Labor Management and Unions: Exploring the Fundamentals of Labor Relations and the Law

DATES TO BE ANNOUNCED

Recommended as a first course in the Labor Relations Certificate, Labor Management and Unions: Exploring the Fundamentals of Labor Relations and the Law lays the foundation for the program with a thorough examination of the National Labor Relations Act, its structure, its application to represented and unrepresented employees, and the implications for collective bargaining. A blend of the law and real-world examples, this class answers the “how” or “why” to many of your questions about labor relations.

This course is preapproved by the Society for Human Resource Management for 10.5 Professional Development Credits (PDCs) toward the SHRM-CP or SHRM-SCP.

This course can be applied to the following certificate:
Labor Relations Certificate

Benefits and Learning Outcomes

  • Recognize the significance of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
  • Discover the structure and authority of the National Labor Relations Board.
  • Identify the rights of employees and employers in the NLRA.
  • Compare and contrast union and employer unfair labor practices.
  • Correlate the NLRA to union organization and collective bargaining.

Course Outline/Topics

The NLRA

  1. Federal Law enacted in 1935. Few amendments – New Deal legislation
  2. Authorizes unionization and collective bargaining
  3. Applies only to private employers
  4. Protects rights to exclusive representation and collective bargaining

The NLRA creates the National Labor Relations Board (discuss structure and authority)

  1. The Board
  2. The General Counsel
  3. Administrative Law Judges
  4. Regional Offices

Section 7 of the NLRA

  1. Employee right to join/form a union
  2. Employee right to refrain from such activity
  3. Protected Concerted Activity (applies to nonunion employees too)

Section 8 of the NLRA

  1. Employer unfair labor practices
  2. Union unfair labor practices
  3. Duty of Fair Representation
  4. Remedies

Section 9 of the NLRA: How employers are organized/How employees are unionized

  1. Voluntary recognition
  2. NLRB supervised election
    1. Petition for election
    2. Majority of voters (50% plus 1)
  3. Bargaining Order

Collective Bargaining

  1. Information Requests
  2. Good Faith Bargaining v. Bad Faith Bargaining
  3. Hard Bargaining

Economic Weapons During Bargaining

  1. Economic Strike
  2. ULP Strike
  3. Lockout
  4. Corporate Campaigns
  5. Picketing and Bannering

Administering the CBA

  1. Business Agents and Union Stewards
  2. Grievance and Arbitration Procedure

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