Case Study: Labor Relations

Case Study: Labor Relations

Case Study: Labor Relations

The National Labor Relations Board is an independent agency that has the power to keep employees’ rights safe and to organize and determine whether to have a union as its bargaining representative. The National Labor Relations Board agency acts to keep unfair labor practices committed by private organizations and unions (National Labor Relations Board, 2016).

The National Labor Relations Board not only safeguards employees’ rights but, conduct elections, investigate charges, facilitate settlements, decide cases, and enforce decisions made by the board.  It is the NLRB’s practice to encourage all parties involved to resolve cases through settlement rather than going through with court litigation whenever possible. In these cases, most of the parties comply voluntarily with the orders of the NLRB. In cases where parties are unwilling to comply the agency’s decisions, General Counsel will seek help in the U.S. Court of Appeals. If a party receives an unfavorable decision that party May seek review in the federal courts (National Labor Relations Board, 2016). This practice encourages an ethical standard among organizations and employees.

Collective Bargaining

The purpose of a union in an organization is to have a voice that represents the employees of that organization. When many employees come together and negotiate issues in contracts benefits, etc., this is known as collective bargaining. Collective bargaining is the negotiations that take place between organizations and their employees to determine wage, benefits and working conditions (Kubasek, Brennan and Browne, 2015).

In the case of American Truck & Trailer, Inc., and local 1702 United Paper Workers International Union, the union filed a charge and an amended charge on February 25th and April 21st of 1993. A complaint was issued by the General Counsel of the National Labor Relations Board on May 4th of 1993 against American Truck & Trailer, Inc. who is the respondent. These charges alleged that American Truck & Trailer violated Section 8(a) 1 and 5 of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016).

According to case documents, American Truck & Trailer did business in Seekonk, Massachusetts and has been engaged in vehicle maintenance and contract carrier services. In December of 1992 American Truck & Trailer purchased a portion of Island Transportation Company, which also performed carrier services. American Truck & Trailer continued to operate the Island Transportation Company as it had been ran previously, fundamentally unchanged.

From the period of December 24th 1992 and any other time, the Union was designated as the exclusive collective bargaining representative of the unit and has been recognized as the representative by American Truck & Trailer. In 1993 American Truck & Trailer agreed to pay all monies owed by Island Transportation Company to all arbitration Awards issued against the company ((NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016

Analysis

In this case, employees accused American Truck & Trailer of failing to make payments which came due to the National Industry union pension plan outlined in the 1990-93 contract of the truckers union. The company also refused and failed to pay health and life insurance coverage required by the same contract and refused to pay Island Trucking’s obligations to employees for arbitration awards in accordance to the American Arbitration Association cases which were required by the recognition agreement. American Truck & Trailer Company also failed and refused to pay liabilities incurred by Island Trucking in previous board cases required by a third-party, as well as failed and refused to pay Island Trucking’s pension liability to employees which was required by the recognition of their contract ((NLRB.gov, Dist. file., 2016).

All of these allegations against American Truck and Trailer were related to wages, hours, and other terms and conditions of the American Truck Company employment and were mandatory subjects of discussion for the purposes of collective bargaining. The American Truck and Trailer organization engaged in this type of conduct without the union’s consent and was ultimately in violation of the NLRB rules (NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016).

Because American Truck was found to have engaged in these unfair labor practices, the organization was ordered to cease and desist to take action designed to make policies of the act more effective (NLRB.gov, Dist. file., 2016).  Also, due to the fact that the respondent violated the Section 8(a)(5) and 1 by not making payments to the pension plan, by not providing health and life insurance coverage which was required, and not paying Island Trucking’s arbitration award obligations, it is required of American Truck & Trailer Inc. to restore employees health and life insurance by making all delinquent payments and contributions including interest in any other amounts that were due. American Truck was also ordered to reimburse all employees for any expenses they incurred from the company’s failure to make required contributions (NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016).

Considering this case, when American Truck & Trailer purchased Island Transportation they also purchased Islands debt. This means any outstanding balances, judgments, or accounts payable pertaining to Island Transportation, were figured into the purchase of the organization (NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016). In the case files, it is not clearly defined rather or not the purchase agreement required American Truck and Trailer to pay all outstanding judgments or balances.

According to the judgement of the National Labor Relations Board in this case, the case did have Merit. It was found that the organization was in violation of the rules set forth by the NLRB pertaining to unfair labor practices (NLRB.gov, Dist. file. 2016). These unfair labor practices affected employees greatly. If an employee did not have health insurance and had underlying medical conditions, that employee could have been denied care or possibly even died due to non-treatment. This case was also worth arguing because American Truck & Trailer was accused of being in violation of their contract with their employees. If the organization was to pay for health insurance, contribute to a pension and pay off arbitration debt, they should have done so.