<story><title>Apple to withhold its latest employee perks from unionized store</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-12/apple-to-withhold-its-latest-employee-perks-from-unionized-store</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>GartzenDeHaes</author><text>This is also my experience dealing with unions.  Management is legally required to make concessions during collective bargaining, so anything that can be considered an improvement to mandatory bargaining topics (pay, benefits, or working conditions) gets held back for the contract negotiation.&lt;p&gt;In one case, management wanted to purchase sit&amp;#x2F;stand workstations for employees, but HR pointed out that this was a change to working conditions and should be included in the collective bargaining negotiation.  However management had already started taking measurements for the tables, so the union knew what management was intending.  During the negotiations, the union decided to try and call HR&amp;#x27;s bluff and refused to ask for the workstations as a concession.  So in the end, the whole plan was scrapped so that HR would have concessions available for future negotiations.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>justizin</author><text>if the belief is that employees using sit&amp;#x2F;stand workstations will improve productivity and output, it&amp;#x27;s a business&amp;#x27; own choice not to do so for employees who have collective bargaining.&lt;p&gt;there is also a cost associated with maintaining different workspaces and equipment for employees of different status, and it&amp;#x27;s a company&amp;#x27;s choice to take that on.&lt;p&gt;typically when discussing working conditions, you&amp;#x27;re talking about minimum standards.  it&amp;#x27;s not very smart to refuse to improve working conditions across the board.&lt;p&gt;you said in a reply further down that you were an executive level manager, you should have told HR to shove it because your individual performance would be impacted by the collective output of your employees, and the costs of improving working conditions would be returned in several multiples, some of which you might receive as a bonus.&lt;p&gt;it was, however, your choice and right not to do this. :)</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple to withhold its latest employee perks from unionized store</title><url>https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-10-12/apple-to-withhold-its-latest-employee-perks-from-unionized-store</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>GartzenDeHaes</author><text>This is also my experience dealing with unions.  Management is legally required to make concessions during collective bargaining, so anything that can be considered an improvement to mandatory bargaining topics (pay, benefits, or working conditions) gets held back for the contract negotiation.&lt;p&gt;In one case, management wanted to purchase sit&amp;#x2F;stand workstations for employees, but HR pointed out that this was a change to working conditions and should be included in the collective bargaining negotiation.  However management had already started taking measurements for the tables, so the union knew what management was intending.  During the negotiations, the union decided to try and call HR&amp;#x27;s bluff and refused to ask for the workstations as a concession.  So in the end, the whole plan was scrapped so that HR would have concessions available for future negotiations.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>pastor_bob</author><text>&amp;gt;Management is legally required to make concession&lt;p&gt;This is false. The NLRB explicitly says so:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; It is an unfair labor practice for either party to refuse to bargain collectively with the other, but parties are not compelled to reach agreement or make concessions.[0]&lt;p&gt;They are only required to bargain &amp;#x27;in good faith.&amp;#x27; Withholding benefits they would normally give is an intimidation tactic and an attempt to maintain leverage.&lt;p&gt;[0]&lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nlrb.gov&amp;#x2F;about-nlrb&amp;#x2F;rights-we-protect&amp;#x2F;your-rights&amp;#x2F;employer-union-rights-and-obligations&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.nlrb.gov&amp;#x2F;about-nlrb&amp;#x2F;rights-we-protect&amp;#x2F;your-right...&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>