MANAGEMENT RIGHTS

Unions say they will give workers power in the workplace - that workers will make the important decisions about their work environment.


What power does a union have over management decisions?

 

The answer: none.

Your Company's contract with a UNION contains a "Management Responsibilities" clause that says company management has the exclusive rights to:

  • “direct, train and test the work force”

 

  • “transfer work to other facilities”

 

  • “hire, promote, layoff, demote, and discipline and discharge for just cause”

 

  • “establish reasonable rules and policies”

 

  • “relieve employees from duty because of lack of work and for other legitimate reasons”

 

  • “create, combine, eliminate or change any job, job classification or department”

 

  • “determine work assignments”

Your Company's contract with a UNION contains a "Management Responsibilities" clause that says company management has the exclusive rights to:

  • "hire, retire, transfer, change assignments"

 

  • "promote, demote, suspend, discharge, discipline"

 

  • "relieve employees for lack of work or other legitimate reasons"

 

  • "maintain discipline and efficiency of all employees"

 

  • "establish work schedules and to make changes therein essential to the efficient operation of the plant"

 

  • “be the judge of the physical fitness of employees”

Unions killed a law that would have let employers give merit raises to unionized employees in addition to their regular pay?



In 2012, Congress considered the RAISE ("Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees") Act which would have lifted the ceiling on unionized workers’ wages by allowing employers to pay individual workers more — but not less — than the union contract calls for.  

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Unions strongly opposed the RAISE Act, and it was defeated in the U.S. Senate by a vote of 45 for and 54 against.  


Some researchers found that if Congress had passed the RAISE act, average pay for union members could have risen between $2,700 and $4,500 a year.

Why are unions dead-set against merit pay?

 

Maybe it's this:  if management gives raises to workers on their own, without bargaining with the union, the workers might start to feel they don't need to pay a union to speak for them.

THE BOTTOM LINE:


Sometimes when a union is voted in, the changes workers get aren't the changes they want.