realizată de Samuel Lim 8 ani în urmă
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There are a few factors that can cause a strike to be "shut down" prematurely:
1. The President of the United States can use the Tart Hartley Act to end the strike and have workers return to work
2. The union runs out of funds to pay strike benefits to striking workers. With a potential 185,000 workers going on strike, and a strike benefit of $55 per week, this amounts to a cost of about $10m for Teamsters weekly
3. Strikers become unconvinced that the strike can achieve anything meaningful and decide to cross the picket line
Ron Carey is in the midst of a re-election campaign against James Hoffa. While Ron has achieved much during his first term in the office, Teamster's finances are not doing well, and unions membership is on the decline. The upcoming UPS contract negotiation is an important one because he needed to make unions "relevant" again. If he can achieve substantial gains for the workers, it will bolster confidence in the bargaining power of unions, and help to solve Teamsters' long term problem of declining membership. Hence, it is crucial that he makes an aggressive bid for the workers' demands, and having to meet the broad expectations across both full-time and part-time workers.
The actor-network analysis reveals that Ron is in a weak negotiating position. It seems the only way to make UPS give in to his broad, aggressive demands is to present a credible strike threat, and be ready to execute the threat when negotiations fail. However, it looks that there are numerous obstacles standing in the way of an effective strike.
From a macro perspective, an effective strike needs a strike to "happen" and for it to deliver sustainable damage to UPS. The lack of FT/PT worker unity stands in the way of a concerted strike attempt, while the high likelihood of a Presidential injunction to end the strike even if it happens, makes it unlikely that a strike is possible or achieve its intended outcomes. Hence, it is imperative to unite the workers, and win popular public support for the strike.
Uniting the workers will require us to have a thorough understanding of the issues that concern FT and PT workers. The issue concept map reveals to us differing priorities over the creation of FT jobs and pension plans for PT and FT workers respectively. Ron needs to align the interests of the workers, such that FT (PT) workers see the "non-important" issues which matter to PT (FT) workers as being relevant to them. For the full-time workers, they need to understand that the creation of full-time jobs is relevant to them because there is an increasing trend for the company to outsource and convert full-time jobs to part-time. Supporting the issue of full-time job creation is in their interests as well. For the part-time workers, they need to understand that fighting for better and more stable pension plans will allow for full-timers to retire earlier, to make way for more full-time job opportunities for them.
How can Ron influence the media to manage the public's perception of a strike if it were to happen, such that the public does not perceive it to be an act of "greedy" UPS workers not contented with what they have, using brute force to get their demands met, and in the process cause massive inconveniences to the public? Recognizing the overall trend increasing involuntary part-time employment across all industries in the United States, Ron made deliberate efforts to frame the strike as a fight for the American part-time worker against greedy corporate America.
