Collective Bargaining: Partnership by Legislation

Author

John A. Gross

Date of Graduation

Fall 1977

Degree

Master of Business Administration

Department

Management and Information Technology

Committee Chair

John Bowdidge

Abstract

At the turn of the twentieth century, American industry was in a period of tremendous growth and change, drastically effecting the workplace and the employer-employee relationship. Powerful employers searched for means of obtaining more efficiency and preventing waste; employees, on the other hand, sought a means to counter the strength of the large corporations. Congress, through legislation, and the National Labor Relations Board and federal courts, through interpretive decision, have approached the balancing of conflicting, legitimate interests by providing a framework of good faith collective bargaining over certain aspects of the employer-employee relationship while remaining unrestrictive relative to specific issues or possible solutions. To satisfy the requirements of good faith collective bargaining an employer must recognize his employees, through their representatives, as "Restricted Partners," limited to the aspects of wages, hours and working conditions. Collective bargaining in this perspective is a distribution of the power to decide these specific matters. Business partners usually manage to negotiate harmonious solutions to their internal commercial problems; similarly, the federal labor legislation and policy is an attempt to accomplish peaceful solutions to labor problems through good faith collective bargaining.

Subject Categories

Business Administration, Management, and Operations

Copyright

© John A. Gross

Citation-only

Dissertation/Thesis

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