs.

Flextime. Life's tensions can make it difficult for workers to give as much attention to their jobs as they would like, or their jobs deserve. Early morning and evening rush hours can make the commute to work unbearable. Caring for young children, espe­cially for single parents, can put even more strain on a worker's day.

To relieve employees of these kinds of pressures, many companies have replaced the traditional 9 to 5 day with flextime. Flextime, or flexible work sched­ules, describes a variety of arrangements such as unconventional hours, part-time work, job sharing, and working at home. For example, a firm may require that everyone be at work between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m.; they can arrive or leave whenever they want, before or after those times, as long as they work eight hours a day.

Regardless of the arrangement, flextime schedules have the same goals-to make workers more produc­tive by relieving them of outside pressures, and to enable firms to attract and retain the best employ­ees.

Peer review panels. In most large corporations, situations develop where workers will be passed over for promotion, disciplined, or even fired. Such situations often leave workers with the feeling that they were treated unfairly. In the past, the only place workers could file a complaint was with man­agement. But since their grievance was caused by a management decision, workers often felt it was a waste of time to pursue the matter. Peer review pan­els represent an effort to meet this objection.

Peer review panels are made up of managers and employees who listen to worker grievances and rule on them. Such panels are most often found in non­union companies; however, some of the nation's largest and most successful corporations-General Electric, Control Data, Federal Express, and Citicorp, for example-are using them.

In most instances, the people on the panel are repre­sentative of a majority of the firm's employees. Workers who feel that they were unfairly passed over for promotion or disciplined bring their griev­ance to the board for review. The panel can then either endorse management's decision or overturn it.

Employment Involvement (EI) Programs. The most dramatic change in employee-management relations allows workers to assume responsibilities normally held by management. Depending on the extent of the responsibilities granted them, EI units are organized as Quality Circles, special-purpose teams, or self-managing teams.

Quality Circles, based on an idea widely used by the Japanese, are teams of workers that meet to identify job-related problems and suggest solutions. While the Quality Circles are free to make any and all sug­gestions, management has no obligation to adopt their ideas.

Special-purpose teams represent an American exten­sion of the Japanese concept. Where the Quality Circles focus on identifying problems and suggesting solutions, the special-purpose teams assume responsibility for solving specific problems.

An automobile engine assembly plant is running behind schedule because a particular part is not arriving in time for final assembly. Management creates a team of workers whose specific task is to eliminate the bottleneck. The team redraws work schedules and makes minor changes in the produc­tion of the problem part. By making it possible for the parts to arrive on time for final assembly, the team restores engine production to normal.

Self-managing teams assume the responsibility for producing an entire product. This makes them the most revolutionary form of employee teamwork. Typical of the responsibilities assumed by the self-managing teams are meeting with suppliers and customers, introducing changes in production proce­dures, and hiring new workers.

EI programs are not for everybody. Some labor lead­ers complain that their real purpose is to get work­ers to produce more at the same rate of pay. Simi­larly, some managers have opposed EI because they resent the idea of sharing authority with their employees.

Despite opposition, however, one recent government survey indicated that 70 percent of America's largest corporations are using some form of the Quality Circle concept. Meanwhile, stories of successful experiences with the more advanced forms of El have led to their use by more and more companies.

Summary

The American labor force has been changing in recent years. Trends include increasing participation by women and the growth of service occupations. These changes have been accompanied by a decline in the growth of manufacturing jobs, and an increasing demand for highly trained and educated workers who are able to use new technologies.

Wages, the return paid for one's labor, are affected both by market and nonmarket forces. Market forces are those subject to the laws of supply and demand. Nonmarket forces include things such as geography, government legislation, and discrimination.

Labor unions grew out of the harsh working conditions during the early years of America's Industrial Revolution. The growth of unions is related directly to the need of workers to improve their working con­ditions and indirectly to legislation that has helped to promote them. More recent legislation, however, has curbed what Congress perceived as an imbalance of power in favor of labor unions. These laws, together with the growth of our service economy, may explain why labor union membership, as a per­centage of the total labor force, has been on the decline since 1955.

Although most collective bargaining between labor unions and management results in mutual agree­ment, third parties are sometimes needed to settle contracts with conciliation, mediation, or arbitration. At other times, failure to settle differences has led to more serious results such as strikes, picketing, and boycotts. Today, leadership from both management and labor realize that it is in their best interest to reach agree­ments that will create more jobs while allowing American business to compete internationally.

Date: 2015-02-28; view: 742