Recently in Labor-Management Relations Category

Source: American Rights at Work Education Fund, 2010

From the summary:
In our sixth annual Labor Day List: Partnerships that Work, the American Rights at Work Education Fund recognizes employers who practice labor-management cooperation while creating pioneering solutions to the environmental challenges of the 21st century. The eight businesses featured see their workers' unions as essential partners, and consider environmental stewardship a key component of their business model. At a time when the leadership of bold, visionary employers is in high demand, this year's Labor Day List companies provide a model for the "win-win-win" economy our country needs--an economy in which businesses thrive, the planet prospers, and workers share in the success they help create.

Source: Julia Rose Adler-Milstein, Sara J. Singer, and Michael W. Toffel, Harvard Business School Working Papers, August 25, 2010

From the summary:
How can front-line workers be encouraged to speak up when they know how to improve an organization's operation processes? This question is particularly urgent in the U.S. health-care industry, where problems occur often and consequences range from minor inconveniences to serious patient harm. In this paper, HBS doctoral student Julia Adler-Milstein, Harvard School of Public Health professor Sara Singer, and HBS professor Michael W. Toffel examine the effectiveness of organizational information campaigns and managerial role modeling in encouraging hospital staff to speak up when they encounter operational problems and, when speaking up, to propose solutions to hospital management. The researchers find that both mechanisms can lead employees to report problems and propose solutions, and that information campaigns are particularly effective in departments whose managers are less engaged in problem solving. Key concepts include:

- Front-line workers offer more solutions to operational problems in departments whose managers are more engaged in problem solving.
- Information campaigns that promote process improvement generate more solutions from front-line workers, especially from workers whose managers are less routinely engaged in problem solving.
- Efforts at the organizational level can compensate for managers who cannot or do not create an environment that inspires front-line workers to speak up.

Source: Anthony Sanders, West Virginia Law Review, forthcoming

From the abstract:
Multiemployer collective bargaining relationships between unions and employer associations easily devolve into legalized cartels. Once unions establish themselves as the bargaining representative for employers' employees, the employers have much to gain from banding together as an association, raising their prices and eliminating non-union competition, with unions happily serving as enforcement agents in the scheme. In return, unions receive a share of the increased oligopolistic profits in the form of higher wages and benefits.

Source: Carol Porter, Journal of Nursing Administration, Vol. 40 no. 6, June 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
Clinical nurses and nursing management strive for a collaborative relationship that supports nursing practice. When collaboration exists between labor and management, the joint focus moves toward provision of quality patient care and a positive work environment. The author describes a Nursing Labor Management Partnership implemented in a major teaching hospital with Magnet(R) designation. Examples of each dimension of the partnership are included.

Source: Carol Porter, Katharine Kolcaba, Sister Rita McNulty, Joyce J. Fitzpatrick, JONA: The Journal of Nursing Administration, Volume 40, Issue 5, May 2010
(subscription required)

From the abstract:
The effects of a nursing labor management partnership (NLMP) on nurse turnover and nurse satisfaction were examined.

Job satisfaction and retention are among the factors related to the nursing shortage. The NLMP was a specific intervention where nursing leaders, both nonbargaining and bargaining, worked collaboratively to improve patient care and outcomes.

There was a significant decrease in nurse turnover and a significant increase in nurse satisfaction (from moderate to high) post-NLMP.

Source: Anne Marie Lofaso, Employee Rights and Employment Policy Journal, Vol. 14, No. 1, 2010

From the abstract:
"Talking is worthwhile" - or so preached Clyde Summers. Using that idea as my springboard, I trace the various incarnations of the law's treatment of job security in circumstances of economic distress. In addition to providing unemployment or other post-termination benefits, I demonstrate that the law can have various pre-termination roles that range from least to most cooperative between the parties. These roles include the following: do nothing to notify workers of an impending layoff to furnish workers with information relevant to an impending layoff to compel employers to consult or bargain with employees' representatives with a view to(ward) reaching agreement to compel the parties to co-decide what to do in these situations. After comparing United States federal law (which in many cases mandates advance notification, information exchange, effects bargaining, and sometimes even bargaining) with the European Union's collective redundancies directive (which compels pre-decisional consultation among the parties with a view to reaching agreement), I reason why "talking [before the layoff] is worthwhile." I conclude by showing how my preferred solution - to extend mandatory, pre-decisional bargaining (or at least consultation) over mass layoffs and plant closings to nonunionized workers - effectuates national labor policy as Professor Summers understood it. My simple solution - to give employees voice - also empowers workers to take control of their destinies by helping them to save their jobs and the businesses that employ them when both worker and firm are most vulnerable. Accordingly, my solution both dignifies workers and encourages them to become autonomous agents of their working lives - foundational values in a human-rights approach to labor and employment law.

Source: Walter Leutz, Christine E. Bishop, and Lisa Dodson, The Gerontologist, published online Aug. 19, 2009
(subscription required)

From the Commonwealth Fund summary:
This Commonwealth Fund-supported study looks at a partnership that was formed between a New York City nursing home union and 40 nursing homes to help implement "person-centered care" at the facilities. Results showed an improvement in quality of life, with residents gaining more autonomy and privacy and many employees experiencing greater job satisfaction.

Source: Phillip Dine, Missouri Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board, 2009

From the Council 4 summary:
Millions of Americans contribute blood and money to the Red Cross with the belief that the organization is well run and the blood supply is protected. But a new Jobs with Justice report raises serious concerns about donor safety and the security of the nation's blood supply.

The Missouri Jobs with Justice Workers' Rights Board released the report, "Labor Relations at the American Red Cross and Its Impact on Employee and Donor Safety," after hearing from front-line Red Cross workers across the country. The investigative report outlines practices that jeopardize blood donors' safety and the integrity of the blood supply, including long work hours that lead to fatigue and mistakes; sharp pay cuts that cause dramatic increases in employee turnover and hiring non-qualified workers instead of certified nurses.

Source: American Rights at Work, 2009

In the American Rights at Work Education Fund's fifth annual Labor Day List, we recognize successful partnerships between employers and their employees' labor unions that are working well in an uncertain global economy.

Employers showcased in this year's report walk the walk when it comes to respecting their own workers' rights, and now they are going a step further by standing up on behalf of all U.S. workers. Every business profiled in this year's report has spoken out on the need for meaningful labor law reform. By supporting the Employee Free Choice Act, legislation making it easier for workers to choose to form a union, a new generation of visionary employers is laying the foundation for the financial well-being of workers and businesses alike.

Source: Mischa Gaus, Labor Notes, no. 364, July 2009

Big Bother Comes in for a Check-Up

Beyond the whiz-bang applications that will smooth record-taking and make the hospital safer lie more familiar reasons why Shands is spending up to $7 million installing a high-tech backbone in its newest facility.

The sensors can also track the location of each IV stand - and every hospital worker, whose badges will include a tag that registers their location.

Hospitals could also use the technology to defeat organizing drives by identifying union supporters.