Unions

Unit # 7 вЂ" Enhancing Employee-Management Relations

Homework Project вЂ" Case Study

The Union Drive at Apollo Corporation:

ULP’s and Organizing Tactics

By:

Jemayne R. Cullum

705 East 179th Street

Bronx, NY 10457

917-528-5741

Professor Pat Lee

MT203-04 Human Resource Management

March 2008

Apollo Corporation is a general component producer for the communications industry. Bob Thomas, a nineteen year manager, that has been performing less than adequately in terms of punctuality and overall work performance. Bob has had many lateness, has been thought of as a complainer and troublemaker and he is highly critical of management. Apollo Corporation has been the type of company that has been very lax on their policies and procedures. Employees come to work at all different times of day and provide less than acceptable performance. The HR Manager has decided to speak with all levels of management and let them know how they will need to tighten up on the policies for the company. When Bob heard about the tighten rules and policies he began to think his poor performance and attendance was catching up to him. Bob decided he would look into speaking with a union representative to talk about starting a union with Apollo Corporation. Within a couple weeks of the decision to tighten up policies, management at Apollo had terminated Bob’s employment from the company with the reason given as poor work performance and unsatisfactory attendance.

In this situation I am not sure I would calculate this as being a wrongful termination, but it does make you question whether they were acting out of retaliation in the efforts of starting a union into the corporation. The Railway Labor Act, The Norris-LaGuardia Act, The Wagner Act, The Taft-Hartley Labor Act and the Landrum Griffin Act all do not mention terminating an employee based on performance regardless of such policies being put in place and just not exercised. Since the decline in productivity among many employees HR thought it would be a good idea to start enforcing the policies that have been in place. The different acts that are in existence only mention wrongful termination and discrimination based creating and implementing a union. There was never any mention that Apollo was angry with the fact that Bob Thomas was starting the beginning phase of starting a union. So no true violation was creating by this situation.

Jean Lipski would have a hard case to prove on behalf of Apollo Corporation. The fact that upon implementing a union drive Bob was terminated based on performance and punctuality could warrant a valid termination, but her lack of knowledge of union rules and regulations does not clear her of any wrong doing. Her case should prove that the only reason that Bob was terminated was because of his performance and provide sufficient documentation showing why