Teamseters Case Study Essay Sample

Local 952 had been representing Standard Concrete’s employees at Corona for over twenty years, until 1999, when Standard Concrete decided to withdraw its recognition of Local 952 as the representative of Corona unit’s employees; Local 952 also filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board and demanded re-election, which it later won. Negotiations between Corona and Standard Concrete resumed, though in 2000, Local 952 felt that Standard Concrete was negotiating with poor intentions. This led to a strike held by Corona bargaining unit, whereby it set up picket lines around several Concrete’s facilities which were honored by the opposing side. Local 952 and Standard Concrete eventually agreed to halt picketing in exchange for restarting negotiations with Corona. This cycle was repeated several times because each side wanted the best for itself.
Standard Concrete filed a suit in the United States District Court for California, alleging Local 952 for violating the “no strike” agreement of the Orange County agreement. The court granted summary in Standard Concrete’s favor, evaluating damages incurred by Local 952’s breach of the agreement on Standard Concrete and compensating the latter. Local 952, despite the judgment, claimed that it had not breached Orange County’s agreement since it did not prohibit against any sympathy strikes, which were held earlier. After supporting their judgment with evidence from Children’s Hospital, the district court’s decision was affirmed partially and reversed partially.
Members of the Orange County bargaining unit organized a sympathy strike when they decided to honor the picket lines installed by the Corona bargaining unit. However, this strike was not considered a true sympathy strike because it was not set up by a different union per se since the two bargaining units were part of the same union.
No it does not because a sympathy strike needs to be mentioned specifically to avoid ambiguity. A general no-strike clause does not entail that the unit is barred from engaging in sympathy strikes since it is not lucid and needs clarification for it to be true.

References

Sympathy Strikes. (n.d.). Retrieved March 8, 2015, from Business Swaziland: http://www.businessswaziland.com/new/images/sympathy%20strikes.pdf
Waas, D. B. (2012). Strike as a Fundamental Right of the Workers and its Risks of Conflicting. Germany: Goethe University Frankfurt.