COLLECTIVE BARGAINING IN COLLEGE DORMS

INTRODUCTION
 This case helps students to understand better the three phases of the mechanism of work
relations.
 It focuses on union and management's rights, duties and conduct in relation to union
selection, representation campaigns and elections for certification.
 Then it reviews the collective bargaining agreement negotiation process.
 It focuses on the administration of contracts that are responsible for interpreting and
enforcing the collective agreement (Holley et al. 2009
 LABOUR UNIONS

 A union is a working group that uses its power together to express its views and defend its rights
and interests on the job (L.A. Union, 2011).
 Unions defend such privileges for their members, such as salaries, hours of service, allowances
and benefits, and health and safety at work.
   A labor union offers workers the ability to have their voice heard by voicing any issues they
might have and seeking potential solutions.
 Like a democracy, the Unions are functioning. Officials who decide on behalf of their members
and allow more control on their place of work are elected. They may vote.
 COLLECTIVE BARGAINING

 According to (AFL-CIO, 2015) Collective bargaining entails negotiating the terms of their jobs
with an organized group of staff, generally a trade union, in order to control workplace pay, job
conditions, benefits and other forms of compensation and rights for employees.
 HR managers and collective bargaining go together because HR managers are specialists in
employee relations as well as in work relations.
 The main goal of collective bargaining is to achieve an arrangement that helps each other the
employer and the workers.
Case Study of Collective Bargaining in University of Massachusetts
Amherst
This case facilitates awareness of the mechanism of labor relations in the USA. The situation is
in line with the real activities of undergraduate resident assistants (RAs), embodied by the
United Automotive Workers Union at the University of Massachusetts, AMHERT (UMass
Amherst).

 Judicial parameters governing interactions with the workforce.

 Variables that lead in the union's representation to employee interest.
 Tactics and practices of employers and syndicates in the Union election process.
 Investors affect the relationships between jobs and management.
 The pre-contract negotiation’s importance
 The outcome of contract negotiation
 Major role of contract management
Background of the Case Study
UMass Amherst was founded on 310 acres with 56 students as the Massachusetts Agricultural College in 1863
(UMass Amherst, 2010e). The university has experienced tremendous growth since its inception By 2000, the
campus occupied 1450 acres in western Massachusetts, about 90 miles from Boston. More than 24,000
undergraduate students enrolled in the university between 2000 and 2002 (UMass Amherst, 2006).

 The results of the UMass Amherst campus elections in March 2002 were historic. Graduate
students chose the first student/employee union in the country.
 The election was more than a way for many syndical supporters to encourage UMass
Amherst's RAs' ambitions to work and to initiate a broader collective bargaining campaign
of undergraduate students / workers.
 The effects of the election were of a great concern for the administrators of other college
across the country.
 CLASSIFICATION OF STUDENTS/EMPLOYEES
THE RAs
RAs are undergraduate students who live for a minimum of two semesters on the floor of
a residence hall. In activities like programming or the use of campus resources, the CDA
acts as a mentor to the RAs (McHugh, 2011). RAs have certain responsibilities and duties
which are categorized into eight sectors
 To build a community and to act as a role model
 Act as a communication and referral agent.
 When a crisis arises, the RA acts as a crisis intervention agent
 The administrative duties such as hall open and close, student check-in and check-out
are taken care
 All the news coverages and staff meetings are scheduled
 Participates in training programs
 Maintaining the performance appraisal system
 All the general activities of the university are looked after by the RA
 ORGANISATION STRUCTURE
 All the five campuses are taken care by the board of trustees and the president
 There is a chancellor on each campus who reports to the president.
 The executive officer of the university is the chancellor.
 David Scott was the chancellor of the University.
 Marcellette Williams became the acting chancellor from 2001 to 2002 after he went down.
 On-campus housing was provided by Housing Services to more than 11,000 students
between 2000 and 2002.
 Residence Life, a department within Housing Services, was responsible for every aspect of
the student's experience in the residence halls.
 There were forty-one residence halls divided into four residential areas that were managed
by Area Directors (ADs).
 The residence halls were further divided into 23 clusters with resident directors (RDs)
overseeing personnel and office operations.
THE SELECTION OF THE RA

 The RA position was to be admitted to the graduate programme in 2002, had to live at least
one half in a residence hall, had no judicial sanctions and had a grade 2.4 GPA.
 Applicants were chosen through a multi-step method that resulted in an interaction with
Residence Life employees after meeting these requirements.
 To maintain the particular position, GPA of 2.2 was required.
THE RA AND MOU

 RAs were asked to sign a job requirements and an MOU when they were hired.
 The terms of job, including pay, working hours, GPA standards and several other
specifications, was listed in the MOU.
 For a RA who has worked for at least two semesters, has been enrolled in a degree-
granting programme, has earned a GPA of 2.2 and has been excluded from university
judicial penalties, a CDA status can be considered.
 The CDA acted as a mentor to RAs in tasks such as programming, the use of campus
services and assisting RAs in groups and there were problems.
 CDA compensation and other work-related circumstances were similar to those of RAs.
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING ON THE UMASS AMHERST
CAMPUS
 In 1958, Massachusetts  had the freedom to join labour unions and to present proposals to
public employers.
 Public employees have been approved by the law to join unions and to make proposals
available to employers.
 Public workers were never, however not allowed to deal with these public sector
syndicates.

 As a result, only a few unions participated on the UMass Amherst campus.

 The general Massachusetts Law (MGL) of 1973, that granted most local and state
employees full collective bargaining rights, improved collective bargaining rights for
public workers tremendously.
 The law granted most government workers the freedom to form, enter or participate in
unions at the federal, county and municipal levels;

* to negotiate about the terms and conditions of the workers collectively;

* to involve in other concentrated common assistance and security activities;
and not participate in any or all such practises.
The effect of the Massachusetts General Law (MGL)
1973

 union representation on the university campus increased dramatically among different

occupational groups, after this law was passed.
 The University Staff Association has started to represent administrative, clerical and
professional staff who are not removed (University Staff Association, 2010).
 Professional trades, terrestrial, protective, housing and nutrition services workers
(AFSCME Local 1776, 2010) is served
 In 1976 the Society of Professors in Massachusetts voted to be served by professors and
librarians in the complete and part-time sectors.
The effect of the Massachusetts General Law (MGL)
1973

 In 1991 the university authorized the GEO, an affiliate of United Auto Workers (UAW)
Local 2322 as the collective bargaining agent for a range of post-graduate student
positions, among which teaching assistants, study assistants and ARDs.
 Around 2,500 graduate student jobs were represented by GEO in 2002.
 UMass Amherst now had a workforce, mainly syndicated, and an atmosphere with the
usual facets of university life being trade unionisation and collective agreements.
 The atmosphere of the union organisation on campus is defined as the work of Lisa
Giddons, a student development expert whose work has included hiring and educating Ras.
 Not all of them had graduate student unions either.
Factors contributing to the unrest of RA

 Workplace dissatisfaction and inadequate working conditions have led to increased interest
in unionization.
 Many RAs and CDAs were also massively underpaid, with some salaries at or below the
minimum wage.
 There was no continuity and fairness in the complaints process.
 UMass Amherst saw a turnover growth of almost fifty percent in the early 21st century
among RAs and CDAs.
 The absence of equal pay, an unequal and unfair complaint system and unfair handling
UNREST TO UNION ORGANISATION

 Two RA members of the dispute section addressed the GEO, a UAW Local 2322 affiliate,
concerning the prospect of creating a RA union.
 The GEO has already been used by graduate teaching assistants and research assistants.
 A RA organizing Committee was founded with the assistance of GEO and UAW.
 The RA grievances were consistent with those of other workers: they needed "dignity and
respect on the job" said Tim Scott, a UAW Local 2322 union organiser.
 There was also concern that Residence Life administrators dominated the current
grievance process and the lack of continuity and fairness of RAs also had financial
concerns.
 The second, more frequent method is through elections for representation.
 The MLRC is allowed to administer secret ballots to appoint an exclusive representative if
at least 30 per cent of the affected employees have gained their consent (Massachusetts
Commonwealth, 2010), exclusively when an association has obtained their consent.
 Thus a petition or authority card that declares its intention to become served by the UAW
must be signed.
 If the MLRC is scheduled to vote, a staffing company wins by the plurality of the votes
cast in the election.
 If the bulk of votes go to an employee association
ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE UNIVERSITY

 Advocacy for syndicalisation began after the MLRC's decision that RA and CDA have the
right to participate in union and joint negotiations begin.
 The university declined to negotiate with the newly established union in good faith,
causing a tragedy in public relations by failing to preserve one's own residential policies
and principles.
 The word ‘bargain in good faith' means that all sides have genuine and sincere intentions in
their negotiating positions to seek a mutually just and fair solution (Lorraine, 2010).
ACTIONS TAKEN BY THE UNIVERSITY

 Therefore the university approached RA and CDA syndication very violently and
threateningly, which culminated in several detentions and a stained public profile.
 Dispute and custodies were unintended, when the university chose to arrest the students
and to leave them with an incident that they would never forget, rather than peacefully
overcome, as they wished.
 The media played an important role in seeking to downplay university actions and Union
status by distorting the public sentiment in favour.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STUDY
From a HR point of view
 Through presenting unfair work practices complaints, including the allegations of
discrimination and retribution, the syndicate should respond to the university's stance.
 Until the university has taken a new course of action, they will move on to demand and
gain support from associated students, other staff and the media.
 The union will harden its positions and shed light upon the abominable actions of the
university by keeping the conflict in public view.
 The university may also develop an open forum to encourage individuals to complain
about the programme.
 Setting up an open forum is an excellent way to create a community.
 People can have a mechanism to listen to their speech.
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STUDY

 Other action to strengthen the grievance process will include the introduction of a
progressive corrective action programme, providing policy and procedural preparation and
providing the ability for human resources to take a more active role.
 Five steps should be taken to include guidance, oral advice, verbal warning, final written
warning and termination for the progressive corrective action programme.
 The university will have a standardised disciplinary mechanism through the use of a
progressive programme to enhance and avoid recurrences of undesirable employee's
conduct or performance problems (SHRM, 2014).
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STUDY

 In particular, HR can help handle problems within the organisation such as policy
development and training initiatives if they have a more active role in the decision-making
process in the university.
 To get both parties to agree to talks, it is important to detail the terms of negotiations so
that only certain matters addressed by the union and the university can be dealt with.
 When they actually take place, HR can be a valuable resource in the negotiating process
for RAs' prices, salaries and benefits (Mayhew, 2009).
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR THE STUDY

 The training programme, which will establish continuity and fairness, will have clear
implications for individual acts and behaviour.
 This helps reduce employee fear of dismissal and thus improve retention rates.
 The training on the basic rules and procedures of the programme will help minimize any
doubt or misunderstanding and will bring all staff to the same position .
 The best option would be to engage in union events if the clear majority of the workers are
unsatisfied.
 Unions, however may result in partnership loss and animosity increase.
 It is important to note that it doesn't mean it works for all companies just because the
unionization succeeded for one organization.
CONCLUSION

 Personnel from HR and labour relations will play a key role in negotiations.
 They can be called upon to serve as chief negotiator or as a negotiator.
 They will be a significant resource for the negotiating team and plan for negotiations (e.g.
analysis and compilation of information on wages and benefits, benchmarking of other
employers and unions, costs for proposals for contracts).
 They ask to make offers for contracts and understanding letters.
 If contract negotiations are urgent and persuasive, they may be needed to postpone work on
other HR projects.
 'The Office of the University President' intruded into Amherst campus seems to have given the
governor's Office's increased impact on the budget of the university and growing bureaucracy
of the campus itself Ignites highlighting the need for reform as desperately as necessary.
 Reference
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 Lorraine, P. (2010). Employment law: Good faith and collective bargaining under the Fair Work Act. Keeping Good Companies), 62(5),

292-295.
 Collective Bargaining. (2016). Funk & Wagnalls New World Encyclopedia, 1p. 1.
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 Massachusetts labor cases: MLC. (1975/2016). Boston, MA: Massachusetts Labor Relations Reporter.

 McHugh PhD, P. P. (2011). Collective bargaining in college dorms. Society for Human Resource Management. Alexandria, VA.

 Mayhew, R. (2011). What role does a human resource manager play in labor contract negotiations? Retrieved from

http://smallbusiness.chron.com/role-human-resource-manager-play-labor-contract-negotiations-16571.html

 Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM). (2014). Progressive discipline policy:

 Single disciplinary process. Retrieved from http://www.shrm.org/templatestools/samples/policies/pages/progressivedisciplinepolicy.aspx