Source: Image of Labor Strike, Public Domain, http://mrg.bz/aJMvyT
Hi, I'm Julie Tietz, and welcome to Conflict Resolution-- Putting the Pieces Together. Today, we're going to talk about and try and to understand the conflict resolution processes involved in labor disputes.
So when we have a labor dispute, we mean that there is a conflict between labor, which is usually organized labor, such as a union, and management within a company or organization. When there is a labor dispute in the United States, the federal government really encourages conflict resolution processes and encourages that through federal law, so laws that allow for mediation to happen or other conflict resolution processes.
And a federal agency that works in these types of disputes is the National Mediation Board. And so it's a federal agency, again, for labor disputes. And we usually see them working with disputes in the railroad and airlines.
Another agency is the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Services. And this agency is typically used for larger scale conflicts throughout the United States. So we may see this coming through in a dispute with, let's say, teachers unions. So those are two agencies in the United States that we can utilize for labor disputes.
So when there is a labor dispute, typically we see the company and the union, or the management and the union, rather, use arbitration and labor mediation. So arbitration is again where the labor union employee and the management come together and meet with an arbitrator who will decide the final outcome of the dispute.
And we see this a lot with disciplinary actions. So arbitration is usually put in in the labor contracts as a method of resolving certain disciplinary actions. So let's say an employee is going to be terminated. And before they can be terminated, the labor and management must go to the arbitrator and present the facts and see whether or not this employee should be terminated.
We also may utilize labor mediation. And we usually see this when we have contract negotiation disputes. So when labor and management are negotiating a new contract and they can't come together, we may enlist labor mediation processes.
Arbitration and labor mediation are not the only means of conflict resolution in labor management relations. We may also see conciliation occurring where the conflict intervener comes in and works separately between the parties that are having the dispute and try to make concessions.
And we also may have just a normal mediation. So it's a little different than the labor mediation in that we are typically negotiating over a contract. But maybe we have some interpersonal conflict between employees. So we may instill our typical mediation process here.
So now that we've gone over labor disputes, let's look at our key points. So a labor dispute is a dispute between labor, which is typically organized union labor, and management. And in the United States, conflict resolution processes are encouraged and allowed by law to happen.
And we may enlist the services of the national mediation board and the Federal Mediation and Conciliation services, which are both federal agencies. And typically, we see arbitration and labor mediation as two processes that are utilized in resolving labor disputes.
But there are other options as well. Here are your key terms before we go. Feel free to look at them a little closer and pause. Thanks for taking the time out. And I can't wait to catch you again next time.