Division 105 Locomotive Engineers
Across-The-Board Adjustment: An adjustment to wage rates (up or down) that applies to all workers in a specific group.
Adjudication: Similar to grievance arbitration. A method of procuring settlement of a dispute or controversy through the use of a third party (adjudicator).
Affiliated Union: A union which has aligned itself with other unions in a group or confederation.
Agency Shop (Rand Formula): A union security clause which does not impose any requirements regarding union membership, but does require all members of the bargaining unit (whether they are members of the union or not) to pay union dues.
ALF-CIO: American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations.
Arbitral Jurisprudence: A body of law composed of the collective awards of grievance arbitrators. While persuasive, arbitral jurisprudence is not legally binding on other arbitrators; the doctrine of precedent, such as is applied in the courts, is absent in the labour arbitration system.
Arbitration: The process by which the parties to a dispute submit their differences to the judgment of an impartial person or group appointed by mutual consent or statutory provision.
Assessment: To charge (a person or property; i.e. union member) with a special payment, such as a tax or fine.
Back Pay: Wages due for services previously rendered. Usually as a result of a retroactive adjustment to wage rates after working without a contract for a period of time.
Bargaining Agent: Union, council, or similar representative which is designated by a labour relations board as being the legal representative of a bargaining unit for the purpose of collective bargaining.
Bargaining Unit: The defined group of workers for which an LRB has granted exclusive bargaining rights to a designated agent (union) after majority support has been determined.
Bargaining Rights: The legal right granted to a bargaining agent to represent a bargaining unit in negotiations with an employer
Base Rate: 1) The lowest rate of pay of the lowest qualified worker classification in the bargaining unit. 2) A worker’s straight-time rate of pay, excluding incentives, premiums, shift differentials, etc.
Blue Collar Worker: Manual worker—usually male (construction, production, etc.).
Boulwarism: named after Leo Boulware, who was Vice president of general Electric, Boulwarism is the practice of management circumventing the union by making an offer directly to the workers; it was first utilized in the 1950s.
Bumping: A process by which a senior employee displaces a junior employee; it occurs under the rules set out in the collective agreement pertaining to same
Business Agent: Fulltime union employees whose role it is to help deal with the day-to-day functions of union locals (Godard, 1994). They usually do not belong to the bargaining unit which they represent.
Canadian Labour Congress: The largest labour congress in Canada. The majority of national and international unions in Canada belong to the CLC, and it includes 12 provincial and territorial federations, and 125 district labour councils. The CLC represents 2.3 million unionized workers in Canada.
Certification: The process by which a union is given the legal right to represent a group of workers (bargaining unit) in collective bargaining. This right is granted by a labour relations board.
Check-off: A system either negotiated or legislatively imposed, whereby an employer is obligated to deduct the dues from bargaining unit employees and remit said dues to the union (bargaining agent) on a regular basis.
Closed Shop: A union security clause wherein the employer can only hire and retain those workers who are already members of the union. Hiring is usually done out of a hiring-hall.
Classification Plan: A job evaluation scheme whereby jobs are compared and assigned a value against a monetary scale.
Collective Agreement: A contract, either negotiated or imposed, between an employer and a union (bargaining agent) which contains the substantive and procedural clauses that determine the terms and conditions of employment for the employees of the applicable bargaining unit.
Collective Bargaining: “A process of negotiation between an employer and a labour union representing his employees, conducted with the object of concluding an agreement regulating the relationship between both the employer and its employees and the employer and the union” (Carrothers et al, 1986). The process by which employers and trade unions voluntarily arrive at their own agreement regarding the terms and conditions of employment.
Company Union: 1) “Joint labour-management works councils, where worker and management representatives meet periodically to discuss various issues and problems; these are also referred to as company unions, for they serve as substitute unions largely controlled by the company” (Godard, 1994). 2) Any weak union which falls under the influence of, or is incorporated into, the management of the enterprise.
Conciliation (Mediation): A process through which voluntary agreement is sought between the parties with the help of a neutral third party. Conciliators (usually appointed by the state) and mediators (usually privately hired by the parties themselves) do not bring forth binding awards such as arbitrators do, they make recommendations which the parties are free to accept or reject.
Confederation of National Trade Unions (CNTU): A Quebec-based labour confederation.
Consumer Price Index (CPI): A Statistics Canada measure of the rate of price change for goods and services bought by Canadian consumers.
Contracting Out: A practice whereby an employer hires another firm to do work for it rather than using existing bargaining unit employees or hiring new bargaining unit employees to perform the work. Often the contractor employs cheap non-union labour.
Contingent Workers: part-time, temporary, or contract workers.
Contract Proposals: Proposed collective agreement changes put forward by union or company negotiators during collective bargaining.
Cost of Living Allowance/Adjustment (COLA): A clause which provides for wage adjustments based upon changes in the consumer price index, usually negotiated during periods of rapid and rampant inflation.
Craft Union (Horizontal Union): Know as the “aristocracy of labour”, these unions organize on the basis of some craft or skill and limit their membership to persons possessing those skills.
Decertification: Occurs when a LRB withdraws certification of a union as the sole legal bargaining agent of a bargaining unit.
Demotion: The transferring of an employee (sometimes as a disciplinary measure) to a job with reduced duties, responsibilities, and/or pay as compared to the employee’s previously held position.
Discipline Clause: a collective agreement clause which outlines the substantive and procedural applications of the employer’s rights and obligations pertaining to the discipline of employees.
Down Time: A period when production is halted at no fault of the employee; the employee is usually paid for downtime.
Disappearing Middle: North American corporate decline and technological change combine to cause the rich to become richer, the poor to become poorer and the middle class to diminish or entirely disappear.
Discouraged Worker: Potential labour force participant who, believing there is no work available in his/her community or region, has not actively looked for work in the previous four weeks.
Dual Labour Market Theory: The view that labour markets are segmented into a variety of non-competing groups. Its major contribution to understanding the labour market is that the recognition of the dual labour market theory means that wages are not clearly related to individual productivity.
Dues: See union dues.
Duty to Bargain in Good Faith: The doctrine of good faith bargaining requires that: the parties meet and commence bargaining; both parties fully discuss the issues at hand and the rationale for their positions; neither party suppresses or distorts information required by the other party or intentionally misleads the other party; neither party engage in surface bargaining; management not engage in Boulwarism (Godard, 1994).
Duty of Fair Representation: The union duty of fair representation is the union’s obligation to represent all workers in the bargaining unit equally. The duty can apply to the negotiating of a collective agreement and/or the processing of grievances. In the former case, the union cannot be seen to be sacrificing the interests of individuals or groups of workers covered by the collective agreement. In the latter case, the union must process grievances on the basis of merit and not discriminate against individuals for reasons of hostility or malice (Godard, 1994).
Employed: Persons who perform any work at all or who have a job but are not at work due to: illness or disability; personal or family responsibilities; bad weather; vacation; other reasons not including layoff.
Export Substitution: When a country has an industrial capacity whose explicit purpose is geared toward exporting to markets outside of the country of origin.
First Agreement Arbitration: LRB imposed interest arbitration which results in the terms of a first collective agreement when negotiations fail to produce one. Differing requirements must be met prior to first agreement arbitration depending upon the jurisdiction.
Fordism: The mode of mass production and mass consumption that dominated the relations of labour and capital between WW2 and the late 1980s.
Fringe Benefits: Non-wage benefits, paid in whole or in part by the employer, which make up an integral part of an employee’s entire wage/effort bargain. They include: paid leaves; vacation; pension; health & welfare; life insurance; etc.
Globalization: International business expansion typified by outsourcing and/or subcontracting work to newly industrialized countries (NICs).
Global Restructuring: The changes being made by global capitalists in order to attempt to reestablish a basis of sustained profitability and accumulation comparable to that of the post WW2 period.
Gold Collar Worker: A recent term for highly-skilled individuals who know a great deal about several areas of their company's work and are frequently crucial to its continuing profitability (knowledge workers).
Government: A temporary set of individuals who have been voted into office and who oversee the state.
Grievance: 1) A complaint or protestation based on an actual or supposed circumstance regarded as just cause for protest. 2) A formal complaint against management by an employee(s) or a union concerning an alleged breach of their collective agreement, legislation, or natural law. The grievance procedure follows steps outlined in the collective agreement, the last step being compulsory grievance arbitration.
Grievance Arbitration: The process by which a grievance arbitrator rules on disputes pertaining to the interpretation or application of a collective agreement. The final stage of the grievance procedure, it is imposed by legislation as the final settlement of disputes without stoppage of work.
Hiring-hall: Arrangements by which unions supply the number of workers required by the employers. The hiring-hall is most common in closed shop industries such as construction and long-shoring.
Hegemony: Strong Perspective--The capacity of dominant classes to persuade subordinate ones to accept, adopt and interiorize the values and norms which the dominant classes have adopted and believe are right and proper. Weak perspective--Posits a situation in which the subordinate classes may well be dissatisfied with the prevailing socio-economic order, but however alienated they might be from it, they are persuaded that any alternative would be drastically worse, and that in any case, there would be nothing much that they could do to bring about any such alternative.
Independent Union: A union which is not affiliated to any other union or union central.
Industrial relations:
1. Links between workers and managers: the relationship between management and employees in an industrial company.
2. Relations between organized management and labor: the relations and procedures between employers’ organizations and labor unions that are institutionalized in an industrial society
Industrial Union (Vertical Union): A union which organizes on the basis of industry and will allow all workers working in the industry, whether skilled or not, membership in the union.
Incentive Pay: A method of pay which varies according to production and/or profits. Workers are usually guaranteed a minimum hourly rate and are able to increase their wages through increased production: piece work, lump-sum bonus, etc.
International Confederation of Free Trade Unions (ICFTU): was set up in 1949 and has 225 affiliated organizations in 148 countries and territories on all five continents, with a membership of 157 million.
International Labour Organization (ILO): An agency of the United Nations, the ILO is a tripartite body composed of labour, government, and employer representatives. It sets minimum recommended international labour standards which member nations may or may not adopt. Its headquarters are located in Geneva, Switzerland.
Interest Arbitration: The process by which a third party (arbitrator) imposes the substantive and procedural contents of a collective agreement when the parties to negotiations are unable to procure an agreement themselves. The process is usually imposed by government legislation after a long and unsuccessful strike or lockout, on certain public sector (so-called essential service) workers, or for a first collective agreement.
International Union: A union with member locals located in more than one country (most frequently seen as American-Canadian organizations); the UTU is an international union.
Job Analysis: A process by which the duties and operations of jobs are correlated to the human abilities and relationships required to carry them out.
Job Classification: The classification of jobs based on an analysis of each job’s requirements.
Job Description: A part of the job evaluation process wherein a review of the nature of work occurs in relation to other jobs, working conditions, the degree of responsibility required, etc.
Job Evaluation: A system wherein a hierarchy of jobs is created based on such factors as: skill level, responsibility, experience level, time/effort, etc. Job evaluation is most often used to arrive at a rational system of wage differentials between jobs or classes of jobs.
Job Security: A collective agreement clause which prevents or ameliorates the detrimental effects of job loss due to such factors as technological change, economic downturn, contracting out, etc.
Jurisdictional Dispute: A dispute involving one or more unions over which shall be named the legal bargaining agent of a certain group of workers or over which union’s members will perform certain work.
Keynesian: Of or relating to the economic theories of John Maynard Keynes, especially those theories advocating government monetary and fiscal programs designed to increase employment and stimulate business activity.
Labour College of Canada: An institution which provides labour education to trade unionists. It is operated by the CLC and only CLC affiliate union members may attend.
Labour Council: An organization composed of union locals within a given community or district.
Labour Force Participant: The group of individuals, fifteen years of age or older, who are working for pay (including the self-employed and those employing others), or who are looking for such employment. The implications of this definition are that the unemployed are included as a part of the labour force but those who choose to work within their homes are not.
Labour Relations Board (LRB): A government appointed board consisting of a neutral chair and an equal number of labour and employer representatives, whose mandate is to enforce the provisions of its applicable labour Relations Act. In most jurisdictions the LRB will serve to foster democracy, establish a working balance of power between workers and management within the employment relationship, and institutionalize and provide a means for the orderly resolution of conflict (Godard, 1994). The LRB is an independent, quasi-judicial body established under various labour relations statutes whose mandates are to: police the union formation function; certify new unions; adjudicate charges of bad faith bargaining; adjudicate charges of failure to fairly represent; adjudicate charges of unfair labour practices; adjudicate disputes relating to the creation and administration of collective agreements; decide if a strike or lockout is lawful; provide remedies.
Labour Board Jurisprudence: a body of law that defines the ground rules for the conduct of the parties in discharging their responsibility to bargain in good faith.
Labour Law: System of law established by or under legislation governing relations between unions and employers; includes law relating to representation rights, unfair labour practices, collective bargaining obligations, industrial conflict, and grievance arbitration under collective agreements.
Layoff: A temporary or permanent dissolution of the employment relationship due to any causal factor (economic slowdown, technological change, reorganization, etc.).
Leave of Absence: A temporary leave granted to employees, either paid or unpaid, and dependant on collective agreement provisions, legislation, or employer prerogative.
Liberal Economics: The freedom to pursue profits in any way possible.
Liberal Politics: The freedom of all individuals to participate in decisions that will affect their lives.
Local: The basic unit of a union organization, whose leadership is elected, and who may or may not belong to a wider organization. A local can be independent or part of a provincial, national or international organization.
Lockout: A situation wherein an employer refuses to allow bargaining unit employees to work or ceases operations entirely in an attempt to apply pressure to a union so that it will accept a settlement on more favorable terms. Lockouts are prohibited in Canada during the life of a collective agreement.
Manager: Persons who, although not owning the enterprise, would be involved in decision making along with or in the absence of the legal owners.
Maintenance of Membership: A union security clause which ensures that once employees have joined the union, they must remain members of the union as a condition of employment.
Management Rights: A collective agreement clause which typically bestows upon management the right to manage the business, direct the working force, control production, and discipline and discharge employees for just cause. Management rights can be explicitly codified within a collective agreement or implied into a collective agreement by labour relations boards, arbitrators, the judiciary or legislation.
Master Agreement: 1) an agreement that is negotiated with a leading employer in an industry, which sets the standard for further negotiations throughout the industry (common in the auto industry where the CAW will pick a “target” company with which to negotiate and the resulting contract will be used as the basis for its negotiations with other automobile corporations). 2) A central agreement negotiated to cover all employees in a bargaining unit (possibly composed of employees belonging to different unions or employers as in Council of Trade Unions or Related-Employer Structures); local issues would be separately negotiated between the parties.
Maquiladora: The Mexican border export zone, populated by foreign owned factories, located on the doorstep of the American market. Supplies a workforce employable for rock-bottom wages and is virtually free of employment standards.
Mediation: See Conciliation.
Memorandum of Settlement: A signed agreement which may or may not be subject to ratification by the principals of either or both parties. It becomes effective as a collective agreement upon ratification
Modified Union Shop: A union security clause which, at the time the collective agreement is signed (or initial certification is received), does not require that current employees join the union but does require that all employees hired subsequently will be obliged to join it.
Monetarism: An economic policy utilized by the government to control inflation through the use of monetary controls such as raising interest rates until the economy stalls.
Moonlighting: A situation wherein an employee enters into an employment relationship with more than one employer at the same time.
Multi-Employer Bargaining Unit: A bargaining unit that encompasses the employees of more than one employer, usually indicative of industry-wide bargaining as in the construction industry or the NHL hockey league.
National Union: A union whose member locals are all contained within the borders of one nation; CUTE in a national union.
Neo-conservatism: The new capitalist orthodoxy, which includes the theory of unfettered free-market capitalism. The ideology whereby capitalists should have the absolute right—unregulated by government or state—to pursue ever higher profits at any social cost. Capitalism without social conscience.
New Democratic Party (NDP): Its forerunner was the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation (CCF) which was formed in 1932 and the name was changed to the NDP in 1961. It is a social democratic party which is supported by various segments of society, including some union support—most notably that of the CLC. NDP governments have historically been known as labour-friendly but since the end of the post-war compromise, provincial NDP governments have increasingly utilized coercive state powers against workers: back-to-work legislation; wage controls; etc.
No Strike Clause: A collective agreement clause which abrogates the right of the parties to strike or lockout during the currency of the collective agreement. If a collective agreement does not contain an explicit no strike clause, every jurisdiction in Canada contains legislation which implies one and substitutes compulsory grievance arbitration as the mechanism for final settlement of disputes without stoppage of work.
Open Shop: A workplace where union membership is not required in order to secure or maintain the employment relationship and no union security clause exists or is mandated (I.e. check-off).
Organization for Economic development and Development (OECD): A Paris-based organization of 30 affluent member countries sharing a commitment to democratic government and the market economy. With active relationships with some 70 other countries, NGOs and civil society, it has a global reach. Best known for its publications and its statistics, its work covers economic and social issues from macroeconomics, to trade, education, development and science and innovation.
Outsourcing: also known as subcontracting, it involves using individuals or companies outside the organization to complete work that could be, or was formerly, done within the organization.
Overtime: Hours worked in excess of regular hours required by statute or collective agreement or on scheduled days off.
Overtime Rate: A premium rate of pay determined by statute, collective agreement, or custom for hours worked in excess regular hours; usually time and one half or double time.
Paternalism: A system or practice of governance whereby the social superior acts in a “fatherly” fashion, providing for the oppressed social inferior’s needs but allowing no rights or responsibilities. The paternalist system undermines the collectivity of the oppressed by aligning them more or less individually with the social superior.
Permanent Exceptionalism: When that which is professed to be an exception to the rule becomes the rule. As in the case of public sector wage controls or back to work legislation.
Per-capita Fees: regular payments made by a local union to its parent national or international union, labour council and/or federation, or central labour body; it is based on the number of dues-paying members in the local union.
Picket: A union member who is on strike or who has been locked out. Pickets attempt to dissuade other workers (scabs) from performing work for the employer and attempt to encourage consumer boycott of the employer’s goods/services in order to apply pressure in order to procure a favorable settlement to the labour dispute.
Piece-Work or Piece Rate: Forms of incentive pay wherein the employee is paid in relation to his or her rate of production—the more produced, the higher the remuneration. This form of pay in notorious for the exploitation of workers by unscrupulous employers as they can increase production to unhealthy levels by lowering the rate per piece so as to force workers to speedup in order to make ends meet.
Pink Collar worker: The female equivalent of the (assumed male) blue-collar worker, which is particularly applied to women who assemble electronic equipment and run back-office data-entry systems.
Polarization: The growing gap between the job requirements, pay and conditions of support staff and those of professionals.
Posting: The act of making jobs—vacancies or new positions—available to the workforce through bids or other means spelled out in the collective agreement.
Preferential Hiring: A system wherein an employer agrees to hire only union members so long as the union is able to fill the employer’s demand.
Premium Pay: A rate of pay that it higher than the regular straight time rate of pay. It could be for overtime work, work on holidays, work on scheduled days off, or work under dangerous, dirty, or unpleasant conditions.
Privative Clause: Legislation which deprives the court of all or part of its jurisdiction to review.
Private Sector: Privately owned part of economy: the part of a free market economy that is made up of companies and organizations that are not owned or controlled by the government
Probationary Period: A period of time, determined in accordance with the collective agreement, in which a new employee is on trial and is usually subject to discharge without union challenge unless the discharge is predicated on discrimination.
Procedural Clause: A collective agreement clause(s) which outlines the procedures to be followed in applying substantive clauses.
Proletariat: a) The class of industrial wage earners who, possessing neither capital nor the means of production, must sell their labour in order to earn their living. b) The poorest class of working people.
Promotion: The opposite of demotion.
Provincial Union: A union whose member locals (might be one local in total) are all contained within the borders of one province; the BCNU is a provincial union.
Raiding: The attempt by one union to persuade the membership of another union that they would be better off if it were their legal bargaining agent; if successful, a raid could result in the decertification of the raided union and the certification of the raiding union.
Rand Formula (Agency Shop): A union security clause which does not impose any requirements regarding union membership, but does require all members of the bargaining unit (whether they are members of the union or not) to pay union dues.
Recognition: The recognition, by an employer, of a union as the exclusive bargaining agent for a group of employees in a bargaining unit.
Red Circle Rate: A rate of pay for a particular employee which is higher than the highest rate allotted for the job classification to which the employee is assigned. The situation would arise where an employer accommodates an employee with a disability by allowing him or her to work at a physically easier job with no reduction in pay.
Reengineering: The name given to a movement to fundamentally change the organization and management of work. Briefly, reengineering entails redesigning work around horizontal work processes rather than vertical, functional departments. Its advocates claim dramatic improvements in service to customers, efficiency, and lower costs. Reengineering can be accomplished only by transforming human resource management systems; that is, the ways in which employees are recruited, appraised, and compensated, and the ways in which jobs are defined and evaluated.
Reinstatement: A wrongfully discharged employee is reinstated (usually through an arbitration award) when he or she is placed back into the employment relationship with no loss of seniority (sometimes without loss of pay and/or benefits for the time that he or she was discharged).
Reopener: A collective agreement clause which allows the parties to reopen negotiations on certain issues before the expiration of the collective agreement. A reopener clause could require a trigger such as the introduction of new technology or inflation rates of a specified magnitude.
Reorganization: Employer promulgated movement to alter the organization of work by pushing a “cooperative”, “worker-empowerment” strategy in both union and non-union workplaces. Worker incorporation and a more “flexible” labour force are combined with the introduction of new technologies which are fundamentally changing the nature of work. The result is a significant shift in the balance of power away from labour and toward management.
Representation Vote: A Vote ordered by labour board among employees in a bargaining unit to ascertain whether or not they wish to be represented by a trade union or, in the event of conflict between competing unions, to determine which trade union they prefer.
Residual Rights Theory: Management retains all rights that are not explicitly restricted by the collective agreement.
Semi-autonomous workers: Persons who are identified by the relatively greater control that they hold over their work (social workers, university professors, salaried professionals).
Seniority: A method of designating an employee’s status relative to other employees of the bargaining unit. Seniority can be based on length of service alone or in combination with other factors such as ability, skills, or union office. Seniority provisions are codified within the collective agreement.
Severance Pay: A monetary sum that is paid by an employer to an employee upon the dissolution of the employment relationship. It can be negotiated or imposed by statute, a labour relations board, or an arbitration board.
Shift: the regular daily working hours of an employee; i.e. 9am – 5pm with Saturday and Sunday off.
Shift Differential: An additional amount of pay, over base rate, which is paid to employees who work shifts other than regular daytime hours; i.e. afternoon shift differential or graveyard shift differential.
Shop Steward: Member of a union local who represents workers in a specific department or areas of the workplace but normally remains in his or her regular job, performing his or her duties as a shop steward on a part-time basis.
Slowdown: See Work-to-rule.
Social Corporatism: A guarantee of certain social and economic benefits—other than wages—promised by corporations to unions, in exchange for voluntary wage restraint and economic restructuring.
Social Relations of Production: The relations between people who are involved in the production of goods and/or services. The relationship between an employer and his/her employee is a social relation of production.
Speedup: An employer initiated increase in production; usually achieved through means over which the employee has no control. Speedup can occur in the case of machine-paced assembly lines (auto industry) or disassembly lines (meatpacking) where the speed of the line is controlled exclusively by management—often to the mental and physical detriment of workers.
Split Shift: The division of an employee’s regular workday into two or more periods of time; usually in order to meet peak demands in production.
Staff Specialist: A person who specializes in a certain field (advocacy, collective bargaining, grievance arbitration preparation/presentation, labour law, etc.), and who is hired by a union to perform functions on its behalf.
Stagflation: Economic growth rates below the level necessary for full employment combined with severe inflationary tendencies.
State: Entity comprised of all of the institutions and apparatuses with which a particular government attempts to rule.
Statutory Freeze: Legislation that requires the employer to maintain the status quo following application for certification, or following notice to bargain.
Strike (Walkout): The total or partial cessation of work, undertaken collectively by employees, in order to apply pressure to the employer; usually occurs when collective bargaining has broken down. In Canada, strikes are only legal when no collective agreement is in force, and even then are subject to restriction or outright prohibition by neo-conservative states. Governmental interference in workers’ right to strike is most prevalent in the public sector.
Strikebreaker: Also known as a “scab” or “blackleg”, strikebreakers are workers who continue to work despite their fellow employees undertaking a strike. More commonly, strikebreakers are hired by the employer from outside the bargaining unit and brought across the picket lines of striking workers in order that the employer can continue production during the strike. The hiring of strikebreakers is illegal in many Canadian jurisdictions.
Strike Vote: A vote, usually required by law, undertaken by union or bargaining unit members, in order to authorize—or withhold authorization from—the union leadership to call a strike should negotiations break down.
Suspension: A temporary abrogation or deferment of the employment relationship or membership in a union.
Substantive Clause: Collective agreement clause(s) which outline what the parties agree to, such as: the right to manage; the protection of employment; the protection of employment opportunities; job benefits; problems of the union; etc. (Palmer & Palmer, 1991).
Supervisor: Persons who are not involved in planning and decision making but nevertheless exercise authority over others.
Surface Bargaining: A practice wherein a party to negotiations frustrates the process by going through the motions without any intentions of making any meaningful concessions.
Systematic Disinvestment: International capital's movement of investments to Third World or Newly Industrialized Countries (NICs) in order to take advantage of the very low cost of labour, escape stringent employment standards laws, and undermine the collective agreements of powerful unions within developed countries.
Technological Change: The introduction of advanced technology into the workplace which results in an alteration of work or the loss of employment. Examples at BC Rail include: Beltpack® technology, Brandt truck, TIBS, the Work Order Center, etc.
Tripartism: The ideal represented by formal structures consisting of capital, labour, and the state, whose mandate it is to implement social corporatism.
Trusteeship: If a parent organization—national or international union—is unhappy with the leadership of one of its locals, it will install a trustee to take over the local union’s affairs, including its treasury.
Unemployed: persons who are without paid work, while being available for work and actively looking for work. Also includes persons not actively looking for work but on layoff and available for work. Finally; persons not actively looking for work but available for work and having a new job to start in four weeks or less. The designation excludes students, individuals working in the home, the disabled, retired persons, and discouraged workers.
Unfair Labor Practices: Defined by Labour Relations Boards, they include: management dismissing workers for union activity; employer unilaterally alters the terms and conditions of employment during an organizing drive; management threats or promises to employees during an organizing drive; employer spies upon or interrogates workers, infiltrates the union or, infiltrates union activities; employer attempts to alter the employment composition of the election unit (hiring of additional employees); employer acts to compromise the integrity or autonomy of the union (supporting a company or rival union); employer cannot close down and relocate to avoid unionization; union coercion of individual workers to sign a card against their wishes; outside organizers are not allowed on company property; inside organizers cannot perform organizing activities on working time.
Union: 1) Trade unions are associations of workers organized by skilled trade. They act in concert to improve the wages, working conditions, hours and mutual-interest issues of their members. 2) Industrial unions are associations of workers organized by industry, regardless of skill level. They act in concert to improve the wages, working conditions, hours and mutual-interest issues of their members.
Union Dues: A periodic monetary payment made by bargaining unit employees to their legal bargaining agent.
Union Label (Bug): A tag, label, or imprint which is attached to products that are produced through unionized labour. Their purpose is to promote consumers to buy union made products and avoid non-union products.
Union Security: A type of collective agreement clauses which provide for the organizational security of a union. Types of union security clauses include: dues check-off; closed shop; union shop; modified union shop; maintenance of membership; agency (Rand formula) shop.
Union Shop: A union security clause which requires that all employees join the union within a specified period of time after being hired and maintain membership in the union as a condition of employment.
Voluntary Recognition: When an employer agrees to recognize a union as the exclusive bargaining agent of a group of its employees without the need for the union to go though the legal requirements usually required in obtaining certification.
Wage Premium: See premium pay.
Wage Structure: An agreement which set out a number of different wage rates, the pattern of differentials between said rates being the wage structure.
Wage System: The manner in which pay is calculated (hourly, weekly, incentive, piece-work, etc.)
Walkout: See strike.
White Collar Worker: Clerical worker—usually female (secretary, data-entry, etc.)
Work-to-rule: A practice wherein workers concertedly obey all laws and rules pertaining to their work, effectively slowing down production. A work-to-rule is undertaken in order to apply pressure to, and exact concessions from, the employer. The action is known by various names, such as: slowdown; slow-wheel; wee darg; etc. A collective action designed to negatively affect production is a form of strike and is illegal during the currency of the collective agreement.
World Trade Organization (WTO): The only global international organization dealing with the rules of trade between nations. As of January 2002, the WTO had 144 member countries around the world and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. Its functions include: administering WTO trade agreements; forum for trade negotiations; handling trade disputes; monitoring national trade policies; technical assistance and training for developing countries; cooperation with other international organizations.
