Verified Document

Bad Employee Behavior Versus Anti Union Efforts Essay

Hostile Work Environment The term "hostile work environment" has a wide range of meanings and definitions. Obviously, how precisely it is defined would vary based on the role or position of the person involved, their opinion about things employer rights, employee rights and unions and one's general feeling about what is and is not acceptable when it comes to general or work-based interactions with others. Others still may cast too wide a net when they define the word "hostile." Regardless, litigation can and does happen relative to these events, either isolated or continuous, and union-related situations are often decided by the NLRB. The author has been asked to find a NLRB case that involves a hostile work environment, suggest risk management strategies that could mitigate or prevent situations from becoming lawsuits or NRLB cases and offer other relevant analysis. The American Showa/Teamsters case proves that even if an employee provably and admittedly engages in improper behaviors that could or should be construed as hostile or otherwise problematic, going against someone for forming a union rarely ends well for the business that acts against the same.

Analysis

The case in question relates to a man named Hankins. Overall, Hankins had had a very good work history working for a company that supplied parts for Honda vehicles. However, things started to flare up a bit due to a number of factors. One of those factors was that Hankins knew full well (more on this in a minute) that Honda was unionized and the company he worked for shared a lot of parallels with Honda beyond the fact that Honda was one of their main clients. Indeed, the company's employees even wore uniforms that were very similar to Honda's. Hankins would routinely engage in union-creation efforts at his new employer. At first, however, this was not a major problem. Things changed, however, with a few events that happened over time. First of all, an acquaintance of Hankins apparently did work for him on his car or something and Hankins had apparently agreed with the man to render payment in the form of a case of beer. Rather than give the beer to Hankins outside of work,...

When he came back to where he put it, it had been locked away in a cooler. He was approached by his manager and told that the beer should not be on company property but Hankins was not punished. However, Hankins removed the beer upon request. Not long after that, there was a discussion about the beer and there was apparently some question about whether a vendor employee, a woman named Smith, had been involved in the temporary confiscation of the beer. Supposedly she was not, but there was an encounter where Hankins bumped into Smith rather hardly and Smith took umbrage with being jostled like that. Hankins apologized at the time but apparently thought that Smith was overreacting a bit. However, his stance softened later and he approached Smith to give a "better" apology. Smith, however, was less than receptive. Not long into the exchange, she said the conversation was "over" but Hankins would not let it lie for a bit. Eventually, he acquiesced and stopped trying to talk to Smith further about the bump but he had to be told several times.
While it was not immediately made clear to Hankins, he was transferred due to an apparent need within the company but he was eventually summoned to be punished for the exchange with Smith. He was sent home for three days. However, a manager named Westover summoned him in during his suspension, much to the chagrin of another manager named Kerschner. This meeting led to the termination of Mr. Hankins on three overall grounds. For one, Mr. Hankins had apparently worked for Honda in the past and did not indicate as such on his job application. It came out as part of this discussion that Hankins had actually quit Honda voluntarily rather than go before a peer review board to see if he would keep his job. There was apparently fine print on the application that mandated all employment be included on the application. However, Hankins did not read it, or so he said. Either way, he did not comply with the details of the application. He was also fired for threatening Ms. Smith (the person he bumped in the break room) and for engaging in union-organizing activities.…

Sources used in this document:
References

EEOC. (2016). Pre-Employment Inquiries and Arrest & Conviction. Eeoc.gov. Retrieved 19 June 2016, from https://www.eeoc.gov/laws/practices/inquiries_arrest_conviction.cfm

HR Specialist. (2016). Unions in the spotlight: What employers can and can't do - HR Specialist. Thehrspecialist.com. Retrieved 19 June 2016, from http://www.thehrspecialist.com/36119/Unions_in_the_spotlight_What_employers_can_and_can_t_do.hr?cat=tools&sub_cat=white_paper

NLRB. (2016). American Showa w / Teamsters. National Labor Relations Board. Retrieved 19 June 2016, from https://www.nlrb.gov/case/08-CA-031106
Cite this Document:
Copy Bibliography Citation

Related Documents

Public Sector Unions
Words: 7432 Length: 20 Document Type: Research Paper

Public Sector Unions Public-Sector Unions in United States HISTORY OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS COSTS OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS OVER THEIR BENEFITS DEMOGRAPHICS OF LABOR IN AMERICA EDGE OF PUBLIC-SECTOR UNIONS OVER PRIVATE ONES THE HIDDEN COSTS OF PUBLIC UNIONS THE DISTORTION OF DEMOCRATIC POLITICS STATE UNIONS VS. FEDERAL UNIONS THE FUTURE OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONIZATION HISTORY OF PUBLIC SECTOR UNIONS Labor unions are seen as the representatives of the labor employed in our industries and are known as the advocates of

America's International Relations Americanization and Anti-Americanism...
Words: 3764 Length: 11 Document Type: Term Paper

Pictures on the news of American flags being burned seem to appear more often than they used to. Perhaps my generation just isn't used to having our nation criticized to the extent that it has been since our response to September 11; we all know there have been anti-American protests in the past, that flags have been burned and protests against certain American military endeavors waged. Anti-Americanism has many definitions

Euro Vs. Florida Disney Success
Words: 3224 Length: 8 Document Type: Term Paper

The confidence of Disney was to some extent based on the number of Europeans visiting U.S. Disney parks. The Europeans would be visiting the parks based in U.S. As they were in America but not going to America with the specific motive to pay a visit to the parks. Therefore these figures do not exactly show the popularity of Disney theme parks in Europe. The American Disney Parks are

Marketing and Economics Agricultural
Words: 18779 Length: 68 Document Type: Term Paper

Origins, History of the IMF The International Monetary Fund was first conceived between July 1-22, 1944, at the United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference in Bretton Woods, New Hampshire. The conference was attended by representatives of 45 nations, which were called together in order to plan and lay the groundwork for a cooperative economic framework to solve global financial crises before they occur. One key reason for the conference was to

Cuba After Castro Cuba Is
Words: 20759 Length: 80 Document Type: Term Paper

Those officials who did look at the question of Japanese intentions decided that Japan would never attack, because to do so would be irrational. Yet what might seem irrational to one country may seem perfectly logical to another country that has different goals, values, and traditions. (Kessler 98) The failures apparent in the onset of World War II and during the course of the war led indirectly to the creation

Does the Fisher, Ury Model Work
Words: 29882 Length: 120 Document Type: Dissertation

Negotiation Skills A High Impact Negotiations Model: An Answer to the Limitations of the Fisher, Ury Model of Principled Negotiations This study aims to discover the ways in which blocked negotiations can be overcome by testing the Fisher, Ury model of principled negotiation against one of the researcher's own devising, crafted after studying thousands of negotiation trainees from over 100 multinational corporations on 5 continents. It attempts to discern universal applications of

Sign Up for Unlimited Study Help

Our semester plans gives you unlimited, unrestricted access to our entire library of resources —writing tools, guides, example essays, tutorials, class notes, and more.

Get Started Now