For my HR Management Class, Please help!!

Assignment 4 MGMT 5339 Do These Employees Have a Right to Strike?

Eight of the employers 12 truck drivers met several times during the week of March 16 to discuss their current wage rates, the lack of medical insurance plan, and whether they should consider joining a union. After meeting with a representative of a national truck drivers union, five of the eight drivers signed union authorization cards. Driver James, one of the card signers, wrote a letter that the eight employees presented to the companys plant manager on Friday March 20. The letter stated in part: Today all employees wish to express a silent strike pursuance of the right that our salaries be increased to $18.00 per hour. We will not work today ...until a settlement is reached.

Late that Friday morning, the company president met with the eight employees and told them the company was not in a position to give any wage increases; however, steps were already underway to establish a medical insurance plan by the end of the year. The eight employees met after the meeting outside the plant and decided the companys position was unacceptable. The company president said the board of directors was meeting the next day, on Saturday, to discuss the situation. The eight employees continued their walkout during the rest of the day Friday.

The Board of Directors met Saturday and calculated the annual cost of the employees wage demand to be $348,000. The board found this amount unacceptable and decided to replace the eight truck drivers rather than to increase their wages. Later on Saturday, the plant manager offered driver positions to three individuals who already had job applications of file with the company. All three applicants accepted the job offers and were scheduled to begin work the following week. On Monday, the eight drivers, who had walked out on Friday, returned to the company but remained outside the plant entrance. Upon learning that the eight drivers had not reported to work at 8 am on Monday morning, but were instead congregating in front of the plant, the company president prepared a letter that was given to each of the eight drivers outside the company entrance at 9:30 am Monday morning. The letter referred to the walkout the previous Friday and stated: The circumstances of having abandoned your work without first holding a dialogue, then bringing later on some demands which we cannot face economically at this time, in addition to your refusal to work if your conditions are not met exactly the way [you] stated them, we have to interpret it as a resignation from your job, leaving us without alternatives and unfortunately, we have to accept your decision effective today, Monday, March 23. The letter went on to state that the Friday work stoppage forced the company to fill some vacancies and curtail its operations in order to recover in part from the losses it had suffered.

After receiving the letters the eight employees left the plant to attend a meeting with a union representative. Sometime later on that Monday, three of the employees returned to the plant and requested reinstatement. The company reinstated the three drivers to their former jobs. The union filed an unfair labor practice charge on behalf of the remaining five truck drivers, alleging that each had been unlawfully discharged in violation of the LMRA, as amended.

Analyze the employers actions in this case. Consider the answers to the following questions in your analysis:

1. Does the work stoppage by the truck drivers in this case represent an economic strike or an unfair labor practice strike?

2. What is the difference between reinstatement rights of an unfair labor practice striker and an economic striker?

3. Did the employer unlawfully discharge the four truck drivers who never returned to work?

4. If charges are filed with NLRB, will the Board rule in favor of the employees or the employer?

5. What remedies will the NLRB order?