Business
Throughout this essay, I will describe the economic weapons available to employers and unions during negotiations. For each, I will explain how the weapon is designed to exert pressure on the other party and the advantages and disadvantages of each. Bear in mind, I will be concentrating on private sector employees covered by the NLRA. I will try to make distinctions that would apply to public sector and non-NLRA covered workers as I go along.
Employers' economic weapons consist of lockout; plant closings, and other forms of economic pressure.
Although lockout is a primary economic weapon utilized by employers; it is rarely used. According to a class handout, an employer may lock out its employees in order to bring economic pressure on a union. For example, an employer may lockout offensively, i.e., to put economic pressure on the union to accede to its bargaining demands. In other words, a theater could lockout unionized workers in a preemptive maneuver during a slow season to outmaneuver the possibility of the union striking during its busiest season to exert its pressure on the theater. Thus, the theater hopes to resolve the labor issue, to their advantage, before the busy season (e.g. Christmas season).
Lockout is consisted of other components, besides the generalized aspect described in the preceding paragraph, such as: replacements; pre-impasse lockouts, and partial lockouts. An employer can hire temporary replacements during a lockout but it is not allowed to hire permanent replacements. Pre-impasse lockouts are lockouts implemented before an impasse (a deadlock in negotiations).
On the other hand,
partial lockouts arise from the act of an employer which, although allowing employees to work normal hours of work, withdraws the provision of other contractual obligations such as the opportunity to work overtime or the payment of penal rates.are lockouts rendered in a partial manner (www2.stats.govt.nz).
Both pre-impasse lockouts and partial...
View Full Essay