Intransigent consequences: Indiana case illustrates losing situation.

AuthorBirdsall, Richard
PositionHR Matters

Inflexibility in the human condition can breed unnecessary conflict. Strict adherence to tightly written policies, which cannot possibly address all workplace eventualities, can box you in. Have you, as a union member, ever been caught between your union and your management ... and lost? Or have you, as an employee ever been the shrimp caught between two manager whales in a power struggle?

Employer/union relationships are often adversarial, at best. This adversarial relationship results in tightly written collective bargaining agreements reducing flexibility in its application by both sides. Unions and employers ultimately insist on adherence to the letter of the agreement because exceptions made for a single employee's benefit would constitute a waiver that, once granted, suggests a permanent amendment to the agreement. Much like collective bargaining agreements, the strict interpretation and adherence to employer policies can be similarly problematic.

A CONVENTIONAL SCENARIO

When an unexpected event backs an employee into a corner, management, unions and employees need to work together. If they fight over the literal language of the collective bargaining agreement, or employer policies, they can ultimately harm all concerned.

This story happens in many companies--and may have happened to you, just with different facts. An employee caught between his company's management and his union or between two dueling managers applying different rules.

In this story, which has a fix we could all learn from, is a long-haul truck driver with a pregnant wife. He wanted to stay close to home. So he asked for, and received, a transfer to a local route hauling freight around the city.

A month into his new work shift, he ran into a reality wall. The local hauls greatly increased his frequency of loading and unloading freight thereby aggravating his back.

He tried to tough it out but couldn't. A month after his transfer, he asked to return back to the long-haul route. This would seem to be a reasonable request with a simple solution.

Instead, he ignited the perfect storm--because management and union hadn't worked out how to work together for the benefit of the employee.

A NO-WIN SITUATION

Because the union agreement restricted transfers to a maximum of one per year, management didn't...

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