Case Study 4.1: Whose Union Is It?
Discussion Questions
Question 1
The issue is that the national salary budget cannot accommodate the existing number of employees to work for additional hours and more pay. The other issue is that the layoff targets at dismissing even the unions heads thus exposing the young members to danger. In addition the union members argue that they need to maintain their jobs yet they are not ready on working for increased hours (Kearney, & Mareschal 2014).
Question 2
As the union stewards I would proceed by arguing that it is not reasonable for the union leaders to be dismissed. In addition I would work on convincing the workers that it would not be possible to maintain their positions if they do not want work more as required.
Question 3
The layoffs are most preferable in the generation of the benefits in the situation. This is mainly because the salary budget cannot fully be able to support the employees with additional hours. Working more means that the employees should be paid more and the budget cannot accommodate the high cost. This means that layoffs would help to support the objective of increasing performance, not underworking the workers as well as decreasing the general cost of operation (Kearney, & Mareschal 2014).
Question 4
The removal of the union’s chairs as well as the stewards would not assist the younger members of the union since their rights would not be well represented. Younger members of the unions require guidance in understanding their responsibilities as workers and their stated rights. With the dismissal of their representatives this means that if an issue arises the members would not be able to address the issue adequately.
Question 5
The possible impacts of the situation are that some workers in the union would have to be laid off with an exclusion of the representatives such as the union’s chairs and stewards. This is to ensure that the members are represented adequately and the salary budget is correlated with the rate of working services that is provided as the budget holds.
Reference
Richard C. Kearney, & Patrice M. Mareschal (2014). Labor Relations in the Public Sector. CRC Press
