A Week In The Life Of A Typical Management-Side

Kirk is a senior associate at a 60-attorney law firm in the Midwest. He was hired right out of law school and he has been with the firm for five years. Kirk entered law school knowing that he wanted to practice in the area of management-side labor relations. He had completed a master's degree in labor relations, and in law school he took all the business- and labor-related electives that he could fit into his schedule.

He works in a law firm in a separate eight-attorney labor department consisting of three partners, two senior associates, and three associates. Although the firm is organized into five departments, tax, litigation, real estate, estate planning, and probate, all departments often work together on different aspects of a client's case.

Kirk, along with Bruce, the firm's other senior associate, works very closely with all three partners and is substantially responsible for organizing the client case load and supervising the work product of the three associates. He is currently completing preparations for a hearing by the Department of Labor's Occupational Safety and Health Administration at one of the plants owned by a client.

It seems that the union attorney filed a complaint with OSHA on behalf of the workers, alleging that because the plant's ventilation system was inadequate, some workers became ill. OSHA attorneys had requested information from the corporation a month before, as part of their investigation of the complaint. Kirk had spent two days at the plant, gathering the requested information, and studying diagrams of the plant's ventilation system, which had, in fact, been overhauled and modified within the last year. Kirk felt that the system complied with all the health code standards. This afternoon, he and the partner in charge will spend time with the owner, plant manager, and company doctor, preparing them for the hearing scheduled for the next week.

Both Kirk and Bruce also spend a great deal of their time preparing for administrative hearings and proceedings. Looking at their calendar over a month period, their practice can be broken down as follows: 30 percent administrative proceedings and litigation; union organization and other NLRB proceedings; contract negotiations, collective bargaining); contract administration including arbitration; general consulting on employer or miscellaneous personnel matters. Their schedules for the next month might look like this:

Monday, August 2:

Bruce is assisting a small, non-unionized college to develop a new employee benefits package. He consulted with one of the firm's tax attorneys and has put together a proposal that reflects the benefits desired by the college president. This afternoon, Bruce meets with the chair of the trustees, the president of the college, and the director of personnel to explain the new package and its tax ramifications, especially those related to the new pension fund.

Tuesday, August 3-Friday, August 7:

During this time, Kirk and Bruce work together to finish the preparations for a trial on a suit brought against their client, an insurance company one month earlier. The minority employees of the insurance company contend that the company's employment policies are discriminatory. The company closed two of eight departments for economic reasons, necessitating the reorganization and consolidation of services: As employees from the two departments that were shut down have been reassigned to other jobs in the company whenever possible, according to seniority.

The employees with less seniority are typically minorities, and thus they make up a larger percentage of the total number of employees laid off. The company maintains that the seniority system has been in effect at the company for years, and that it was not planned that minority workers would be laid off in such large numbers.

Kirk and Bruce spend a great deal of time speaking with company management. The senior partners in the labor department of their firm will actually argue the case.

Saturday, August 8-Monday, August 10:

Kirk uses this time to prepare to represent the city in its collective bargaining negotiations and proceedings with the police union. Their current contract expires within the next two months.

On Monday, he attends the preliminary talks with the union-side attorneys. The police want large pay increases and more modern electronic communication equipment for squad cars. They are also challenging the recent announcement that, under the new contract, nonunion managers without police training would be replacing officers at the dispatch desk.

Management has explained to Kirk that the city is under extreme financial duress. The tax base has not increased this year, so there is very little money to pay for either a large salary increase or new equipment. The purpose of the intended replacement of officers at the dispatch desk by nonunion workers is to try to save enough money to give officers at least a minimal pay raise during the next three years, the length of the contract.

Tuesday, August 11-Wednesday, August 12:

Kirk is deeply involved in the police union contract negotiations. After the union-side attorneys explain the city's position to the membership on Monday evening, the officers decide that if nothing is accomplished at the negotiation sessions over the next two days, they will hold a job action, an informal protest action taken by workers, such as a slowdown on the production line, a refusal of discretionary overtime assignments, on Thursday.

As public employees, the police are prohibited by law from striking. They decide instead to put pressure on the city by calling in sick in large numbers - a tactic often referred to as the blue flu. Kirk spends two days in careful negotiations with the union representatives and with the city counsel advising him on action the city could take if a job action was taken by the police. Late Wednesday night, an initial accord is finally reached which satisfies all parties involved.

Thursday, August 12-Friday, August 20:

Meetings are held with the police union to complete the contract negotiations on Friday evening. Kirk waits with a lawyer for the city until the police union representatives are present and asks them to take the new agreement to the membership for a vote. Kirk is relieved to hear that it is finally passed by the membership, the last police contract was rejected after two weeks of negotiations because the membership felt the salary offer and the sick day allowances were inadequate; that contract had to be revised and renegotiated).

Monday, August 23:

Kirk and Bruce are both working on preparations for an arbitration of an employee grievance scheduled for today. Since Bruce has a contract negotiation conference set up at the end of the week, it is agreed that Kirk will attend the actual arbitration. The grievance involves an employee who was on the night shift on an assembly line at an electronics components manufacturer. She was late for work four days during one month and did not, as was company policy, make up the time missed by staying at the end of each day on which she was late.

The company then docked her pay. She claims that she had intended to make up the time but had not had the opportunity to do so yet and therefore deserves her full pay. The union-management contract states that employees are to make up missed time ''as soon after the incident as possible." The company interprets this to mean the same day; the union interprets it differently. The arbitrator will be asked to decide who is correct.

Tuesday, August 24-Friday, August 27:

Kirk spends the rest of the week advising a company whose employees have been approached by a union. The management of the company does not want the company organized. Kirk meets with each of the company officers and then with division heads from each department to find out what the problems are, as expressed by the employees.

He is able to work out a new procedure for ascertaining and dealing with employee complaints. He also establishes a new personnel policy on promotion and assists the management in developing better communication with the individual workers. It is now doubtful that the employees will continue their discussion about unionizing.

Monday, August 30-Tuesday, August 31:

Kirk and Bruce are in court on Monday and Tuesday defending a large corporation being sued by an employee, a woman, who is charging them with sex discrimination. The employee has been passed over for promotion to a management level position at a local bank. The man who was given the position was hired from outside the bank and allegedly has less experience than the aggrieved employee.

Kirk and Bruce have reviewed the relevant personnel files. While it seems that the man who was hired does have less experience, he also has an advanced degree and an extensive internship at a large bank in another state. The company feels strongly that the internship more than compensates for his lack of paid, on-the-job experience. Kirk and Bruce are confident that they have prepared the case well, and that they have a good chance of winning.