Deck 30: Unions: Avoiding Them When Possible and Living With Them When Necessary

Question 1

The underlying issues driving most union organizing campaigns are economic in nature.

Answer 1

False

Question 2

In most union victories, anti-management sentiment initially arises from working conditions that include poor communication or arbitrary management.

Answer 2

True

Question 3

Not all first-line supervisors are automatically on the side of management during organizing.

Answer 3

True

Question 4

Some unions are becoming desperate because, as present circumstances suggest, healthcare organizations are steadily becoming less appealing organizing targets.

Question 5

As manufacturing jobs have been lost, the unions have shifted much of their focus to organizations within the service industries.

Question 6

Under a union contract some parts of the supervisor's job may actually be easier because rules for situations that were previously subject to interpretation and judgment.

Question 7

A union must receive a two-thirds majority of the bargaining election vote to become certified as the legal bargaining agent for all persons who work in the unit.

Question 8

A union may perhaps engage in some questionable practices while organizing, but for all practical purposes there is no such thing as an unfair labor practice committed by a union.

Question 9

A union's initial activity in preparing to organize is always the distribution of union literature to employees at walkways and parking lot entrances.

Question 10

Pay and benefits are always prominent in the presence of labor unrest, but the turmoil in the healthcare industry drives far more than these economic concerns.

Question 11

When a union is attempting to organize the employees, management is permitted to:

A) Offer the employees improved benefits to reject union representation.
B) Encourage employees to organize to reject the union.
C) Keep track of how many employees have or have not signed a union authorization card.
D) Keep outside organizers off the facility's premises.

Question 12

In many instances unions have won the right to represent employees because of:

A) A pro-union stance by the National Labor Relations Board.
B) Management indifference to complaints and a general lack of credibility with employees.
C) Employees' detailed knowledge of the organization's relative financial health.
D) None of the foregoing.

Question 13

The service sector of the economy, including health care, has become a primary target for union organizing because:

A) The service sector presently employs more than 75 percent of the work force.
B) The entire service sector is in a state of unrest.
C) Service organizations are easier to organize than manufacturing organizations.
D) The National Labor Relations Act makes organizing in service organizations easier than elsewhere.

Question 14

During a union organizing campaign management is legally allowed to :

A) Send loyal employees to union meetings to report on organizing activities.
B) Visit employees at home to urge them to oppose the union.
C) Inform employees of the disadvantages of belonging to a union.
D) Isolate pro-union employees by changing work assignments.

Question 15

The management of an organization can push its employees closer to a union by:

A) Interpreting the silence of the work force as indicating the absence of problems.
B) Automatically assuming that all supervisors are on the side of management.
C) Believing that most worker dissatisfaction is due to wages, benefits, and other economic concerns.
D) All of the foregoing.

Question 16

In many cases employee __________ produced by widespread lack of knowledge about what is truly happening provides a boost to the union cause.

Question 17

With much of health care in turmoil or at least in a chronic state of _________, employees are feeling more and more uncertain about the future.

Question 18

When employees feel their concerns are not being adequately addressed by management, these employees will turn to someone else who will seem to _______.

Question 19

The _____________ is in a key position when it comes to dealing with the threat of unionization.

Question 20

Management is permitted to inform employees that the institution may legally hire a new employee to replace any employee who strikes for ___________ reasons.