Analysis Unit 7 Essay

After nineteen years working as a plant maintenance engineer, employee Bob Thomas was terminated after Jean Lipski the Human Resources Director discovered that Bob was involved in starting a union at the Apollo Corporation. This case will answer the questions: 1. what, if any violation of the law did Apollo Corporation commit? 2. What may be the arguments that Jean Lipski and Bob Thomas use to defend their cases? The case study will also briefly list things mangers should not do to commit unfair labor practices. Review/Analysis of the Case Apollo Corporation is a company that makes component parts for the communication industry. Bob Thomas a Plant Maintenance engineer worked for the company for nineteen years. During the previous five years of his employment his attendance was insufficient, he was a complainer, and also was reported as being a troublemaker. The Apollo Corporation had a laid-back type of atmosphere. As a result of the companies not enforcing the policies strictly and applying disciplinary action against employees not conforming to company policy and a failure to comply with such polices were never put to use (Bohlander 2007). Apollo Corporation is involved in highly competitive industry to produce; HR Director Jean Lipski met with the managers during several meetings and instructed them to exercise their supervisory relationship employees. The employees that did not adhere to HR policies would have disciplinary action against them. Bob and several of the employees were not happy of hearing about the enforcement of the policies. Bob also began to worry about his job, because his attendance was so poor and being labeled as troublemaker and complainer. So Bob contacted the union organizer of the Brotherhood of Machine Engineers. Bob conveyed to the union organizer that he wanted to start a union drive in the company. After a week went by fliers were handed out to the employees about a union meeting. Jean Lipski found out that employees were putting together a meeting to discuss being a union and Bob was the leader of the campaign, Jean called Bob Thomas into her office and terminated his employment with company on the basis of his unsatisfactory work performance and less than perfect attendance. Bob immediately called the union organizer and informed him of his discharge from The Apollo Corporation. Bob and the union organizer immediately headed to the regional office of the NLRB to file unfair labor practice charge against The Apollo Corporation for involvement to unionize the company. Analysis of Findings Apollo Corporation could be charged with unfair labor practices of the National Labor Relations Board (Belcourt, 2004). The National Labor Relations Act, section 7 states â€Å"employees have the right to self-organization, to form, join or assist labor organization. †(p597) Bob Thomas termination happened shortly after he contacted a union organizer and started an campaign for a meeting to be held so that the employees could become unionized Jean Lipski arguments could be based off the fact that Bob had a record of poor attendance and unsatisfactory performance on the job and that was reason for his dismissal. Jean also could argue that she had conducted meetings with the managers to enforce the performance polices and that they were already being set in place and the fact that Bob contacted a union organizer was only to secure his job, because of his lack of performance. Bob Thomas could argue that he was discharged for his involvement in trying to unionize the company. Bob could point out the fact that The Apollo Corporation had been lax in their disciplinary practices in the past and he never suffered any repercussions for his poor performance, until he contacted a union organizer. He could further argue that his termination after contacting an organizer is a violation of the employee right to organize. Recommendations In order for this type of case to never happen again managers need to be aware of the unfair labor practices. Managers should not hire, promote or terminate employees on the basis of their union membership or gender, race and even religion (Belcourt 2004). Meetings should be held with both managers and employees. Most important, disciplinary policies should be enforced from the beginning of employment. Summary and Conclusions . This case study showed how an employee and a company not following their company policies from the beginning of employment can turn into a legal conflict involving the union. Employers have to practice fair labor and be knowledgeable of union practices in order to protect themselves from being accused or sued for discrimination.