8.8 Managing Grievances and Conflicts

Grievance Handling and Arbitration

The union’s main way of policing the contract is the grievance procedure. A grievance is a formal complaint by an employee or the union that management has violated some part of the contract. Under a typical contract, the employee starts by presenting the grievance to the supervisor, either in person or in writing. The typical grievance procedure is illustrated in Exhibit 8.13. An example grievance is when an employee is passed over for a promotion that went to a co-worker, and they feel that the promotion process and policies are unfair. The employee feels they have seniority and are more qualified than the co-worker that received the promotion. The employee can submit a grievance to have the incident evaluated for fairness and consistent application of company policies.

If the problem isn’t solved, the grievance is put in writing. The employee, one or more union officials, the supervisor, and perhaps the plant manager then discuss the grievance. If the matter still can’t be resolved, another meeting takes place with higher-level representatives of both parties present. If top management and the local union president can’t resolve the grievance, it goes to arbitration.

Arbitration is the process of settling a labor-management dispute by having a third party—a single arbitrator or a panel—make a decision. The decision is final and binding on the union and employer. The arbitrator reviews the grievance at a hearing and then makes the decision, which is presented in a document called the award. The arbitrator, after review of the information, might rule that the promotion was valid because the coworker had additional certifications that took precedence over seniority to better meet the job responsibilities needed in the new position.

Tactics for Pressuring a Contract Settlement

Virtually all labor agreements specify peaceful resolution of conflicts, usually through arbitration. However, when a contract expires and a new agreement has not been reached, the union is free to strike or engage in other efforts to exert economic pressure on the employer. A strike occurs when employees refuse to work. The United Auto Workers union used a selective strike strategy, a strategy of conducting a strike at a critical plant that supplies parts to other plants, against General Motors. The union conducted its strike at a stamping and parts facility in Flint, Michigan, that supplied critical parts to other plants. The 54-day strike caused the company to stop production at many of its assembly plants because parts were not available from the Flint plant. General Motors lost approximately $2.2 billion during that dispute. Likewise, the employer can put pressure on the union through a lockout or by hiring strike replacements if the union has called a strike. For example, in 2024, railway company CPKC locked out nearly 10,000 employees from working during contract negotiations that lasted nearly a year.¹⁶ Table 8.5 provides a summary of union and employer pressure strategies for forcing a contract settlement.