Question

Several years ago, the strike by Southern California grocery workers against the state’s major supermarket chains was getting worse. Because so many workers were striking (70,000), and because of the issues involved, unions and employers across the country were closely following the negotiations. Indeed, grocery union contracts were set to expire in several cities, and many believed the California settlement—assuming one was reached—would set a pattern.

The main issue was employee benefits, and specifically, how much (if any) of the employees’ health care costs the employees should pay themselves. Based on their existing contract, Southern California grocery workers had unusually good health benefits. For example, they paid nothing toward their health insurance premiums and paid only $10 copayments for doctor visits. However, supporting these excellent health benefits cost the big Southern California grocery chains over $4 per hour per worker.

The big grocery chains were not proposing cutting health care insurance benefits for their existing employees. Instead, they proposed putting any new employees hired after the new contract went into effect into a separate insurance pool and contributing $1.35 per hour for their health insurance coverage. That meant new employees’ health insurance would cost each new employee perhaps $10 per week. And, if that $10 per week weren’t enough to cover the cost of health care, then the employees would have to pay more, or do without some of their benefits.

It was a difficult situation for all the parties involved. For the grocery chain employers, skyrocketing health care costs were undermining their competitiveness; the current employees feared any step down the slippery slope that might eventually mean cutting their own health benefits. The unions didn’t welcome a situation in which they’d end up representing two classes of employees, one (the existing employees) who had excellent health insurance benefits, and another (newly hired employees) whose benefits were relatively meager, and who might therefore be unhappy from the moment they joined the union.

Questions

1. 11-17.Assume you are mediating this dispute. Discuss five creative solutions you would suggest for how the grocers could reduce the health insurance benefits and the cost of their total benefits package without making any employees pay more.

2. 11-18.From the grocery chains’ point of view, what is the downside of having two classes of employees, one of which has superior health insurance benefits? How would you suggest they handle the problem?

3. 11-19.Similarly, from the point of view of the union, what are the downsides of having to represent two classes of employees, and how would you suggest handling the situation?

Answer 1

1.. It is proposed that you consider giving this exercise as a gathering task. Discovering five inventive arrangements will challenge, however things that should be considered include: adjusting deductibles yet giving grandfathered workers extra pay to redress; modifying the compensation plan by expanding the compensation for existing representatives to compensate for extra human services expenses passed on to them, yet new workers not getting that pay increment; and so on. Business medical coverage is a noteworthy expense of working together, particularly for small organizations as food supplies. With premiums taking off, numerous independent venture owners are soliciting their workers to bear more from the money related weight or cutting benefits altogether. Basic food item medical coverage may remove a tremendous piece from the revenue, however benefits frequently draw in better representatives and help hold existing workers. Satisfied, sound workers are bound to help your business grow. Keep representatives solid. The organization can establish a far-reaching health program that incorporates sickness the board for sufferings, for example, asthma and diabetes, just as offering influenza shots, malignant growth screenings, smoking-discontinuance sessions and a nonstop telephone line staffed by medical caretakers. For this situation, for serious infections, the organization can offer progressed treatment. Reduce inclusion. Cutting inclusion is an intelligent advance to decreasing the basic food item medical coverage costs. The drawback of this system is that it will probably demonstrate disagreeable with laborers. It's genuinely normal for organizations to prohibit dental and vision

2.. Spirit is a basic issue. Whenever there are two classes, desire and resentment increment and confidence diminish. Likewise, organization costs increment. Assurance is a basic issue. Whenever there are two classes, desire and resentment increment and spirit diminish. Additionally, organization costs increase. The issue with having two classes of representatives, one of them having superior health protection benefits and the other is paying a great deal to get this administration is the “Morale". This injustice between the two classes will make desire and resentment among these gatherings and along these lines, spirit diminishes. Furthermore, the variable costs as organization costs will increment, as there will be two types of medical allowances, registration, and medicinal expenses.

3.. One of the extraordinary issues that will confront the association is that the "lower class “employees will feel that they were "sold out" by the association and may lose confidence in the value of the association, and this will build the likelihood of striking in various fields and lead to open strike. At first the association will be protected in light of the bigger number of workers in the "better" gathering, yet in the long run that will change. In this way, the union should treat this issue cautiously to keep away from open social affair.