MANAGEMENT RIGHTS CLAUSE

"Management" is the theory and process of working with people, assets and resources to accomplish business or organization goals by making the best possible use of money, time, materials and people.

The management process involves a wide variety of activities including planning, organizing, directing and controlling. It is your responsibility to perform all of those functions to achieve maximize results.

You must always maintain the right to direct all business activities and to retain authority in the direction of the workplace. Management must preserve these rights in collective bargaining agreements and should bargain to impasse, if necessary, to retain them.

Here is a  typical management rights clause:

The Company acknowledges that it has no natural rights over individual persons within the organization, but it reserves rights to maintain Company those physical assets, property, and rights that are real and lawfully enforceable.

The Company reserves the exclusive right and responsibility to manage the business and to direct the employees who may be subject to this Agreement.

Management reserves, among the other customary rights of management, the sole and exclusive discretion to hire qualified employees and to transfer, assign, deploy and direct their work.

The Company further reserves the right to evaluate the performance of employees to determine their qualification and fitness for continued duty or employment; the right to relieve them from duty; the right to suspend or discharge them for a lawful cause; and the right to layoff employees because of lack of work or for other lawful reasons.

This provision may only be limited by the company’s obligation to bargain in good faith about matters over which it is lawfully required to bargain.

Management should readily agree to a "no-strike/no-lockout" clause by way of exhibiting Good Faith.

The union has come to the negotiating table with three contract provisions that are absolutely essential to the preservation of the union and its life’s blood: union dues and fees.

Foremost among the union’s requests is a clause that eliminates all rival unions. The "exclusive recognition" clause prohibits the employer from dealing with any union that may seek to represent employees in a particular bargaining unit.

You may wish to  agree to this clause for three reasons: (1) you did not want to have to deal with this union, and you are probably not eager to have a second one on the scene; (2) because the union will offer less (or only token resistance to) a strong management rights clause; and (3) the union will leave money on the table to get it in the contract. How much money depends on the relative skills of the negotiators for both sides.

"Union Security" ensures the financial security of the union treasury. This item is NOT negotiable in "right-to-work" jurisdictions. If your are in a jurisdiction that does not prohibit a "mandatory membership" or "maintenance of membership" rule -- then agree to it for reasons (2) and (3) stated above.

However, if the election results were close, you have a moral obligation to try to make the union accept the fact that their support was thin and that they have something to prove to the "no" voters. Make this point repeatedly -- for the benefit of employees sitting in on the negotiations who believe in "fairness".

The "Dues Check-off" clause, like "exclusive recognition" is easy for Management to accept. It costs nothing (processing a single check each month). The union will actually help you monitor the deductions. Re-read (2) and (3) above and surprise them (at some strategically useful point) by initialing that paragraph.