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vi Contents
Chapter 4 Unions and Management: Key Participants in the Labor Relations Process 134
Goals and Strategies: Management and Unions 135
Company Strategic Planning 136 n Nonunion Companies’ Strategies 137
Labor Relations in Action: Post-Electromation: Tests to Determine Whether Teams
and their Activities Are in Violation of 8(a)(2) of NLRA 142
Unionized Companies’ Strategies 142 n Union Strategic Planning 145
Company Organization for Labor Relations Activities 149
Union Governance and Structure 151
The Local Union 154 n Differences between Local Craft and Industrial
Unions 155 n Government and Operation of the Local Union 157 n The National
or International Union 159 n Leadership and Democracy 161
Labor Relations in Action: Rules Governing Union Officer Elections (U.S.
Department of Labor) 162
Profile of Union Leaders 162 n Administration 163 n Professional Staff
Members 163 n Services to and Control of Locals 164 n Dues, Fees, and
Distribution of Funds 165 n Mergers of National Unions 166 n Intermediate
Organizational Units 167 n Independent Unions 167 n Employee
Associations 168 n The American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial
Organizations (AFL-CIO) 168 n Organizational Structure 169
Union Corruption and the Landrum–Griffin Act 175
Union Security 177
Union Security Provisions 178 n Closed Shop 178 n Union Shop 178 n Agency
Shop 179 n Contingency Union Shop 181 n Union Hiring Hall 181 n Preferential
Treatment Clause 182 n Dues Checkoff 182 n Right-to-Work Laws: Controversy
and Effects 182 n Arguments for Right to Work Laws 185 n Arguments for
Abolishing Right-to-Work Laws 186 n Recent U.S. Supreme Court Decision 187
Case Study 4-1: Employee Rights under the Landrum–Griffin Act 194
Case Study 4-2: Financial Core Membership Rights under the Beck Decision 195
Chapter 5 Why and How Unions Are Organized 197

Why Unions Are Formed 198 n Work and Job Conditions 198 n Employees’
Backgrounds and Needs 200 n Influences on Employees Votes for and against
Unions 201 n The Union’s Challenge of Organizing the Diverse
Workforce 203 n Organizing Professional Employees 203 n Activities of the Union
in Organizing Employees 205 n Activities of the Company in Union
Organizing 209 n Unintended Consequences of Anti-Union
Behavior 212 n Methods for Organizing Unions 212
Labor Relations in Action: Volkswagen and the United Auto Workers—Chattanooga,
Tennessee 216
Labor Relations in Action: Objections to Joining the Union 218
Labor Relations in Action: Examples of Employer Messages during a
Representation Election Campaign 220
Labor Relations in Action: Interesting Comparison: FedEx and UPS (United
Parcel Service) 224
Duties of the Exclusive Bargaining Agent and Employer 230 n After Election Loss by
the Union 230 n Proposed Mandatory Secret Ballot Elections versus Employee Free
Choice Act (EFCA) 230
Contents vii
Conduct of the Representation Election Campaign 233

Campaign Doctrines and NLRB Policies 233 n Captive Audience—24-Hour
Rule 234 n Polling or Questioning Employees 234 n Distribution of Union
Literature and Solicitation by Employees on Company Property 235 n Showing Films
during Election Campaigns 235 n Use of E-Mail, Internet, and Social
Media 236 n New Union Strategies 237
Removing a Labor Union 238
Labor Relations in Action: Union Salting: A New Union-Organizing Tactic 239
Case Study 5-1: Are These Employees Engaged in a Protected Concerted
Activity? 251
Case Study 5-2: Are the Employees Involved in Activities That Are Legal? 251
Case Study 5-3: Are the Field Supervisors “Supervisors” under the National Labor
Relations Act (NLRA)? 252
Case Study 5-4: Are These Employees’ Activities Legally Protected under the
National Labor Relations Act? 253
Case Study 5-5: Did the Company Violate the Section 8(a)(1) of the LMRA When It
Discharged the Employee? 255
Case Study 5-6: Bulletin Board Use 257
Case Study 5-7: Nonemployee Union Solicitation Activity 258
Case Study 5-8: Campaign Threats or Implied Promise of Benefit? 259
Case Study 5-9: The T-Shirt Offer and Picnic Photographs 261
Classroom Exercise 5.1: Designing Union Election Campaign Literature 263
Part 2 The Bargaining Process and Outcomes
Chapter 6 Negotiating the Labor Agreement 266

Collective Bargaining: Definition and Structure 267
Bargaining Structure 268 n The Bargaining Unit 270
Negotiation Preparation Activities 274
Selection of the Negotiating Team and Related Bargaining
Responsibilities 274 n Proposal Determination and Assessment 276 n Formulating
Proposals 277 n The Bargaining Range 279
Labor Relations in Action: Bargaining Goals for Registered Nurses 282
Costing Contract Proposals 283
Understanding Collective Bargaining Behavior: A Framework 285
Distributive and Integrative Bargaining: Two Different Approaches 285 n Strategies
and Tactics 286 n The Bargaining Power Model 287 n Factors Potentially Affecting
Both Bargaining Power Equations 290 n Factors Affecting a Union’s Disagreement
and Agreement Costs 290 n Factors Affecting Management’s Agreement and
Disagreement Costs 291 n Complexities Associated with the Bargaining Power
Model 291 n Attitudinal Structuring 292 n Intraorganizational Bargaining 292
Ethical and Legal Considerations in Collective Bargaining 293
The Legal Duty to Bargain in Good Faith 295 n Type of Bargaining Subject 295
n Specific Bargaining Actions 297 n Totality of Conduct 298 n Bargaining over
viii Contents
Managerial Rights 300 n Successor Employer Bargaining Obligations 303

n Collective Bargaining under Bankruptcy Proceedings 303 n Legal Remedies
Associated with Violations of the Duty to Bargain in Good Faith 304
n Contract Ratification 306 n Explanation of Voting Behavior 306
Labor Relations in Action: Contract Ratification Process Affecting East and Gulf
Coast Ports 307
Reasons for Rejection of Tentative Contract Agreements 308
Case Study 6-1: The Funeral Leave Policy Proposal 317
Case Study 6-2: Classification of a Bargaining Subject 318
Case Study 6-3: The Influenza Work Rule 319
Case Study 6-4: Refusal to Furnish Requested Information 322
Case Study 6-5: The Mileage Reimbursement Policy 323
Chapter 7 Economic Issues 325

Industrial Wage Differentials 327
Occupational Wage Differentials and the Role of Job Evaluation and Wage Surveys 329
Evaluating Jobs within the Organization 329 n Surveys to Compare Firms’ Wage
Structures 331 n Production Standards and Wage Incentives 332 n Wage-Setting
Criteria: Arguments Used by Management and Union Officials in Wage
Determination 336
Labor Relations in Action: “Living Wage” Ordinances: What are They? What Are
Their Effects? 337
Differential Features of the Work: Job Evaluation and the Wage Spread 338
Two-Tier Wage Plans 340
Labor Relations in Action: The Waxing and Waning of Two-Tier Wage Plans 342
Wage Comparability 343 n Ability to Pay 344 n Productivity 345 n Cost of
Living 348 n Wage Adjustments during the Term or Duration of the Labor
Agreement 349 n Lump-Sum Pay Adjustments 351
Employee Benefits 351
Insurance and Health Benefits 352 n Health Care Cost Containment 353 n Income
Maintenance 354 n Premium Pay—Overtime and Other Supplements 355 n Pay for
Time Not Worked—Holidays, Vacations, and Rest Periods 357
n Pensions 358 n Family and Child-Care Benefits 362
Other Benefits 363

Union Effects on Wages and Benefits 363
Case Study 7-1: “Adding Insult to Injury” 378
Case Study 7-2: Unilateral Freeze of Defined Benefit Pension Plan 380
Case Study 7-3: A Change in the Medical Insurance Plan 381
Case Study 7-4: Does the Deputy Sheriff Deserve a Pay Raise? 383
Classroom Exercise 7.1: Employee Benefits 386
Chapter 8 Administrative Issues 387

Technological Change and Job Protection 388
Labor Relations in Action: High Performance Work Organization (HPWO)
Partnership Principles 391
Contents ix
Benefits of Technological Change 391 n Negative Effects of Technological

Change 392
Job Security and Personnel Changes 393
Job Security and the Changing Psychological Contract 394 n Job Security Work
Rules 395 n Plant Closures, Downsizing, and WARN 397 n Subcontracting,
Outsourcing, and Work Transfer 399
Labor Relations in Action: Creating Good Jobs Today and in the Future 402
Work Assignments and Jurisdiction 403 n Work Scheduling 404
Labor Relations in Action: Computer Programming and Labor Relations 405
The Role of Seniority in Personnel Changes 406 n Legal Issues Involving Seniority in
Administrative Determinations 410
Employee Training 412
Work Restructuring 415
Safety and Health 416
Labor Relations in Action: Domestic Violence and Trade Unions 419
Case Study 8-1: Discharged for Facebook Comments 433
Case Study 8-2: The Outsourced Work 433
Case Study 8-3: The Disputed Safety Bonus 434
Case Study 8-4: “Donning Safety Equipment?” or “Changing Clothes?” 435
Chapter 9 Resolving Negotiation (Interest) Disputes and the Use of Economic

Pressure 437
Impasse Resolution Procedures Involving a Third-Party Neutral 439
Mediation 439 n Fact-Finding 442 n Interest Arbitration 442
n Mediation-Arbitration (Med-Arb) 446
Other Third-Party Procedures 447

Arbitration-Mediation 447 n Tri-Offer Arbitration 448 n Double Final-Offer
Arbitration 448 n “Night Baseball” Arbitration 449
Strikes and Lockouts: The Use of Economic Pressure to Resolve Interest
Disputes 449
Replacement Workers during Strikes and Lockouts 450 n Types of Strikes 451
Labor Relations in Action: 2011 National Football League Contract Negotiations and
Lockout 452
Reasons for Strikes 456 n Strategic Purposes of a Strike 458 n Strike Experiences
and Preparation 459 n Reinstatement Rights of Unfair Labor Practice and Economic
Strikers 463 n Unlawful Strike Misconduct 465 n Employee Picketing
Rights 466 n Secondary Strikes, Boycotts, and Picketing 466
National Emergency Dispute Resolution Procedures 471
Case Study 9-1: An Interest Arbitration Hearing 485
Case Study 9-2: Legitimate Picketing? Or Illegal Secondary Boycott? 487
Case Study 9-3: The Aftermath of a Strike 489
Case Study 9-4: The Right to Strike 491
Case Study 9-5: Denial of Health Care Benefits to Striking Employees 492
Case Study 9-6: Product Picket Activity 493
x Contents
Part 3 Administering the Labor Agreement
Chapter 10 Contract Administration 496

Labor Relations in Action: Rules Governing Workplace Investigations 499
Grievances: Definition, Sources, and Significance 499
Reasons for Employee Grievances 502 n Significance of Employee
Grievances 505 n Preparation for Grievance Processing 506
Steps in the Grievance Procedure 508
First Step of Grievance Procedure 509 n Second Step of Grievance
Procedure 511 n Third Step of Grievance Procedure 511 n Fourth Step of Grievance
Procedure: Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) 512 n Different Approaches by
Grievance Mediators 513 n Administrative Complexities of Processing
Grievances 515 n Other Forms of ADR 516
Labor Relations in Action: Tough Contract Administration Questions 517
Grievance Resolution: Relationships and Flexibility 517
Codified Relationships 518
Power Relationships 518
Empathetic Relationships 520 n Flexible Consideration in Processing Employee
Grievances 520
The Union’s Duty of Fair Representation 522
Case Study 10-1: Are These Grievances Arbitrable? 531
Case Study 10-2: Should the Union Represent Slick Willie Owens? 534
Classroom Exercise 10.1: Arbitration Scenario 536
Chapter 11 Labor and Employment Arbitration 537

Development of Labor Arbitration 538
Elements of a Typical Arbitration Proceeding 540
Selection and Characteristics of Arbitrators 541 n Decision to
Arbitrate 544 n Prehearing Activities 545 n The Arbitration Hearing 545
Labor Relations in Action: Improving Preparation for Arbitration Hearings 548
Comparison of Arbitration and Judicial Proceedings 549
Evidence in Arbitration vs. in Judicial Proceedings 550 n Arbitration in the Railway
and Airline Industries 552
The Arbitrator’s Decision 552
Decision-Making Guidelines Used by Arbitrators 553
Labor Relations in Action: Example of Contract Language Ambiguity 556
Past Practice 558 n Previous Labor Arbitration Decisions 559
Current Issues Affecting Arbitration 560
Legal Jurisdiction 560
Labor Relations in Action: Tenets of Labor Arbitration 561
Labor Arbitration and the National Labor Relations Board 564
Labor Relations in Action: National Football League v. National Football League
Players Association (Tom Brady) 566
Labor Relations in Action: Things They Never Told Me before I Became an
Arbitrator 567
Contents xi
Appraising Labor Arbitration’s Effectiveness 567 n Procedural

Problems 569 n Employment Arbitration 571
Labor Relations in Action: How Employment Arbitration Differs from Arbitration
Found in Labor Agreements 575
Public Policy Implications for the Future 578
Case Study 11-1: Whether the Employer Violated the Contract by Implementing Fleet
Operation Changes on or about June 18, 2014? If so, What Is the Appropriate
Remedy? 587
Case Study 11-2: Issue: Did the Company Violate the Collective Bargaining
Agreement When It Reduced the Hours of Full-Time Employees to Less than 35
Hours per Week as This Action Relates to the NLRB Charge? 592
Case Study 11-3: Should Employee Be Penalized for On-the-Job Injury? 597
Chapter 12 Employee Discipline 600

The Changing Significance of Industrial Discipline 601
Historical Overview of Employer Disciplinary Policies 601 n Employment-at-Will
Doctrine and Wrongful Discharge Consideration for Nonunion
Employees 603 n Present-Day Significance of Employee Discipline 605
Labor Relations in Action: Disciplinary Possibilities on the Assembly Line 606
Elements of the Just Cause Principle in Employee Discipline 608
Discipline for Just Cause and Discipline’s Legitimate Purpose 608 n Degree of Proof
in Disciplinary Cases: Nature of the Evidence and Witness Credibility 610 n Labor
Relations in Action: Employee Discipline and Social Media 612 n Effect of Work
Rules on Discipline 613 n Progressive Discipline 616 n Disciplinary Penalty and
Mitigating Circumstances 617 n Possible Collision between Discharge Decisions and
Public Policy 620
Labor Relations in Action: Examples of Employee Misconduct and Mitigating
Factors to Consider in Employee Discipline 621
Due Process 623
Case Study 12-1: Issue: Was Mr. Babcock’s Termination for Just Cause? If Not,
What Is the Remedy? 635
Case Study 12-2: Falsification of Application 641
Part 4 Applying the Labor Relations Process to Different Labor Relations Systems
Chapter 13 Labor Relations in the Public Sector 650

Significance of Public-Sector Labor Relations 651
Labor Legislation in the Public Sector 652 n Current Challenges to Collective
Bargaining Rights of Public Unions 654
Labor Relations in Action: States That Have Passed Laws Limiting Representational
Rights for Public Sector Employees Since 2010 656
Federal-Sector Labor Relations Legislation 657
Labor Relations in Action: Privatization of the Public Sector 658
Appropriate Bargaining Units and Union Recognition in the Federal
Sector 660 n Negotiable Subjects in the Federal Sector 660 n Unfair Labor Practices
xii Contents
in the Federal Sector 661 n Grievance Procedures and Arbitration in the Federal
Sector 662 n Labor–Management Forums in the Federal Government 662
Labor Relations in Action: Arbitration under the Federal Service Labor–management
Relations Statute 663
Homeland Security Act 663
Labor Relations in the U.S. Postal Service 665
Similarities between Private- and Public-Sector Bargaining 666
Differences between Private-Sector and Public-Sector Bargaining 668
The Market Economy Does Not Operate in the Public Sector 668 n The Relationship
between the Budget and Public-Sector Bargaining Processes 669 n Employee Rights
and Obligations 669
Collective Bargaining Structures and Decision-Making Processes 671
Negotiable Issues and Bargaining Tactics 672 n Grievance
Administration 675 n The Right-to-Strike Controversy 675 n Discipline of Public-
Sector Employees 676
Labor Relations in Action: Douglas Factors in Deciding Disciplinary Punishment of
Federal Employees 677
Interest Dispute Impasse-Resolution Procedures in the Public
Sector 677 n Mediation 678 n Fact-Finding and Arbitration of Interest
Disputes 678 n Effectiveness of Fact-Finding and Arbitration of Interest
Disputes 680 n Referendum 681 n Conclusions on Public-Sector Labor
Relations 682 n Challenges and Opportunities for Public-Sector Unions 684
Case Study 13-1: Unions Representing Public Employees 694
Case Study 13-2: Discharge for Off-Duty Conduct 695
Chapter 14 Labor Relations in Multinational Corporations and in Other Countries 701

Multinational Corporations and Transnational Collective Bargaining 702
Union Approaches to Multinational Bargaining and Employer Reactions 706
Labor Relations in Action: Core Labor Standards 707
Obstacles for Unions in Bargaining with Multinational Corporations 708 n Effects of
Unions on Multinational Corporations 709 n Conclusions and Predictions on
Transnational Bargaining 710
Globalization and Concerns about Free Trade 710
North American Agreement on Labor Cooperation (NAALC) 712
Unions in Other Countries 714
Canada 715 n Mexico, Central America, and South America 719 n Cuba 724
Labor Relations in Action: Two Views of Trade Unions in Cuba 725
Western Europe 725 n European Union 727 n Great
Britain 730 n Germany 731 n Central and Eastern Europe—Former Soviet Bloc
Countries 733 n Japan 734 n South Korea 738 n Australia 739 n China 741
Classroom Exercise 14.1: Mobile Factory 755
Appendix A Collective Bargaining Negotiations Exercise 756
Author Index 759

Subject Index 762
Preface
This textbook is a culmination of more than 100 years of classroom teaching to more
than 10,000 undergraduate and graduate college students. The eleventh edition of The
Labor Relations Process reflects our original objective in writing the book: to provide stu-
dents with a textbook that will generate an understanding of and appreciation for core
elements of union–management relationships. We have attempted to involve the student
with the subject matter and to create an interest in related issues that will continue after
the student completes the course. A model of the labor relations process (Exhibit 1.2) is
presented in the first chapter and expanded in subsequent chapters through extensive
references to academics and practitioners that focus on real-world situations and con-
cerns. This provides a balance between concepts and applications for the reader.
The eleventh edition of The Labor Relations Process continues our long-standing tra-
dition of being the most comprehensive text on the market.
Features of the Eleventh Edition

The objective of this text has always been to increase student involvement by focusing on
applying the concepts being taught. This emphasis is unmatched by other textbooks in
this area. This application generates student interest in the subject matter while enabling
students to demonstrate their understanding of concepts and principles and apply this
information to real-world situations. These opportunities and related efforts should
sharpen readers’ communication skills, a desirable skill for any student, regardless of
his or her academic major or intended occupation.
Application has been enhanced through “Labor Relations in Action” features;
National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), court, or arbitration case studies at the end of
most chapters; and “class activity” experiential exercises designed to promote active stu-
dent participation in the learning process. There are updated Internet exercises called
“Exploring the Web” at the end of each chapter to enhance student learning and appli-
cation and to create interest in independent research. The negotiation exercise with com-
puter applications and the arbitration cases have been prepared for role-playing
experience to promote the reality of union–management relations. The book has also
maintained many of the previous edition’s features: a focus on currency, ethics, interna-
tional issues, and real-world applications:
n Chapter-Opening Vignettes. Each chapter begins with a short story or situation
that prepares the reader for the chapter’s subject. These encourage critical thinking
and make the chapter’s subject matter relevant to the student.
n Currency. This edition offers many opportunities for readers to become involved
with the current applications of the labor relations process. For example, recent col-
lective bargaining occurred with management and union officials in the auto indus-
try and recent bargaining subjects such as health care costs and technological change
are given expanded coverage in this edition.
n Ethics. Ethical issues concerning such topics as bargaining behavior, union organiz-
ing, employee empowerment, and termination for union activities are addressed
throughout the book.
xiii
xiv Preface
n International Labor. Chapter 14 has been updated and expanded to include

changes that have occurred in Canada, Mexico, China, Australia, and the European
Union, as well as the effects of the North American Free Trade (NAFTA)
Agreement.
n Real-World Applications. The Labor Relations in Action boxes integrate current
events in labor relations and have been updated with several new applications.
Key Chapter-by-Chapter Changes in the Eleventh Edition

Each chapter has been updated with current research, laws and judicial decisions, studies,
and statistics. Additional attention has been given to explaining the labor relations pro-
cess and influences. Following are some of the key updates to this edition:
n Chapter 1 features updated information on mediators, the effect of the recent U.S.
economic downturn, and its effect on the labor pool, and encourages online searches
on current labor relations topics, supplemented by Internet exercises in every
chapter.
n Chapter 2 has new information about early legal developments involving labor–
management relationships, the Knights of Labor, and the origin and goals of the
American Federation of Labor.
n Chapter 3 presents recent key decisions of the NLRB and courts affecting labor rela-
tions, such as classification of hospital interns and residents, graduate students in
academic institutions, and supervisors for purposes of determining coverage as
“employees” under the Labor Management Relations Act. The chapter also includes
expanded coverage of the NLRB’s unfair labor practice procedure, and the concept
of concerted and protected activity under the LMRA.
n Chapter 4 offers updates in the leadership of the American Federation of Labor-
Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO), expanded coverage of “financial
core” membership, and “right-to-work” legislation.
n Chapter 5 covers modern union-organizing tactics, with the latest updates on union
salting, card check, and neutrality agreements. This chapter addresses NLRB policies
with changes from President Obama’s appointees and new representation election
rules.
n Chapter 6 explores collective bargaining preparation and behavior, including a com-
parison of distributive bargaining versus mutual gain (interest-based) bargaining
approaches and contract ratification procedures. There’s also a new feature about
the labor relations struggle for nurses and two new case studies.
n Chapter 7 features current information on wage and benefit trends and expanded
coverage of wage incentive pay plans, such as skill-based pay, health care cost con-
tainment, and pension plans.
n Chapter 8 covers technological change issues, efforts to foster more cooperative
labor–management relationships, safety and health issues, and the Americans with
Disabilities Act.
n Chapter 9 reveals the role of the mediator as viewed through the eyes of one of the
nation’s prominent labor mediators. Coverage includes trends in strike activity; legal
decisions affecting employees’ and employers’ rights during a work stoppage; and
secondary strike, picket, and boycott activity.
n Chapter 10 provides the important actions for a successful workplace investigation,
elements of grievance mediation, and coverage of a union’s legal duty of fair
representation.
Preface xv
n Chapter 11 provides insights to the real world of labor/employment arbitration;

offers a critique of employment arbitration; compares employment arbitration to
labor arbitration; explores the controversy over mandated employment arbitration
as a condition of employment; explains Due Process Protocol; explains the guide-
lines used in arbitrator decisions; and reveals the arbitrator decision’s potential con-
flict and accommodation with public policy and the new NLRB deferral policy.
n Chapter 12 provides guidelines used by arbitrators in determining “just cause” and
their consideration of due process principles. This chapter features updates on
Weingarten rights, such as the withdrawal of the NLRB’s extension of Weingarten
rights to nonunion (unrepresented) employees.
n Chapter 13 addresses dramatic changes in public sector bargaining, which have
resulted from budget problems and politics. The subjects of public sector dispute
resolution, privatization of public services, and homeland security issues are
addressed.
n Chapter 14 focuses on the labor relations issues among multinational corporations
in a global economy and characteristics of labor relations systems of America’s
major trading partners, including NAFTA members, European Union countries,
Australia, China, Japan, and Korea. The chapter also covers major recent develop-
ments in those countries.
Supplementary Materials
Instructor’s Manual with Test Bank
This supplement includes chapter outlines, answers to end-of-chapter discussion ques-
tions, case notes, suggested student readings and term projects, and both instructors’
and students’ instructions for the Collective Bargaining Negotiations Exercise (available
on our product support Web site). The Test Bank has been fully revised, updated, and
expanded.
Holley/Ross/Wolters Product Support Website

Our product support website is a robust learning and resource center for both instructors
and students. The self-assessment exercises on the site include:
n An Industrial Relations Orientation Self-Assessment that measures the degree of
one’s pro-union or anti-union sentiments.
n Bargaining Strategy Orientation Self-Assessment that measure one’s preference for
different bargaining strategies (e.g., distributive vs. mutual gain).
n Mediator Effectiveness Potential Self-Assessment measures the degree to which one
possesses the personal characteristics attributed to successful mediators.
n Quizzes presented as multiple-choice and true–false questions for download by the
instructor allow self-assessments by students in understanding materials related to
each chapters’ key terms and concepts.
Acknowledgments
We are especially grateful to the following professors for their reviews and suggestions
on this revision:
Jeffrey Arthur, Virginia Tech
James Benson, Boise State University
Kristian F. Braekkan, Virginia Tech
Richard J. Campbell, University of Rio Grande
Kim Hester, Arkansas State University
Dr. Miguel R. Olivas-Lujan, Clarion University of Pennsylvania
Tony Vrba, Tarleton State University
We also extend our appreciation to those who made valuable suggestions for previ-
ous editions: Todd Baker, John C. Bird, Mollie Bowers, Gene Brady, James F. Byers,
Joseph M. Cambridge, Anthony Campagna, James Chambers, William Chase, Boyd
Childress, Milton Derber, Satish Desphande, Victor Devinatz, James B. Dworkin, Randyl
D. Elkin, Geraldine Ellerbrock, Art Finkle, Paul Gerhart, Dennis W. Gibson, Carol L.
Gilmore, Thomas P. Gilroy, David Gray, Charles R. Greer, Marvin Hill, Jr., Wayne
Hochwarter, Janis Holden, Denise Tanguay Hoyer, Thomas Hyclak, H. Roy Kaplan,
Zeinrab A. Karake, Katherine Karl, Philip Kienast, John Kilgour, Toni S. Knechtges,
Kenneth A. Kovach, Charles Krider, Thomas W. Lloyd, Eugene Lorge, Howard T.
Ludlow, Karl O. Magnusen, Douglas M. Mahoney, Marick Masters, William Maloney,
Pamela Marett, Douglas McCabe, Patrick McHugh, Frank Milman, Jonathan Monat,
Roy Moore, William L. Moore, Thomas Noble, Carol Nowicki, Lou Parrotta, Dane M.
Partridge, Robert Penfield, Alex Pomnichowski, Roy R. Reynolds, Robert Rodgers,
Richard L. Rowan, Sue Schaefer, Machelle K. Schroeder, Peter Sherer, David Shulenber-
ger, Donna M. Testa, Herman A. Theeke, Peter A. Veglahn, Suzanne M. Vest, Jeffrey L.
Walls, William Werther, Elizabeth Wesman, and Carolyn Wiley.
We also wish to thank Sarah M. Philips, Cathy Wright, and Charlie T. Cook for
their aid in the preparation of this book.
Finally, we would like to thank Cengage Learning for its fine work on this book. We
are especially grateful to Erin Joyner, Vice President and General Manager; Michael
Roche, Senior Product Manager; Brian Pierce, Content Developer; Jennifer Ziegler,
Senior Content Project Manager; Kristina Mose-Libon, Art Director; Emily Horowitz,
Marketing Manager; and Casey Binder, Marketing Coordinator.
William H. Holley, Jr.
Auburn University
William H. Ross
University of Wisconsin—La Crosse
xvi Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
About the Authors
William H. Holley, Jr., has had research published in a variety of journals including Labor
Law Journal, Arbitration Journal, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Journal of
Construction Engineering and Management, and Industrial Relations. He has engaged in
consulting with private and public organizations and served as an Administrative Hearing
Officer in the grievance procedure of the City of Auburn, Alabama. Dr. Wolters is a mem-
ber of the Labor and Employment Relations Association. Outside interests include golfing
and motorcycling.
William H. Ross has taught labor relations, collective bargaining, and human resource
management courses for 30 years. He teaches at the University of Wisconsin—La Crosse,
where he also serves as Chairperson of the Department of Management. He does research
on third-party dispute resolution procedures, including mediation and arbitration, as well
as the implications of technological innovations for human resource management. His
research has been published in Academy of Management Review, Journal of Applied Psychol-
ogy, Labor Law Journal, and Negotiation Journal. Dr. Ross is on the editorial board of The
International Journal of Conflict Management and Negotiation and Conflict Management
Research. He is a member of the Academy of Management, the Society for Industrial-
Organizational Psychology, and other professional organizations. Dr. Ross received his
B.A. from Auburn University and his M.A. and Ph.D. in Industrial-Organizational Psy-
chology, with a minor in Labor and Industrial Relations, from the University of Illinois.
Roger S. Wolters is professor emeritus in the Department of Management at Auburn

University, where his primary interests included labor law, collective bargaining, and dis-
pute resolution. Coauthor of Labor Relations: An Experiential and Case Approach with
William H. Holley, Jr., his research was published in Labor Law Journal, Arbitration Jour-
nal, Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal, Journal of Construction Engineering and
Management, Industrial Relations, and other journals. Dr. Wolters has consulted to private
and public organizations and served as an Administrative Hearing Officer for grievances
with the City of Auburn, Alabama. He earned his B.B.A. and M.A. from the University
of North Florida and his Ph.D. in Labor and Industrial Relations from the University of
Illinois.
xvii
The Labor Relations Process
PART
1
Recognizing Rights and
Responsibilities of Unions
and Management
Part 1 introduces the labor relations process
that will be discussed throughout the book,
placing it in historical and legal perspec-
tives. It also examines the difference
between union and management organiza-
tions and their labor relations strategies.
Chapter 1
Union–Management Relationships in Perspective
Chapter 2
The History of Labor–Management Relationships
Chapter 3
Legal Influences
Chapter 4
Unions and Management: Key Participants in the Labor Relations
Process
Chapter 5
Why and How Unions Are Organized
3
CHAPTER 1
Union–Management Relationships
in Perspective
BOB SAT IN his office staring out the window and thinking
about the future. As the human resources manager of the firm,
Bob had just finished preparing an announcement to be sent to
all employees informing them that the company had just been
sold to a larger competitor. After 20 years of service, Bob was
very proud of the employee relations that existed at his
company and wondered how things might change now that a
larger corporation would be in charge. Although Bob’s unit was
not unionized, he knew that the new owner had a number of
unionized facilities within its corporate structure. Bob had never
thought much about what it would be like to manage in a
unionized firm and whether the management strategies he had
relied upon throughout his career would be as effective or even
entirely legal. How might the labor relations process change if
he had to deal with employees as a group through their
selected union representative rather than as individuals? Would
there be an effort to equalize employment terms and policies
between union and nonunion facilities of the new owner?
Would unions already representing employees at other similar
facilities of the owner now seek to organize employees at
Bob’s unit? While Bob had more questions than answers about
the immediate future, he did resolve to be proactive by
attempting to expand his current level of knowledge about the
labor relations process.
4 Copyright 2017 Cengage Learning. All Rights Reserved. May not be copied, scanned, or duplicated, in whole or in part. WCN 02-200-203
Questions
1. In your opinion, what is the biggest difference between managing
employees in a unionized versus nonunion firm?
2. In your opinion, does having other unionized facilities within a corpora-
tion’s operating units alter management’s approach to labor relations at
its nonunion facilities and, if so, give an example to illustrate what you
mean.
oday’s global economy presents many challenges and opportunities for both employers
T and employees. As organizations seek to use resources both efficiently and effectively,
there will be inevitable tension over how best to manage those assets to benefit both
ownership and employees. The effective management of human resources is critical to
maintaining an organization’s competitiveness. Recognition of and respect for the legitimate
interests of both labor and management are an important step in building and maintaining
work relationships capable of adapting to change in the competitive environment most
organizations face. Stable work relationships are built upon trust between ownership and
employees, which is reflected in both the actions and words of the parties.
Chapter 1 seeks to build a basic frame of reference for understanding the labor relations
process by first defining the three phases of the labor relations process and then placing this
process into an analytical perspective. Chapter 1 introduces the activities, focal point,
participants, and influences of the labor relations process, which are discussed in detail in
subsequent chapters. The chapter ends with a discussion of the current status of union
membership and the relevance of labor organizations in today’s economy.
Phases in the Labor Relations Process

The labor relations process involves managers (representing the ownership interests) and a
labor organization (union), selected by employees as their exclusive bargaining agent to rep-
resent their interests. Managers and union representatives jointly determine and administer
work rules. Where employees are not represented by a union, work rules are typically deter-
mined unilaterally by the employer with the opportunity for individual bargaining between
an employee and his or her employer at the employer’s discretion. The negotiation and
administration of work rules demonstrate considerable variation across public- and private-
sector organizations in the United States, reflecting unique aspects of each organization.
The labor relations process includes three basic phases:
1. Recognition of the legitimate rights and responsibilities of union and manage-
ment representatives. Employees have a legal right to form and join a union or to
refrain from doing so (see Chapters 3 and 5). Labor law also sets forth the rights and
responsibilities of management and union officials to abide by applicable laws and labor
agreement (contract) terms. From a union’s perspective, phase 1 may be the most impor-
tant phase because without gaining legal recognition as the exclusive bargaining represen-
tative of a group of employees in phase 1, the process does not proceed to phases 2 and 3.
2. Negotiation of the labor agreement, including appropriate strategies, tactics, and
impasse resolution techniques. Contract negotiation involves union and management
5
6 PART 1 • Recognizing Rights and Responsibilities of Unions and Management
representatives jointly determining work rules (policies) governing the parties’ rights
and responsibilities affecting wages, hours, or other terms and conditions of employ-
ment (discussed in Chapters 6, 7, and 8). The outcomes of such negotiations have an
important impact on a firm’s labor costs, management’s rights, and covered employees’
standard of living. Most interest disputes (i.e., a dispute over what the terms or condi-
tions of employment or work rules will be) are resolved voluntarily by union and man-
agement negotiators during the bargaining process. Strikes, lockouts, mediation, and
interest arbitration are examples of impasse resolution techniques (discussed in
Chapter 9) that can be used to resolve an interest dispute. Phase 2 of the labor relations
process generally receives the most media attention even though phases 1 and 3 are
equally essential.
3. Administration of the negotiated labor agreement—the interpretation and applica-
tion of labor contract terms on a daily basis. Once contract terms have been settled
in phase 2, there is a need to apply those terms every day during the stated term or dura-
tion of the labor agreement. The contract enforcement phase of the labor relations pro-
cess is generally accomplished through daily union and management interactions and,
when necessary, the use of a grievance-arbitration procedure to resolve rights disputes
(i.e., disputes over the interpretation or application of a contract’s terms, discussed in
Chapters 10, 11, and 12). Resolving rights disputes accounts for the most time and
energy spent by union and management officials in the labor relations process and
usually involves a larger number of these officials than the preceding phases.
Of course, not all labor–management relationships progress smoothly through these
three phases. Indeed, employees and their chosen union representative at some public-
and private-sector organizations have a difficult time moving from the recognition of
an employee bargaining representative (phase 1) through the remaining two phases of
the process.1
The phases of the labor relations process are subject to qualitative variation as well.
In the first phase, for example, organizations vary in the amount of mutual trust and
respect union and management officials have for each other’s goals. In the second
phase, negotiations are carried out with different levels of intelligence, preparation, and
sincere desire to achieve results. The third phase may vary as to how well the negotiated
labor agreement is understood and effectively administered in good faith by both parties.
There are probably as many different relationships as there are union and management
officials negotiating labor agreements.
Elements in the Labor Relations Process

Exhibit 1.1 provides a framework for the labor relations process. The elements shown
can be applied to the labor relations activities at a single or multiple facilities owned by
a single company, or in an entire industry. The exhibit cites three major elements: (1) the
negotiation and administration of work rules, which are the focal point of labor relations;
(2) the key participants in the process, who are the union and management organiza-
tions, employees, third-party neutrals, and branches of government (administrative, leg-
islative, and judicial); and (3) the constraints or influences affecting the parties in their
negotiation and administration of work rules.
Focal Point of Labor Relations: Work Rules

Any academic discipline needs a focal point so that research, investigation, and commen-
tary can generate applicable insights. “Labor” or “industrial” relations can become a
CHAPTER 1 • Union–Management Relationships in Perspective 7
Exhibit 1.1
Elements in the Labor nology
Tech
Relations Process
La
bo
rM
ar
k
Employees
et
my
no
Eco
the
s
itor Sup
pli
ed
of
State Cr Owners er
s
agement Work Rules Membersh
an Of on
M ni ip
fic
U
Loc
Subc
er
Existence and
Product Market
ials
Oth
Management Union
C u s t o m e rs
z a tio n s
a l, S t a t e, a n
Particular
Negotiators Negotiators
o ntr a ct o rs
Content
and and
gani
Administrators Negotiation Administrators
and
Or
d
Administration at
nd
N
on
io
na er sa
C
Stoc l Lab
k h o l d e r s tit or or O f fi c
s
su
Fina
lta pe
nts
Com
nci
Third-Party Neutral
al M
ark
et
Government:
Executive, Legislative, Judicial
es
rc
Federal State Local Fo
al
tion
a
ern
Pub Int
lic O
pinion
broad topic including many academic concerns. For example, sociologists have examined
employee alienation; psychologists have investigated causes of job satisfaction and work
motivation; economists have studied wage determination; and political scientists have
assessed the impact of union and management as interest groups attempting to influence
government policy and legislative outcomes.
John Dunlop’s book Industrial Relations Systems provides a useful focal point for
these diverse academic approaches. Dunlop suggested that the center of attention in
labor relations should be the work rules negotiated between management and union offi-
cials. Work rules facilitate the implementation of operational plans designed to accom-
plish an organization’s strategic goals. Work rules determine employees’ standard of
living and the work environment within which employees will spend a substantial por-
tion of their time. Today external factors (e.g., state of the economy, technology, interna-
tional forces) play an increased role in determining the substance and type of work rules
created by union and management representatives.
It is important to understand the influences determining the creation and particular
content of work rules.2 Work rules can be placed in two general categories: (1) rules
governing compensation in all its forms (e.g., wages, overtime payments, vacations, holi-
days, shift premiums) and (2) rules specifying the employees’ and employers’ job rights
and obligations, such as no employee strike or employer lockout during the term of the
labor agreement. This second category of rules may specify performance standards,
promotion qualifications and procedures, job specifications, and layoff procedures. Addi-
tional examples of work rules are furnished in Exhibit 1.2.
Compensation work rules, such as a negotiated wage rate, often capture the attention of
employees and the media because they are negotiation outcomes that are easier for most
people to understand and compare. Union and management officials, however, may attach
equal or greater importance to work rules regarding the second work rule category, job
rights, and obligations. Managers are often adamant about retaining control over key oper-
ating decisions such as determining the number and types of employees, equipment and
technology decisions, geographic location of company operations, and operating hours. In
order to appreciate the importance of these rules, consider the following three examples:
Managers at Company “A” are interested in obtaining a work rule that permits production
employees to perform “minor repairs,” instead of requiring higher paid maintenance
employees to do the tasks. At Company “B” the union wants to reduce forced overtime;
they want workers to have the final decision about whether and when they will work over-
time. About 39 percent of union contracts contain limitations on the right of management
to require employees to work overtime. At Company “C” union leaders are seeking work
rules that would change the standard work week to less than 40 hours required to earn
full-time pay and benefits.3 Why would the union at Company “C” seek a shorter work
week? Assuming the number of employee work hours required to meet a firm’s workload
is relatively stable, reducing the number of hours considered to be an employee’s full work
week would theoretically require additional employee positions (and potentially more due-
paying union members) or create more overtime work opportunities for employees.
Work rules can vary depending upon whether they are common or unique in the sub-
ject matter addressed and vague or specific in the wording used to express the rule. Because
work rules are the outcome of joint negotiation between union and management represen-
tatives, neither party typically gets the exact contract language it originally preferred. Com-
promise language is often worded more generally, which allows room for interpretation.
However, vague wording can lead to subsequent grievance disputes during the contract’s
term as management implements its interpretation of contract terms through job decisions
and that interpretation is challenged by employees or their union representative through the
grievance dispute process. The wording or interpretation of work rules can also change over
time in response to changes in operating environments and the need for greater flexibility.
For example, the work rules for airline flight attendants today would most certainly dif-
fer from the following three work rules formulated in the 1930s: (1) swat flies in the cabin
after takeoff, (2) prevent passengers from throwing lighted cigar butts out the windows, and
(3) carry a railroad timetable in case of plane trouble. Today, the flight attendants’ union is
concerned with issues such as too much luggage stuffed into overhead compartments, which
may fall and hit a passenger, and passenger use of cell phones during flights, which could
pose a security risk by making it easier for terrorists to communicate with each other.4
An analysis of work rules helps to explain the complex output of the labor relations
process. The formal labor agreement in this sense represents a compilation of jointly
negotiated work rules. However, as discussed in Chapter 10, labor relations activities
are not limited to the negotiation of work rules. The labor relations process also
includes the everyday interpretation and application of work rules and the resolution of
any disputes arising over such decisions.
Concern over health care workers’ exposure to H1N1 flu, the Ebola virus, and
acquired immune deficiency syndrome (AIDS) represents working conditions that create
a need for appropriate work rules to limit patients’ and health care workers’ exposure.
A nurses’ union could seek to negotiate health and safety work rules aimed at protecting
members from unnecessary occupational exposure or ensure the availability of appropri-
ate treatment when exposure does occur.5
Exhibit 1.2
Examples of Work Rules Job or Industry
Classification Work Rule
Government The employer agrees to furnish adequate protective clothing for

Installation employees required to work outside during rain, sleet, hail, or
other atmospheric conditions detrimental to health or safety,
provided the employee subjected to such assignments normally
and historically performs the majority of his or her work assign-
ment indoors. Employees who normally perform a majority of
their work outdoors shall furnish their own protective clothing
Electricians Where the work assignment of employees who have been
assigned a permanent reporting location requires travel to and
between other work locations and/or return to their permanent
reporting location, the time consumed by the employees in such
travel shall be counted as time worked
Health Care In situations where a department head determines that it is
necessary for an employee to use bilingual skills, those
employees who have been previously determined to possess
those skills at a level necessary for the assignment, and who are
so assigned by the department head, shall be eligible to receive
additional compensation of 3 percent above the applicable pay
rate for the time period of the assignment
Communications The company subscribes to the principle that a well-informed union
leadership promotes harmony and efficiency in union–management
management
relations. The company agrees to notify the union of any proposed
changes affecting rates of pay, hours of work, and other conditions
of employment. It is understood that the company has the sole right
to institute all such changes as it may consider necessary, subject
to the terms of this agreement. The union agrees to cooperate with
the company at all times in maintaining a high degree of service to its
customers and through conscientious endeavor and application of
effort to strive for the lowest possible costs
Professional The player and the club recognize and agree that the player’s
Baseball participation in certain other sports may impair or destroy his or
her ability and skill as a baseball player. Accordingly, the player
agrees that he or she will not engage in professional boxing or
wrestling, and that except with the written consent of the club,
he or she will not engage in skiing, auto racing, motorcycle rac-
ing, sky diving or in any game or exhibition of football, soccer,
professional league basketball, ice hockey, or other sport involv-
ing a substantial risk of personal injury
Television The latest version of the script will be made accessible to the
player in the casting office 24 hours in advance of a scheduled
reading or immediately after the scheduling of the interview,
whichever occurs last
Manufacturing When employees are called to work at a time other than their
regular reporting time, and after having clocked out, they shall
be paid two hours plus one and one-half their straight time rate
for all hours worked, but in no event will less than four hours at
the straight rate be paid
Cemeteries In all cases where a grave is dug straight down, a second person
shall be assigned to assist the digger after a depth of five feet is
reached
Companies and unions are also negotiating “no-smoking” rules in the workplace both
as a health benefit and a means of reducing health care costs associated with smoking-
related insurance claims. In 1908, a Columbia University professor insisted that “the dele-
terious effects of tobacco are greatly exaggerated,” a belief that prevailed for the next
70 years. Now, union and management officials and possibly arbitrators at thousands of
facilities jointly determine whether the issuance of a no-smoking policy is reasonable and
whether an employee was properly disciplined or discharged for violating the rule. For
example, in Kansas City, an arbitrator ruled that a collective bargaining agreement between
the fire department and the firefighters union that allowed smoking in designated areas of
fire stations prevailed over a newer law banning smoking inside work facilities.6
A majority of employers engage in one or more forms of electronic monitoring of
employee work performance. Computer monitoring software, bar code scanners, video
cameras, and pressure-sensitive plates have enabled management to monitor employee
performance in various ways, such as counting the number of key strokes made on com-
puter keyboards, listening to employees’ telephone conversations with customers, following
truck drivers via Global Positioning Satellite (GPS) signals, or viewing computer files,
e-mail messages, and Internet connections on company computers. Employers have several
legitimate interests for monitoring. These include evaluating employees’ work performance,
seeking to eliminate illegal employee misconduct, protecting their company’s trade secrets,
and defending the firm’s business reputation. Employees have a legitimate interest in
ensuring that their union representatives negotiate appropriate work rules to govern the
time, place, and method of such electronic monitoring as well as the use of such informa-
tion to reward or penalize employees’ work performance. Employees also have a legitimate
interest in discussing wages, hours, and working conditions among themselves electroni-
cally (e.g., on social media Web sites) without fear that managers are electronically moni-
toring their discussions in order to punish those who criticize the company.7
Key Participants in the Labor Relations Process

Through the organization’s structure, managers represent the interests of the ownership
as well as their own self-interests. Under a legal doctrine known as agency theory, man-
agers are delegated authority by the owners to make decisions required to operate the
organization. Because managers represent the owners’ interests in employment relations
matters, U.S. managers do not generally have a legally protected right to unionize.
Managers work at various levels within the organization from first-line supervisors or
department heads to the highest ranking management official (e.g., chief executive officer).
Labor relations managers are typically found at corporate, divisional, and plant levels.
Companies with both represented (union) and unrepresented (nonunion) employees or
facilities often prefer the term “human resources manager” rather than “labor relations
manager.” Organizations that operate different facilities in different geographic locations
may emphasize standardizing some work rules (e.g., management rights) at all locations
while insisting that other work rules, such as a wage rate for a particular job classification,
be based on local labor market conditions. Thus, wages would vary across facilities.
Plant-level labor relations managers implement these “corporate” directives, but they
must also deal with other managers at each facility’s location (particularly production
and maintenance managers and first-line supervisors) who direct the daily work activities
of hourly employees.
As will be further discussed in Chapter 10, first-line supervisors or department
heads typically hear and attempt to resolve employees’ grievances on the production
floor. In some cases, lower-level managers are surprised to learn that higher-level man-
agement officials have overturned their decisions. Alert union leaders may use dissension
or lack of clear communication among different levels of management officials to influ-

ence labor relations activities and the company’s position toward unions.
Management consultants are individuals hired from outside the organization to
provide some special service or expertise. The activities of management consultants in
the labor relations process are varied and sometimes controversial, ranging from restruc-
turing personnel practices in nonunion firms (in the absence of any active union-
organizing campaign) to designing and presenting the employer’s response throughout
a formal union-organizing campaign. During an organizing campaign, both union sup-
porters (often including professional union organizers) and union opponents (often
including managers and managerial consultants) try to persuade employees to support
(or oppose) forming a labor union; the campaign usually ends with a secret-ballot vote,
supervised by the federal National Labor Relations Board (NLRB). One union estimate
found that managerial consultants were involved in 75 percent of union-organizing cam-
paigns.8 Employers who hire managerial consultants to thwart union-organizing efforts
are more likely to engage in a number of legally and ethically questionable tactics.
“Employers who make threats of plant closings are more likely to hire outside consul-
tants, discharge union activists, hold captive audience meetings and supervisor one-
on-ones, establish employee involvement committees during the organizing campaign,
make unilateral changes in benefits and/or working conditions, use bribes and special
favors, use electronic surveillance, threaten to report workers to the INS [U.S. Immigra-
tion and Naturalization Service], and show anti-union films.”9 Controversy occurs over
the consultants’ effectiveness. Research shows that the use of a management consultant
can reduce the probability of a union win in very closely contested elections, but it does
not appear to be as big an influence on union election outcomes as some other factors
such as election-unit size (i.e., how many people will vote in a union representation elec-
tion) or relevant labor market conditions.10
Effectively managing an organization’s labor relations is an important part of the
ownership goal of being competitive in the industry or market. Organizations with a
quality labor–management relationship may gain a competitive advantage over firms
that lack the ability to gain cooperation and consensus from employees necessary to
effectively implement change to meet new competitive pressures.
Union representatives, usually elected by the members to represent their employ-
ment interests, are another key participant in the labor relations process. As elected
representatives, union officials must consider the varied and sometimes conflicting inter-
ests of individual employees within the bargaining unit seeking to build a consensus for
decisions that benefit the majority of constituents. Unlike managers who are appointed
by higher-level managers, union officials are subject to the political pressure of majority
rule if they wish to be reelected to a union leadership position in the future. Unions as
democratic organizations do experience internal differences of opinion on policies and
priorities that union officials must learn to effectively manage. Every union has its own
history, traditions, personalities, and accepted practices that can lead to observed differ-
ences across union organizations as well as within a particular union. While different
unions may share common interests and positions on many issues of common concern,
each union tends to value maintaining its own independence and sense of self-
determination in representing the interests of its membership.
Certainly some of the most significant participants in the labor relations process are
nonmanagerial employees because they often determine whether a union is even present
in an organization (representation elections and union-organizing drives are discussed in
Chapter 5), whether a negotiated labor agreement is accepted or rejected, and the extent
to which a threatened strike is actually carried out (see Chapter 9).
Employees are treated here as a separate category because they may demonstrate
dual loyalty to both their employer and union organization.11 Most employees want
their organization to be successful but also value the ability of their union to voice
employee concerns to managers or demand that employees be treated fairly both in com-
pensation and work activities. For example, public employees such as firefighters, police,
and teachers may feel torn between the critical or professional nature of their jobs and
the strategic advantages of a strike. Auto workers may agree that operating costs, includ-
ing labor costs, must be reduced for their employer to remain competitive. Yet they
expect their union representative to ensure that when profitability improves employees
will fairly share in that improvement. Employees’ varied interests help shape the exis-
tence and content of particular work rules and thus employees are considered a third
key participant in the labor relations process.
The government acting through its different branches—executive, legislative, and
judicial—at the federal, state, and local levels represents another key participant in the
labor relations process. As discussed in Chapters 2 and 3, the government’s role in
regulating labor relations has gradually increased over time as the importance of labor
relations to the effective functioning of the economy has become more apparent. In the
public sector, government officials also serve as managers in the labor relations process,
representing both taxpayers and the general public’s interests (discussed in Chapter 13).
In the private sector, the federal government has traditionally played an indirect role
in determining the outcomes of work rule negotiations, preferring to allow union and
management representatives to determine such work rules through the bargaining pro-
cess. Governments in many other industrialized countries (see Chapter 14) take a much
more active role in both regulating and determining the outcomes of specific work rules
(e.g., amount of paid vacation time). The federal government’s hands-off approach in
most private-sector bargaining situations is based on the belief that most management
and union officials are better equipped than their government counterparts to assess
their needs and limitations and reach a mutually acceptable labor agreement.
Although the federal government does not dictate the terms of a negotiated labor
agreement, laws, judicial decisions, and administrative agencies, such as the NLRB, can
influence work rules and the ability to exercise legally granted rights. The following three
examples illustrate this: First, legislation to deregulate the trucking and airline industries
has contributed to reduced union membership and economic gains for employees.12 Sec-
ond, the Age Discrimination in Employment Act prohibits union and management offi-
cials from negotiating a mandatory retirement age of 60 years. Third, although some coal
miners have long believed that females working in mines would be bad luck, union and
management officials would be violating sexual discrimination aspects of the Civil Rights
Act if they negotiated a provision prohibiting female employees from working in mines.
Third-party neutrals (i.e., mediators and arbitrators) represent a final key partici-
pant in the labor relations process. Differences between union and management officials
that arise in negotiating the terms of a labor agreement (interest disputes) or administer-
ing its provisions (rights disputes) are often resolved with the aid of a third-party neu-
tral. Mediators (discussed in Chapters 9 and 13), often supplied by the Federal
Mediation and Conciliation Service (FMCS) or a state or private mediation agency, may
be used to help resolve interest disputes during contract negotiations. The mediator
assists the union and management officials to clarify and resolve their differences, thus
promoting a voluntary settlement. The mediator does not possess any binding legal
authority to require the parties to settle an interest dispute, but he or she will offer
advice to help each party assess its own priorities and the costs or risks associated with
failing to reach a voluntary agreement.
An arbitrator is a third-party neutral hired by union and management representa-

tives to make a final and binding decision on a disputed issue. While final and binding
arbitration may occasionally be used to resolve the terms of a new contract (an “interest
dispute”) (see Chapter 9), most often it is used to resolve grievances (“rights-type
disputes”) arising during the term of a labor agreement over the interpretation or
application of the contract’s language (see Chapters 11 and 12).
Three Basic Assumptions Underlying U.S. Labor Relations

To better understand the U.S. labor relations system and the actions of its participants, it
is helpful to bear in mind certain underlying assumptions that affect the thinking and
behavior of most individuals within the system. Whereas the degree of support by some
participants for these three basic assumptions has varied over the course of U.S. labor
history, these assumptions have been the basis for a majority consensus for many years.
First, the free enterprise (capitalist) economic system in the United States creates an
inherent conflict of interest between employers (owners) and employees. Both employees
and employers seek to advance their own self-interests. Employers seek to maximize
their return on capital invested, while employees seek to advance their pay, working con-
ditions, and job security. Most of the interests employees seek to advance through the
collective bargaining process represent an increased cost to the employer which, unless
offset by cost savings elsewhere or higher productivity, may reduce the investment return
desired by ownership. This creates a natural tension within a capitalist economic system
between the pursuits of employees’ and employers’ legitimate interests. Such conflict
should not be viewed in a negative light but rather as simply a reality of business opera-
tion which must be managed effectively. The presence of some degree of inherent con-
flict between employer and employee interests should also not be viewed as precluding
opportunities for cooperation between the parties. Both employees and employers share
a common interest in ensuring that the organization is competitive. Maintaining a suffi-
cient number of qualified and motivated employees is necessary for an employer to
attain desired organizational goals (e.g., productivity, product or service quality). Profits
in turn permit an organization to provide competitive wages, benefits, and working con-
ditions to help ensure the recruitment and retention of qualified employees. Ideally,
employees perceive their own self-interest as best advanced by seeking to advance the
interests of the organization as a whole.
A second underlying assumption of the U.S. labor relations system is that employees
in a free and democratic society have a right to independently pursue their employment
interests using lawful means. Employees should have a right to determine for themselves
what is in their best interests and to pursue means of attaining such interests so long as
the goals pursued and tactics used are legal. Only by allowing individuals to pursue their
legitimate interests can a society foster the necessary support for prevailing economic,
social, and political systems used to sustain the country. Employees may choose to pur-
sue their legitimate interests on an individual basis or collectively by joining a labor
organization. Managers may prefer to work with employees individually and avoid deal-
ing with a union, in order to contain any wage disagreements to only a few people and
to avoid negotiating widespread workplace rule changes. However, co-workers may see it
as unfair when individual employees with unique skills negotiate special work arrange-
ments or pay rates (sometimes called idiosyncratic deals). Further, perceived injustice
has been shown to predict unionization. Therefore, such idiosyncratic deals can be chal-
lenging to negotiate and implement for managers.13
A third underlying assumption of the U.S. labor relations system is that collective bar-
gaining provides a process for meaningful employee participation through independently
chosen representatives in the determination of work rules. Employees in the U.S. labor
relations system are not required to form or join a labor organization for the purpose of
engaging in collective bargaining, but they are permitted to do so when a majority of the
employee group expresses such a preference. In the absence of collective bargaining, indi-
vidual bargaining may occur between an employer and his or her employee. Labor history
suggests that most employees are at a relative bargaining power disadvantage in individual
bargaining when confronted with the greater resources of their employer, but each
employee is free to determine the degree of satisfaction that his or her own individual bar-
gaining experience provides. Many unrepresented employees, for a variety of reasons, do
not attempt to engage in individual or collective bargaining, thereby permitting the
employer to unilaterally (without bargaining) establish work rules, setting the terms and
conditions of employment. In limited cases, employment terms may be mandated by gov-
ernment action (e.g., minimum wage law, safety, and health standards).
Exhibit 1.3 presents a list of some basic characteristics of the private-sector U.S. labor rela-
tions system. These characteristics will be discussed in further detail throughout the text.
Constraints or Influences Affecting Participants’ Negotiation and

Administration of Work Rules
The labor relations participants who affect the development of work rules are influenced
by external variables or constraints in their labor relations activities (see the outer circle
of Exhibit 1.1). These constraints and influences can sometimes affect one another and
may relate to a particular firm, local community, or society in general. The following
discussion furnishes a few illustrations of how these constraints and influences can affect
the existence and content of work rules.
State of the Economy: National, Industrial, and Firm-Specific

Indicators
The state of the economy is usually referred to by indicating movement among such quan-
titative indicators as inflation, unemployment, and productivity. During the 1980s, the
United States witnessed a rising inflation rate, which influenced the negotiation of work
rules—notably, union insistence that a labor agreement include provisions to increase
wages if increases occur in the cost of living (see Chapter 7). In the early 1990s, the focus
of negotiations was on wage increases, enhancing employee benefits, and containing rising
health care costs. More recently, with slow economic growth, low inflation, and rising job
losses, union and management negotiators returned to an emphasis on job security and
other job protection issues. Many employers, citing competitive pressures, have successfully
negotiated labor cost reductions involving wages, benefits (e.g., pensions, health care), and
inefficient work rules (e.g., restrictive job descriptions).
Two economic indicators that can affect work rules are interest and unemployment
rates. An increase in interest rates can slow home and industrial construction projects.
The Federal Reserve Board voted to raise interest rates 17 times between June 2004 and
June 2006 out of concern that too rapid economic growth might trigger an increase in
consumer inflation.14 More recently, the Federal Reserve Board has cut interest rates to
historically low levels in an effort to spur economic growth by making capital more
available at reasonable cost. If employees’ wage gains do not at least match the rate of
increase in consumer prices (inflation rate), the purchasing power of employees declines,
adversely affecting employees’ standard of living. If interest rates are raised to fight
Exhibit 1.3
Basic Characteristics of the
• Primarily a bilateral process (union and management) governed by a framework
U.S. Private-Sector Labor
Relations System of labor laws. For example, LMRA, Labor Management Reporting and Disclo-
sure Act (LMRDA), Railway Labor Act (RLA), OSHA, Family Medical Leave Act
(FMLA), ERISA, ADA, Norris-LaGuardia Act, and anti-discrimination laws.
• A highly decentralized bargaining structure that results in a large number of
labor contracts negotiated most often between a single employer and a spe-
cific union to cover a defined group of employees (bargaining unit) at a specific
geographic location.
• Recognition of the key legal principles of majority rule and exclusive bargaining
representation. No union can gain the right to represent a group of employees
for purposes of collective bargaining without first demonstrating the majority
support (50 percent + 1) of the employees in that group. Once recognized, the
union is the only legal representative authorized to negotiate work rules with
the employer to establish the work group’s terms and conditions of
employment.
• Permits the use of economic pressure (e.g., strike, lockout, picketing, and boy-
cott) to aid the parties (union and management) in reaching a voluntary negoti-
ated settlement of interest disputes over what the terms and conditions of
employment will be.
• Encourages the use of final and binding arbitration, if voluntary grievance nego-
tiation efforts fail, to resolve rights disputes that arise during the term of a con-
tract over the interpretation or application of the labor agreement’s terms.
• Characterized by significant employer opposition to employee efforts to orga-
nize and bargain collectively through representation by an independent labor
union chosen by the employees themselves.
inflation, employees will pay more for consumer debt (e.g., credit cards, auto, or home
loans). A union might respond to such a rising interest/inflation rate environment by
seeking to negotiate pay improvements that exceed the rate of inflation as well as by
offering group discount rates to members on benefits such as credit cards or various
types of consumer loans. In a low interest/inflation rate environment, a union might
focus more on job security issues knowing members are more likely to be satisfied with
moderate wage and benefit improvements that match the low inflation rate.
The unemployment rate affects work rules that provide job protection. Chapter 6
discusses ways in which the unemployment rate can affect the bargaining power of union
and management officials. If this and other economic measures pertaining to the gross
national product, productivity, cost of living, compensation at all employee levels, and
exports and imports are unfavorable, unions will be more likely to accept bargaining
concessions. By the same token, strong product sales, economic growth, and low
unemployment tend to strengthen union bargaining power as employers have more reason
to compromise to avoid any disruption in the production of current products or services.
The National Bureau of Economic Research has determined that the most recent
recession affecting the U.S. economy began in December 2007 when the national unem-
ployment rate was 4.9 percent. By October 2009, the national unemployment rate had
risen to 10.2 percent, representing 15.7 million individuals—the highest rate since the
recession in the early 1980s. By September 2014, the unemployment rate had declined to
5.9 percent, representing 9.3 million individuals. An additional 698,000 individuals were
classified as discouraged workers who had given up searching for a job because they
believed no jobs were available for them.15 While unemployment rates are expected to
continue to decline as economic recovery occurs, the decline is expected to be gradual,
extending over several years, as employers are typically reluctant to add new jobs or fill
existing vacancies until the recovery in product and service demand is well established.16
The skills, wage levels, and availability of employees in a relevant labor market can
affect negotiated work rules. Management is often concerned with ensuring that an ade-
quate supply of labor of the skill levels required to operate is available in a particular com-
munity. For example, a firm needing skilled employees from a relatively low-skilled labor
market supply would probably wish to negotiate work rules regarding apprenticeship pro-
grams or other forms of job training. Management would also consider negotiating a rea-
sonable employee probationary period (e.g., 60–120 days) within which it could terminate
a union-represented employee who cannot learn the job and perform adequately, with no
union right to protest the action through the labor contract’s grievance procedure.
One example of a labor–management cooperative effort to assist employees in adjust-
ing to changes in labor market forces is the Alliance for Employee Growth and Develop-
ment, Inc., created in 1986 as a joint enterprise by American Telephone & Telegraph
(AT&T), the Communication Workers of America (CWA), and the International Brother-
hood of Electrical Workers (IBEW) to help displaced workers. Today, the Alliance also
includes employers Alcatel-Lucent, OFS Optical Fiber, and Avaya.17 The Alliance has pro-
vided training and development services to more than 175,000 individuals, helping to pre-
pare them to handle new technologies, job skills training (e.g., technical, customer service,
teamwork), and career transition training. Other outstanding examples include the United
Auto Workers (UAW)/General Motors Skills Centers and the joint training programs of
Ford Motor Company and the UAW. The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
has partnered with Kaiser-Permanente in California to provide training to upgrade the
skills of workers in entry-level jobs, such as housekeeping. Trainees can then move into
health care–related jobs such as medical assistant and acute care nursing assistant that
offer higher pay and more career potential. The vacancies created in entry-level jobs are
filled with those transferring from part-time positions and from newly hired unemployed
and economically impoverished workers who have also received training. In the building
trades, unions have played a major role in training skilled workers. Because workers
move from employer to employer on a regular basis, single construction companies have
less financial incentive to train employees who may end up working for a competitor.
Therefore, the unions, through their training and apprenticeship programs, provide an
obvious contribution to the general national welfare. In fact, unions and their contractors
outspend their nonunion counterparts by a ratio of 50 to 1 in training investments.18
Both management and union representatives should share an interest in establishing
competitive compensation rates for comparably skilled employees within a relevant
external labor market and internally within the firm itself. Externally, when wages are
increasing, both the firm and the union may want to pay comparable wage rates.
Employees generally see this as fair and owners see it as a way to attract and retain
good workers. In cases where the employer faces significant labor cost competition
from nonunion or foreign employers, a union may have to agree to compensation reduc-
tion that will permit a unionized employer to remain competitive in pricing goods or
services sold in the firm’s product or service markets. Internally, a job with higher skill
or responsibility requirements should earn a higher compensation rate than jobs with
less skill or job responsibility requirements.
The labor relations process can be affected by the product or service market where
the company either sells its product or purchases key elements required for production
of its products or services. Management would be more vulnerable if a strike occurred at
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DANCE ON STILTS AT THE GIRLS’ UNYAGO, NIUCHI
Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

the Newala of to-day does; there was once another Newala in a lovely
valley at the foot of the plateau. I visited it and found scarcely a trace
of houses, only a Christian cemetery, with the graves of several
missionaries and their converts, remaining as a monument of its
former glories. But the surroundings are wonderfully beautiful. A
thick grove of splendid mango-trees closes in the weather-worn
crosses and headstones; behind them, combining the useful and the
agreeable, is a whole plantation of lemon-trees covered with ripe
fruit; not the small African kind, but a much larger and also juicier
imported variety, which drops into the hands of the passing traveller,
without calling for any exertion on his part. Old Newala is now under
the jurisdiction of the native pastor, Daudi, at Chingulungulu, who,
as I am on very friendly terms with him, allows me, as a matter of
course, the use of this lemon-grove during my stay at Newala.
FEET MUTILATED BY THE RAVAGES OF THE “JIGGER”
(Sarcopsylla penetrans)
The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

some 1,600 feet lower down. The way is not only long and fatiguing,
but the water, when we get it, is thoroughly bad. We are suffering not
only from this, but from the fact that the arrangements at Newala are
nothing short of luxurious. We have a separate kitchen—a hut built
against the boma palisade on the right of the baraza, the interior of
which is not visible from our usual position. Our two cooks were not
long in finding this out, and they consequently do—or rather neglect
to do—what they please. In any case they do not seem to be very
particular about the boiling of our drinking-water—at least I can
attribute to no other cause certain attacks of a dysenteric nature,
from which both Knudsen and I have suffered for some time. If a
man like Omari has to be left unwatched for a moment, he is capable
of anything. Besides this complaint, we are inconvenienced by the
state of our nails, which have become as hard as glass, and crack on
the slightest provocation, and I have the additional infliction of
pimples all over me. As if all this were not enough, we have also, for
the last week been waging war against the jigger, who has found his
Eldorado in the hot sand of the Makonde plateau. Our men are seen
all day long—whenever their chronic colds and the dysentery likewise
raging among them permit—occupied in removing this scourge of
Africa from their feet and trying to prevent the disastrous
consequences of its presence. It is quite common to see natives of
this place with one or two toes missing; many have lost all their toes,
or even the whole front part of the foot, so that a well-formed leg
ends in a shapeless stump. These ravages are caused by the female of
Sarcopsylla penetrans, which bores its way under the skin and there
develops an egg-sac the size of a pea. In all books on the subject, it is
stated that one’s attention is called to the presence of this parasite by
an intolerable itching. This agrees very well with my experience, so
far as the softer parts of the sole, the spaces between and under the
toes, and the side of the foot are concerned, but if the creature
penetrates through the harder parts of the heel or ball of the foot, it
may escape even the most careful search till it has reached maturity.
Then there is no time to be lost, if the horrible ulceration, of which
we see cases by the dozen every day, is to be prevented. It is much
easier, by the way, to discover the insect on the white skin of a
European than on that of a native, on which the dark speck scarcely
shows. The four or five jiggers which, in spite of the fact that I
constantly wore high laced boots, chose my feet to settle in, were
taken out for me by the all-accomplished Knudsen, after which I
thought it advisable to wash out the cavities with corrosive
sublimate. The natives have a different sort of disinfectant—they fill
the hole with scraped roots. In a tiny Makua village on the slope of
the plateau south of Newala, we saw an old woman who had filled all
the spaces under her toe-nails with powdered roots by way of
prophylactic treatment. What will be the result, if any, who can say?
The rest of the many trifling ills which trouble our existence are
really more comic than serious. In the absence of anything else to
smoke, Knudsen and I at last opened a box of cigars procured from
the Indian store-keeper at Lindi, and tried them, with the most
distressing results. Whether they contain opium or some other
narcotic, neither of us can say, but after the tenth puff we were both
“off,” three-quarters stupefied and unspeakably wretched. Slowly we
recovered—and what happened next? Half-an-hour later we were
once more smoking these poisonous concoctions—so insatiable is the
craving for tobacco in the tropics.
Even my present attacks of fever scarcely deserve to be taken
seriously. I have had no less than three here at Newala, all of which
have run their course in an incredibly short time. In the early
afternoon, I am busy with my old natives, asking questions and
making notes. The strong midday coffee has stimulated my spirits to
an extraordinary degree, the brain is active and vigorous, and work
progresses rapidly, while a pleasant warmth pervades the whole
body. Suddenly this gives place to a violent chill, forcing me to put on
my overcoat, though it is only half-past three and the afternoon sun
is at its hottest. Now the brain no longer works with such acuteness
and logical precision; more especially does it fail me in trying to
establish the syntax of the difficult Makua language on which I have
ventured, as if I had not enough to do without it. Under the
circumstances it seems advisable to take my temperature, and I do
so, to save trouble, without leaving my seat, and while going on with
my work. On examination, I find it to be 101·48°. My tutors are
abruptly dismissed and my bed set up in the baraza; a few minutes
later I am in it and treating myself internally with hot water and
lemon-juice.
Three hours later, the thermometer marks nearly 104°, and I make
them carry me back into the tent, bed and all, as I am now perspiring
heavily, and exposure to the cold wind just beginning to blow might
mean a fatal chill. I lie still for a little while, and then find, to my
great relief, that the temperature is not rising, but rather falling. This
is about 7.30 p.m. At 8 p.m. I find, to my unbounded astonishment,
that it has fallen below 98·6°, and I feel perfectly well. I read for an
hour or two, and could very well enjoy a smoke, if I had the
wherewithal—Indian cigars being out of the question.
Having no medical training, I am at a loss to account for this state
of things. It is impossible that these transitory attacks of high fever
should be malarial; it seems more probable that they are due to a
kind of sunstroke. On consulting my note-book, I become more and
more inclined to think this is the case, for these attacks regularly
follow extreme fatigue and long exposure to strong sunshine. They at
least have the advantage of being only short interruptions to my
work, as on the following morning I am always quite fresh and fit.
My treasure of a cook is suffering from an enormous hydrocele which
makes it difficult for him to get up, and Moritz is obliged to keep in
the dark on account of his inflamed eyes. Knudsen’s cook, a raw boy
from somewhere in the bush, knows still less of cooking than Omari;
consequently Nils Knudsen himself has been promoted to the vacant
post. Finding that we had come to the end of our supplies, he began
by sending to Chingulungulu for the four sucking-pigs which we had
bought from Matola and temporarily left in his charge; and when
they came up, neatly packed in a large crate, he callously slaughtered
the biggest of them. The first joint we were thoughtless enough to
entrust for roasting to Knudsen’s mshenzi cook, and it was
consequently uneatable; but we made the rest of the animal into a
jelly which we ate with great relish after weeks of underfeeding,
consuming incredible helpings of it at both midday and evening
meals. The only drawback is a certain want of variety in the tinned
vegetables. Dr. Jäger, to whom the Geographical Commission
entrusted the provisioning of the expeditions—mine as well as his
own—because he had more time on his hands than the rest of us,
seems to have laid in a huge stock of Teltow turnips,[46] an article of
food which is all very well for occasional use, but which quickly palls
when set before one every day; and we seem to have no other tins
left. There is no help for it—we must put up with the turnips; but I
am certain that, once I am home again, I shall not touch them for ten
years to come.
Amid all these minor evils, which, after all, go to make up the
genuine flavour of Africa, there is at least one cheering touch:
Knudsen has, with the dexterity of a skilled mechanic, repaired my 9
× 12 cm. camera, at least so far that I can use it with a little care.
How, in the absence of finger-nails, he was able to accomplish such a
ticklish piece of work, having no tool but a clumsy screw-driver for
taking to pieces and putting together again the complicated
mechanism of the instantaneous shutter, is still a mystery to me; but
he did it successfully. The loss of his finger-nails shows him in a light
contrasting curiously enough with the intelligence evinced by the
above operation; though, after all, it is scarcely surprising after his
ten years’ residence in the bush. One day, at Lindi, he had occasion
to wash a dog, which must have been in need of very thorough
cleansing, for the bottle handed to our friend for the purpose had an
extremely strong smell. Having performed his task in the most
conscientious manner, he perceived with some surprise that the dog
did not appear much the better for it, and was further surprised by
finding his own nails ulcerating away in the course of the next few
days. “How was I to know that carbolic acid has to be diluted?” he
mutters indignantly, from time to time, with a troubled gaze at his
mutilated finger-tips.
Since we came to Newala we have been making excursions in all
directions through the surrounding country, in accordance with old
habit, and also because the akida Sefu did not get together the tribal
elders from whom I wanted information so speedily as he had
promised. There is, however, no harm done, as, even if seen only
from the outside, the country and people are interesting enough.
The Makonde plateau is like a large rectangular table rounded off
at the corners. Measured from the Indian Ocean to Newala, it is
about seventy-five miles long, and between the Rovuma and the
Lukuledi it averages fifty miles in breadth, so that its superficial area
is about two-thirds of that of the kingdom of Saxony. The surface,
however, is not level, but uniformly inclined from its south-western
edge to the ocean. From the upper edge, on which Newala lies, the
eye ranges for many miles east and north-east, without encountering
any obstacle, over the Makonde bush. It is a green sea, from which
here and there thick clouds of smoke rise, to show that it, too, is
inhabited by men who carry on their tillage like so many other
primitive peoples, by cutting down and burning the bush, and
manuring with the ashes. Even in the radiant light of a tropical day
such a fire is a grand sight.
Much less effective is the impression produced just now by the
great western plain as seen from the edge of the plateau. As often as
time permits, I stroll along this edge, sometimes in one direction,
sometimes in another, in the hope of finding the air clear enough to
let me enjoy the view; but I have always been disappointed.
Wherever one looks, clouds of smoke rise from the burning bush,
and the air is full of smoke and vapour. It is a pity, for under more
favourable circumstances the panorama of the whole country up to
the distant Majeje hills must be truly magnificent. It is of little use
taking photographs now, and an outline sketch gives a very poor idea
of the scenery. In one of these excursions I went out of my way to
make a personal attempt on the Makonde bush. The present edge of
the plateau is the result of a far-reaching process of destruction
through erosion and denudation. The Makonde strata are
everywhere cut into by ravines, which, though short, are hundreds of
yards in depth. In consequence of the loose stratification of these
beds, not only are the walls of these ravines nearly vertical, but their
upper end is closed by an equally steep escarpment, so that the
western edge of the Makonde plateau is hemmed in by a series of
deep, basin-like valleys. In order to get from one side of such a ravine
to the other, I cut my way through the bush with a dozen of my men.
It was a very open part, with more grass than scrub, but even so the
short stretch of less than two hundred yards was very hard work; at
the end of it the men’s calicoes were in rags and they themselves
bleeding from hundreds of scratches, while even our strong khaki
suits had not escaped scatheless.
NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAHUTA
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.
MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

This is the general way of closing a house. The Makonde at Jumbe
Chauro, however, have a much more complicated, solid and original
one. Here, too, the door is as already described, except that there is
only one post on the inside, standing by itself about six inches from
one side of the doorway. Opposite this post is a hole in the wall just
large enough to admit a man’s arm. The door is closed inside by a
large wooden bolt passing through a hole in this post and pressing
with its free end against the door. The other end has three holes into
which fit three pegs running in vertical grooves inside the post. The
door is opened with a wooden key about a foot long, somewhat
curved and sloped off at the butt; the other end has three pegs
corresponding to the holes, in the bolt, so that, when it is thrust
through the hole in the wall and inserted into the rectangular
opening in the post, the pegs can be lifted and the bolt drawn out.[50]
MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY
With no small pride first one householder and then a second

showed me on the spot the action of this greatest invention of the
Makonde Highlands. To both with an admiring exclamation of
“Vizuri sana!” (“Very fine!”). I expressed the wish to take back these
marvels with me to Ulaya, to show the Wazungu what clever fellows
the Makonde are. Scarcely five minutes after my return to camp at
Newala, the two men came up sweating under the weight of two
heavy logs which they laid down at my feet, handing over at the same
time the keys of the fallen fortress. Arguing, logically enough, that if
the key was wanted, the lock would be wanted with it, they had taken
their axes and chopped down the posts—as it never occurred to them
to dig them out of the ground and so bring them intact. Thus I have
two badly damaged specimens, and the owners, instead of praise,
come in for a blowing-up.
The Makua huts in the environs of Newala are especially
miserable; their more than slovenly construction reminds one of the
temporary erections of the Makua at Hatia’s, though the people here
have not been concerned in a war. It must therefore be due to
congenital idleness, or else to the absence of a powerful chief. Even
the baraza at Mlipa’s, a short hour’s walk south-east of Newala,
shares in this general neglect. While public buildings in this country
are usually looked after more or less carefully, this is in evident
danger of being blown over by the first strong easterly gale. The only
attractive object in this whole district is the grave of the late chief
Mlipa. I visited it in the morning, while the sun was still trying with
partial success to break through the rolling mists, and the circular
grove of tall euphorbias, which, with a broken pot, is all that marks
the old king’s resting-place, impressed one with a touch of pathos.
Even my very materially-minded carriers seemed to feel something
of the sort, for instead of their usual ribald songs, they chanted
solemnly, as we marched on through the dense green of the Makonde
bush:—
“We shall arrive with the great master; we stand in a row and have
no fear about getting our food and our money from the Serkali (the
Government). We are not afraid; we are going along with the great
master, the lion; we are going down to the coast and back.”
With regard to the characteristic features of the various tribes here
on the western edge of the plateau, I can arrive at no other
conclusion than the one already come to in the plain, viz., that it is
impossible for anyone but a trained anthropologist to assign any
given individual at once to his proper tribe. In fact, I think that even
an anthropological specialist, after the most careful examination,
might find it a difficult task to decide. The whole congeries of peoples
collected in the region bounded on the west by the great Central
African rift, Tanganyika and Nyasa, and on the east by the Indian
Ocean, are closely related to each other—some of their languages are
only distinguished from one another as dialects of the same speech,
and no doubt all the tribes present the same shape of skull and
structure of skeleton. Thus, surely, there can be no very striking
differences in outward appearance.
Even did such exist, I should have no time
to concern myself with them, for day after day,
I have to see or hear, as the case may be—in
any case to grasp and record—an
extraordinary number of ethnographic
phenomena. I am almost disposed to think it
fortunate that some departments of inquiry, at
least, are barred by external circumstances.
Chief among these is the subject of iron-
working. We are apt to think of Africa as a
country where iron ore is everywhere, so to
speak, to be picked up by the roadside, and
where it would be quite surprising if the
inhabitants had not learnt to smelt the
material ready to their hand. In fact, the
knowledge of this art ranges all over the
continent, from the Kabyles in the north to the
Kafirs in the south. Here between the Rovuma
and the Lukuledi the conditions are not so
favourable. According to the statements of the
Makonde, neither ironstone nor any other
form of iron ore is known to them. They have
not therefore advanced to the art of smelting
the metal, but have hitherto bought all their
THE ANCESTRESS OF
THE MAKONDE
iron implements from neighbouring tribes.
Even in the plain the inhabitants are not much
better off. Only one man now living is said to
understand the art of smelting iron. This old fundi lives close to
Huwe, that isolated, steep-sided block of granite which rises out of
the green solitude between Masasi and Chingulungulu, and whose
jagged and splintered top meets the traveller’s eye everywhere. While
still at Masasi I wished to see this man at work, but was told that,
frightened by the rising, he had retired across the Rovuma, though
he would soon return. All subsequent inquiries as to whether the
fundi had come back met with the genuine African answer, “Bado”
(“Not yet”).
BRAZIER
Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

came across in the bush near Akundonde’s. This man is the favourite
of women, and therefore no doubt of the gods; he welds the glittering
brass rods purchased at the coast into those massive, heavy rings
which, on the wrists and ankles of the local fair ones, continually give
me fresh food for admiration. Like every decent master-craftsman he
had all his tools with him, consisting of a pair of bellows, three
crucibles and a hammer—nothing more, apparently. He was quite
willing to show his skill, and in a twinkling had fixed his bellows on
the ground. They are simply two goat-skins, taken off whole, the four
legs being closed by knots, while the upper opening, intended to
admit the air, is kept stretched by two pieces of wood. At the lower
end of the skin a smaller opening is left into which a wooden tube is
stuck. The fundi has quickly borrowed a heap of wood-embers from
the nearest hut; he then fixes the free ends of the two tubes into an
earthen pipe, and clamps them to the ground by means of a bent
piece of wood. Now he fills one of his small clay crucibles, the dross
on which shows that they have been long in use, with the yellow
material, places it in the midst of the embers, which, at present are
only faintly glimmering, and begins his work. In quick alternation
the smith’s two hands move up and down with the open ends of the
bellows; as he raises his hand he holds the slit wide open, so as to let
the air enter the skin bag unhindered. In pressing it down he closes
the bag, and the air puffs through the bamboo tube and clay pipe into
the fire, which quickly burns up. The smith, however, does not keep
on with this work, but beckons to another man, who relieves him at
the bellows, while he takes some more tools out of a large skin pouch
carried on his back. I look on in wonder as, with a smooth round
stick about the thickness of a finger, he bores a few vertical holes into
the clean sand of the soil. This should not be difficult, yet the man
seems to be taking great pains over it. Then he fastens down to the
ground, with a couple of wooden clamps, a neat little trough made by
splitting a joint of bamboo in half, so that the ends are closed by the
two knots. At last the yellow metal has attained the right consistency,
and the fundi lifts the crucible from the fire by means of two sticks
split at the end to serve as tongs. A short swift turn to the left—a
tilting of the crucible—and the molten brass, hissing and giving forth
clouds of smoke, flows first into the bamboo mould and then into the
holes in the ground.
The technique of this backwoods craftsman may not be very far
advanced, but it cannot be denied that he knows how to obtain an
adequate result by the simplest means. The ladies of highest rank in
this country—that is to say, those who can afford it, wear two kinds
of these massive brass rings, one cylindrical, the other semicircular
in section. The latter are cast in the most ingenious way in the
bamboo mould, the former in the circular hole in the sand. It is quite
a simple matter for the fundi to fit these bars to the limbs of his fair
customers; with a few light strokes of his hammer he bends the
pliable brass round arm or ankle without further inconvenience to
the wearer.
SHAPING THE POT
SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB
CUTTING THE EDGE

FINISHING THE BOTTOM
LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

BURNING
FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

LIGHTING THE FARTHER SIDE OF
THE PILE
TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL
NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

Pottery is an art which must always and everywhere excite the
interest of the student, just because it is so intimately connected with
the development of human culture, and because its relics are one of
the principal factors in the reconstruction of our own condition in
prehistoric times. I shall always remember with pleasure the two or
three afternoons at Masasi when Salim Matola’s mother, a slightly-
built, graceful, pleasant-looking woman, explained to me with
touching patience, by means of concrete illustrations, the ceramic art
of her people. The only implements for this primitive process were a
lump of clay in her left hand, and in the right a calabash containing
the following valuables: the fragment of a maize-cob stripped of all
its grains, a smooth, oval pebble, about the size of a pigeon’s egg, a
few chips of gourd-shell, a bamboo splinter about the length of one’s
hand, a small shell, and a bunch of some herb resembling spinach.
Nothing more. The woman scraped with the
shell a round, shallow hole in the soft, fine
sand of the soil, and, when an active young
girl had filled the calabash with water for her,
she began to knead the clay. As if by magic it
gradually assumed the shape of a rough but
already well-shaped vessel, which only wanted
a little touching up with the instruments
before mentioned. I looked out with the
MAKUA WOMAN closest attention for any indication of the use
MAKING A POT. of the potter’s wheel, in however rudimentary
SHOWS THE a form, but no—hapana (there is none). The
BEGINNINGS OF THE embryo pot stood firmly in its little
POTTER’S WHEEL
depression, and the woman walked round it in
a stooping posture, whether she was removing
small stones or similar foreign bodies with the maize-cob, smoothing
the inner or outer surface with the splinter of bamboo, or later, after
letting it dry for a day, pricking in the ornamentation with a pointed
bit of gourd-shell, or working out the bottom, or cutting the edge
with a sharp bamboo knife, or giving the last touches to the finished
vessel. This occupation of the women is infinitely toilsome, but it is
without doubt an accurate reproduction of the process in use among
our ancestors of the Neolithic and Bronze ages.
There is no doubt that the invention of pottery, an item in human
progress whose importance cannot be over-estimated, is due to
women. Rough, coarse and unfeeling, the men of the horde range
over the countryside. When the united cunning of the hunters has
succeeded in killing the game; not one of them thinks of carrying
home the spoil. A bright fire, kindled by a vigorous wielding of the
drill, is crackling beside them; the animal has been cleaned and cut
up secundum artem, and, after a slight singeing, will soon disappear
under their sharp teeth; no one all this time giving a single thought
to wife or child.
To what shifts, on the other hand, the primitive wife, and still more
the primitive mother, was put! Not even prehistoric stomachs could
endure an unvarying diet of raw food. Something or other suggested
the beneficial effect of hot water on the majority of approved but
indigestible dishes. Perhaps a neighbour had tried holding the hard
roots or tubers over the fire in a calabash filled with water—or maybe
an ostrich-egg-shell, or a hastily improvised vessel of bark. They
became much softer and more palatable than they had previously
been; but, unfortunately, the vessel could not stand the fire and got
charred on the outside. That can be remedied, thought our
ancestress, and plastered a layer of wet clay round a similar vessel.
This is an improvement; the cooking utensil remains uninjured, but
the heat of the fire has shrunk it, so that it is loose in its shell. The
next step is to detach it, so, with a firm grip and a jerk, shell and
kernel are separated, and pottery is invented. Perhaps, however, the
discovery which led to an intelligent use of the burnt-clay shell, was
made in a slightly different way. Ostrich-eggs and calabashes are not
to be found in every part of the world, but everywhere mankind has
arrived at the art of making baskets out of pliant materials, such as
bark, bast, strips of palm-leaf, supple twigs, etc. Our inventor has no
water-tight vessel provided by nature. “Never mind, let us line the
basket with clay.” This answers the purpose, but alas! the basket gets
burnt over the blazing fire, the woman watches the process of
cooking with increasing uneasiness, fearing a leak, but no leak
appears. The food, done to a turn, is eaten with peculiar relish; and
the cooking-vessel is examined, half in curiosity, half in satisfaction
at the result. The plastic clay is now hard as stone, and at the same
time looks exceedingly well, for the neat plaiting of the burnt basket
is traced all over it in a pretty pattern. Thus, simultaneously with
pottery, its ornamentation was invented.
Primitive woman has another claim to respect. It was the man,
roving abroad, who invented the art of producing fire at will, but the
woman, unable to imitate him in this, has been a Vestal from the
earliest times. Nothing gives so much trouble as the keeping alight of
the smouldering brand, and, above all, when all the men are absent
from the camp. Heavy rain-clouds gather, already the first large
drops are falling, the first gusts of the storm rage over the plain. The
little flame, a greater anxiety to the woman than her own children,
flickers unsteadily in the blast. What is to be done? A sudden thought
occurs to her, and in an instant she has constructed a primitive hut
out of strips of bark, to protect the flame against rain and wind.
This, or something very like it, was the way in which the principle
of the house was discovered; and even the most hardened misogynist
cannot fairly refuse a woman the credit of it. The protection of the
hearth-fire from the weather is the germ from which the human
dwelling was evolved. Men had little, if any share, in this forward
step, and that only at a late stage. Even at the present day, the
plastering of the housewall with clay and the manufacture of pottery
are exclusively the women’s business. These are two very significant
survivals. Our European kitchen-garden, too, is originally a woman’s
invention, and the hoe, the primitive instrument of agriculture, is,
characteristically enough, still used in this department. But the
noblest achievement which we owe to the other sex is unquestionably
the art of cookery. Roasting alone—the oldest process—is one for
which men took the hint (a very obvious one) from nature. It must
have been suggested by the scorched carcase of some animal
overtaken by the destructive forest-fires. But boiling—the process of
improving organic substances by the help of water heated to boiling-
point—is a much later discovery. It is so recent that it has not even
yet penetrated to all parts of the world. The Polynesians understand
how to steam food, that is, to cook it, neatly wrapped in leaves, in a
hole in the earth between hot stones, the air being excluded, and
(sometimes) a few drops of water sprinkled on the stones; but they
do not understand boiling.
To come back from this digression, we find that the slender Nyasa
woman has, after once more carefully examining the finished pot,
put it aside in the shade to dry. On the following day she sends me
word by her son, Salim Matola, who is always on hand, that she is
going to do the burning, and, on coming out of my house, I find her
already hard at work. She has spread on the ground a layer of very
dry sticks, about as thick as one’s thumb, has laid the pot (now of a
yellowish-grey colour) on them, and is piling brushwood round it.
My faithful Pesa mbili, the mnyampara, who has been standing by,
most obligingly, with a lighted stick, now hands it to her. Both of
them, blowing steadily, light the pile on the lee side, and, when the
flame begins to catch, on the weather side also. Soon the whole is in a
blaze, but the dry fuel is quickly consumed and the fire dies down, so
that we see the red-hot vessel rising from the ashes. The woman
turns it continually with a long stick, sometimes one way and
sometimes another, so that it may be evenly heated all over. In
twenty minutes she rolls it out of the ash-heap, takes up the bundle
of spinach, which has been lying for two days in a jar of water, and
sprinkles the red-hot clay with it. The places where the drops fall are
marked by black spots on the uniform reddish-brown surface. With a
sigh of relief, and with visible satisfaction, the woman rises to an
erect position; she is standing just in a line between me and the fire,
from which a cloud of smoke is just rising: I press the ball of my
camera, the shutter clicks—the apotheosis is achieved! Like a
priestess, representative of her inventive sex, the graceful woman
stands: at her feet the hearth-fire she has given us beside her the
invention she has devised for us, in the background the home she has
built for us.
At Newala, also, I have had the manufacture of pottery carried on
in my presence. Technically the process is better than that already
described, for here we find the beginnings of the potter’s wheel,
which does not seem to exist in the plains; at least I have seen
nothing of the sort. The artist, a frightfully stupid Makua woman, did
not make a depression in the ground to receive the pot she was about
to shape, but used instead a large potsherd. Otherwise, she went to
work in much the same way as Salim’s mother, except that she saved
herself the trouble of walking round and round her work by squatting
at her ease and letting the pot and potsherd rotate round her; this is
surely the first step towards a machine. But it does not follow that
the pot was improved by the process. It is true that it was beautifully
rounded and presented a very creditable appearance when finished,
but the numerous large and small vessels which I have seen, and, in
part, collected, in the “less advanced” districts, are no less so. We
moderns imagine that instruments of precision are necessary to
produce excellent results. Go to the prehistoric collections of our
museums and look at the pots, urns and bowls of our ancestors in the
dim ages of the past, and you will at once perceive your error.
MAKING LONGITUDINAL CUT IN
BARK
DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG
REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

BEATING THE BARK
WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

SOFT
MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

To-day, nearly the whole population of German East Africa is
clothed in imported calico. This was not always the case; even now in
some parts of the north dressed skins are still the prevailing wear,
and in the north-western districts—east and north of Lake
Tanganyika—lies a zone where bark-cloth has not yet been
superseded. Probably not many generations have passed since such
bark fabrics and kilts of skins were the only clothing even in the
south. Even to-day, large quantities of this bright-red or drab
material are still to be found; but if we wish to see it, we must look in
the granaries and on the drying stages inside the native huts, where
it serves less ambitious uses as wrappings for those seeds and fruits
which require to be packed with special care. The salt produced at
Masasi, too, is packed for transport to a distance in large sheets of
bark-cloth. Wherever I found it in any degree possible, I studied the
process of making this cloth. The native requisitioned for the
purpose arrived, carrying a log between two and three yards long and
as thick as his thigh, and nothing else except a curiously-shaped
mallet and the usual long, sharp and pointed knife which all men and
boys wear in a belt at their backs without a sheath—horribile dictu!
[51]
Silently he squats down before me, and with two rapid cuts has
drawn a couple of circles round the log some two yards apart, and
slits the bark lengthwise between them with the point of his knife.
With evident care, he then scrapes off the outer rind all round the
log, so that in a quarter of an hour the inner red layer of the bark
shows up brightly-coloured between the two untouched ends. With
some trouble and much caution, he now loosens the bark at one end,
and opens the cylinder. He then stands up, takes hold of the free
edge with both hands, and turning it inside out, slowly but steadily
pulls it off in one piece. Now comes the troublesome work of
scraping all superfluous particles of outer bark from the outside of
the long, narrow piece of material, while the inner side is carefully
scrutinised for defective spots. At last it is ready for beating. Having
signalled to a friend, who immediately places a bowl of water beside
him, the artificer damps his sheet of bark all over, seizes his mallet,
lays one end of the stuff on the smoothest spot of the log, and
hammers away slowly but continuously. “Very simple!” I think to
myself. “Why, I could do that, too!”—but I am forced to change my
opinions a little later on; for the beating is quite an art, if the fabric is
not to be beaten to pieces. To prevent the breaking of the fibres, the
stuff is several times folded across, so as to interpose several
thicknesses between the mallet and the block. At last the required
state is reached, and the fundi seizes the sheet, still folded, by both
ends, and wrings it out, or calls an assistant to take one end while he
holds the other. The cloth produced in this way is not nearly so fine
and uniform in texture as the famous Uganda bark-cloth, but it is
quite soft, and, above all, cheap.
Now, too, I examine the mallet. My craftsman has been using the
simpler but better form of this implement, a conical block of some
hard wood, its base—the striking surface—being scored across and
across with more or less deeply-cut grooves, and the handle stuck
into a hole in the middle. The other and earlier form of mallet is
shaped in the same way, but the head is fastened by an ingenious
network of bark strips into the split bamboo serving as a handle. The
observation so often made, that ancient customs persist longest in
connection with religious ceremonies and in the life of children, here
finds confirmation. As we shall soon see, bark-cloth is still worn
during the unyago,[52] having been prepared with special solemn
ceremonies; and many a mother, if she has no other garment handy,
will still put her little one into a kilt of bark-cloth, which, after all,
looks better, besides being more in keeping with its African
surroundings, than the ridiculous bit of print from Ulaya.
MAKUA WOMEN

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The Labor Relations Process 11th

Edition, (Ebook PDF)

Chapter 5 Why and How Unions Are Organized 197

Conduct of the Representation Election Campaign 233

Part 2 The Bargaining Process and Outcomes

Chapter 6 Negotiating the Labor Agreement 266

Managerial Rights 300 n Successor Employer Bargaining Obligations 303

Chapter 7 Economic Issues 325

Other Benefits 363

Chapter 8 Administrative Issues 387

Benefits of Technological Change 391 n Negative Effects of Technological

Chapter 9 Resolving Negotiation (Interest) Disputes and the Use of Economic

Other Third-Party Procedures 447

Part 3 Administering the Labor Agreement

Chapter 10 Contract Administration 496

Chapter 11 Labor and Employment Arbitration 537

Appraising Labor Arbitration’s Effectiveness 567 n Procedural

Chapter 12 Employee Discipline 600

Chapter 13 Labor Relations in the Public Sector 650

Chapter 14 Labor Relations in Multinational Corporations and in Other Countries 701

Appendix A Collective Bargaining Negotiations Exercise 756

Author Index 759

Features of the Eleventh Edition

n International Labor. Chapter 14 has been updated and expanded to include

Key Chapter-by-Chapter Changes in the Eleventh Edition

n Chapter 11 provides insights to the real world of labor/employment arbitration;

Holley/Ross/Wolters Product Support Website

Roger S. Wolters is professor emeritus in the Department of Management at Auburn

Phases in the Labor Relations Process

Elements in the Labor Relations Process

Focal Point of Labor Relations: Work Rules

Government The employer agrees to furnish adequate protective clothing for

Key Participants in the Labor Relations Process

or lack of clear communication among different levels of management officials to influ-

An arbitrator is a third-party neutral hired by union and management representa-

Three Basic Assumptions Underlying U.S. Labor Relations

Constraints or Influences Affecting Participants’ Negotiation and

State of the Economy: National, Industrial, and Firm-Specific

Newala, too, suffers from the distance of its water-supply—at least

The water-supply of New Newala is in the bottom of the valley,

NATIVE PATH THROUGH THE MAKONDE BUSH, NEAR

MAKONDE LOCK AND KEY AT JUMBE CHAURO

MODE OF INSERTING THE KEY

With no small pride first one householder and then a second

Some consolation was afforded me by a brassfounder, whom I

SMOOTHING WITH MAIZE-COB

CUTTING THE EDGE

LAST SMOOTHING BEFORE

FIRING THE BRUSH-PILE

TURNING THE RED-HOT VESSEL

NYASA WOMAN MAKING POTS AT MASASI

DRAWING THE BARK OFF THE LOG

REMOVING THE OUTER BARK

WORKING THE BARK-CLOTH AFTER BEATING, TO MAKE IT

MANUFACTURE OF BARK-CLOTH AT NEWALA

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