Written Assignment #1 HR Strategy Responding to a Union Organizing Drive Due Week 3 Assignment Overview There are 4 scenarios at the end of Chapter 6 of the textbook, pages 225 and 226. The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with real world exposure to the functions performed by labor relations. This assignment is worth 150 points; see rubric below. Preparing for this Assignment Read through each of the 4 scenarios. Spend some time analyzing what actions you would take as the HR Manager for these organizations. Assignment Criteria 1. Write a 6-8 page paper (does not include title page or reference page/pages) providing a “summary” of your actions. a. You are the HR Manager for each scenario. b. Read through each scenario. c. Read through the Plan-Do Check-Act (PDCA) process that is located in DocSharing. This will be helpful in your analysis of the issues as well as offering viable recommendations. d. Outline your various alternatives in responding to the union organizing drive. e. Develop and support a specific recommended course of action to present to upper management. 2. Follow APA format guidelines. 3. You should be able to cover the alternatives and recommended actions in 1 1/2 to 2 pages for each scenario. 4. The paper should include theory application. In other words, once you have conducted your analysis, what theories link to the Labor Relations processes/functions? For example, spend a little time justifying the recommendations you made to upper management. Why should management pursue your suggestions? What analysis have you done that makes your recommendations viable? What are the pros and cons of the recommendations? Assignment Rubric Item Criteria Points Introduction/Conclusion Introduction provides sufficient background on the topic and previews major points. Conclusion is logical, flows from the body of the paper, and reviews the major points. 10 Content All key elements of the assignment are covered in a substantive way. Page count follows assignment criteria. Major points are stated clearly, are supported by specific details (examples or analysis), and are organized logically. 60 Theory The paper links theory to relevant examples of current experience and industry practice, and uses the vocabulary of the theory correctly. 40 Readability Paragraph transitions are present and logical, flow maintained throughout paper. Sentences are complete, clear, and concise. Sentence topic transitions are present and maintain the flow of thought. 20 Mechanics The paper, including the title page, reference page, citations, etc., follows APA guidelines for format. Rules of grammar usage and punctuation are followed. Spelling is correct. 20 Total Points 150 FOUR SCENARIOS For each of the four scenarios here, you are the HR manager and you need to 1.Outline your various alternatives in responding to the union organizing drive. 2.Develop and support a specific recommended course of action to present to upper manage.

1. Written Assignment #1
HR Strategy Responding to a Union Organizing Drive
Due Week 3
Assignment Overview
There are 4 scenarios at the end of Chapter 6 of the textbook,
pages 225 and 226. The purpose of this assignment is to provide
you with real world exposure to the functions performed by
labor relations. This assignment is worth 150 points; see rubric
below.
Preparing for this Assignment
Read through each of the 4 scenarios. Spend some time
analyzing what actions you would take as the HR Manager for
these organizations.
Assignment Criteria
1. Write a 6-8 page paper (does not include title page or
reference page/pages) providing a “summary” of your actions.
a. You are the HR Manager for each scenario.
b. Read through each scenario.
c. Read through the Plan-Do Check-Act (PDCA) process that is
located in DocSharing. This will be helpful in your analysis of
the issues as well as offering viable recommendations.
d. Outline your various alternatives in responding to the union
organizing drive.
e. Develop and support a specific recommended course of action
to present to upper management.
2. Follow APA format guidelines.
3. You should be able to cover the alternatives and
recommended actions in 1 1/2 to 2 pages for each scenario.
4. The paper should include theory application. In other words,
once you have conducted your analysis, what theories link to
the Labor Relations processes/functions? For example, spend a
little time justifying the recommendations you made to upper
management. Why should management pursue your suggestions?

2. What analysis have you done that makes your recommendations
viable? What are the pros and cons of the recommendations?
Assignment Rubric
Item
Criteria
Points
Introduction/Conclusion
Introduction provides sufficient background on the topic and
previews major points. Conclusion is logical, flows from the
body of the paper, and reviews the major points.
10
Content
All key elements of the assignment are covered in a substantive
way. Page count follows assignment criteria. Major points are
stated clearly, are supported by specific details (examples or
analysis), and are organized logically.
60
Theory
The paper links theory to relevant examples of current
experience and industry practice, and uses the vocabulary of the
theory correctly.
40
Readability
Paragraph transitions are present and logical, flow maintained
throughout paper. Sentences are complete, clear, and concise.
Sentence topic transitions are present and maintain the flow of
thought.
20
Mechanics
The paper, including the title page, reference page, citations,
etc., follows APA guidelines for format. Rules of grammar
usage and punctuation are followed. Spelling is correct.
20
Total Points

3. 150
FOUR SCENARIOS
For each of the four scenarios here, you are the HR manager and
you need to
1.Outline your various alternatives in responding to the union
organizing drive.
2.Develop and support a specific recommended course of action
to present to upper management.
ACME AUTO PARTS
Acme Auto Parts is a small nonunion manufacturer of auto parts
located in a small town in the South. The work is repetitive and
routine. There are no particular skill or educational
requirements for the production employees. Acme sells nearly
all its parts to the Big Three automakers (Ford, General Motors,
and Chrysler) according to the specifications they provide. The
highly unionized Big Three have largely outsourced the
manufacturing of parts. Many of their traditional parts suppliers
have closed their unionized operations in Michigan and opened
nonunion plants in the South and in Mexico. The Big Three,
however, continue to face competitive cost pressures from the
Japanese car companies and therefore are continually trying to
wring cost concessions from their suppliers.
The parts workers at various companies that are still represented
by the United Auto Workers (UAW) face demands for

4. concessions during every contract negotiation. The UAW is
therefore trying to organize the nonunion parts factories. You
have seen UAW organizers in town trying to contact Acme
workers for the past few weeks. This morning you overheard
two workers talking about the UAW.
THE ZINNIA
The Zinnia is a 300-room hotel in the central business district
of a major Midwestern metropolitan area. This is a full-service
hotel—a hotel providing a wide variety of services including
food and beverage facilities and meeting rooms—that caters to
individual business travelers, convention attendees, and local
businesspeople who need meeting space. The Zinnia emphasizes
outstanding service and amenities and is owned by a prominent
local real estate magnate, Ms. Lucy Balder-cash, who closely
monitors the management and financial performance of her
diversified properties.
Many of this city’s major hotels are unionized, and the Zinnia’s
wage rates are equal to the local union wage scale. You feel that
while the Zinnia’s employee benefit package is modest
compared to what the union has been able to extract from your
unionized competitors, it is competitive with other low-skilled
occupations in the area—and is particularly generous for the
undocumented immigrants that you have quietly hired to fill the
dishwashing and room cleaning positions. You also feel that
your unionized competitors are saddled with myriad work rules
that restrict flexibility.
The local union organizes aggressively and isn’t afraid to have
public marches and demonstrations in support of its goal of
social justice. But you thought your workers were content, and
you were astonished to learn this morning that Zinnia workers
have been quietly signing authorization cards. You received
notice from the NLRB that a petition was filed by the local
hotel union requesting an election covering back-of-the-house
workers (kitchen, laundry, and room cleaning employees—not
front-of-the-house employees like bellhops, bartenders, and
waitresses) and that this petition was supported by signed

5. authorization cards from 40 percent of the workers.
SCHOOL DISTRICT 273
School District 273 is a medium-sized public school district in a
Northeastern state with a comprehensive bargaining law that
includes teachers. The bargaining law allows strikes (except for
police, firefighters, and prison guards) and also allows unions
to be recognized through a card check recognition procedure if
the employer does not object. Otherwise a representation
election will be conducted when a petition is supported by 30
percent signed authorization cards. No employees in District
273 are represented by a union, though teachers in many
neighboring districts are.
District 273 receives 75 percent of its funding from the state
based on a statewide per-student funding formula; the remainder
comes from local property taxes and fees. To balance the state
budget, school funding was reduced by 10 percent. School
budgets are also being squeezed by rising health care costs. And
teachers are frustrated by the state’s emphasis on standardized
test scores; they feel they are losing control over educational
standards and curriculum. A grassroots unionization effort
started among some teachers at the district’s high school near
the beginning of the school year. It is now the middle of the
school year, and the leaders of this grassroots effort—which
they are now calling the District 273 Teacher’s Association—
claim to have signed authorization cards from 70 percent of the
teachers, including large numbers at all the district’s schools.
They have asked the school board to voluntarily recognize their
union and schedule bargaining sessions to hear their concerns
and negotiate a contract that preserves teachers’ input into the
educational process.
WOODVILLE HEALTHCARE
Woodville HealthCare is a for-profit health care provider
formed through the merger of several networks of physicians. It
operates 50 managed care clinics and employs 400 doctors in
the West. The merger has resulted in a major restructuring of
operations. Several clinics have been closed, and a number of

6. new operating guidelines have been implemented. Doctors are
now required to see more patients; specialty medical procedures
and nongeneric prescriptions must be approved by the medical
authorization department; and expensive procedures can
negatively affect a doctor’s salary.
Some doctors contacted a national doctors’ union that is
affiliated with one of the largest U.S. unions, and an organizing
drive was launched. After a petition was filed with the NLRB,
Woodville filed objections and argued that the doctors were
supervisors and therefore excluded from the NLRA. The NLRB
eventually ruled that 100 of the doctors had supervisory
responsibilities, but that 300 were nonmanagerial doctors.
Woodville then spent $200,000 (plus staff time) on an antiunion
campaign leading up to last week’s election for the 300
nonmanagerial doctors. The election results were 142 voting in
favor of the union, 128 against.
This is a slim seven-vote margin, and you have until tomorrow
to decide whether to appeal the results of the election by filing
objections with the NLRB. Several days before the election, the
union’s website reported salary figures for Woodville’s top
executives that were grossly inflated. You have also
investigated several allegations of inappropriate union
campaigning on the day of the election but have uncovered only
weak evidence. Your attorney predicts that there is a 20 percent
chance an appeal would succeed.