Read the following to answer: Read the Case Study: “GMFC Custom Conveyor Divisio
ID: 468197 • Letter: R
Question
Read the following to answer: Read the Case Study: “GMFC Custom Conveyor Division,” write 250 words based on the Union organizer role: Develop a strategy for organizing the plant in the case.
Considerations:
Authorization card campaign
Contacts with employees
Campaign Literature
Comparisons you want employees to make
Bargaining-unit determination
Coping with delays
Potential ULP charges
Case:
Last year, General Materials and Fabrication
Corporation (GMFC) acquired a manufacturer
of custom-built conveyer equipment
used in the freight forwarding industry. The
nonunion plant, renamed the Custom Conveyer
Division (CCD), employs about 120
production employees, 3 supervisors, a general
supervisor, a production manager, 2 engineers,
3 office clericals, and a plant manager.
The production employees are in five semiskilled
job classifications: fabricator, welder,
prepper, painter, and assembler.
The fabricators convert raw material, such
as steel plates and tubes, into parts using
presses, sheers, numerical-control cutting
equipment, and the like. Welders take the fabricated
parts and create frames for conveyer
subassemblies. They also weld sheet metal
into complex slides and chutes. Preppers
clean welding slag, grind welds, degrease
welded assemblies, and perform other cleaning
functions for painting. Painters spray
paint assemblies using a variety of paints
and painting equipment, taking special care
not to paint areas where additional parts will
be attached. Assemblers, working in teams,
use the welded subassemblies and fabricated
parts (purchased parts such as rollers, chains,
sprockets, belts, motors, and switches) to
assemble the equipment and test its operation.
Then the assemblers travel to the installation
site to combine the subassemblies and
test the completed custom installation.
The plant is located in Cumberland, a small
rural city of about 2,500. All the employees
are hired from about a 20-mile radius around
the plant. The starting wage for all classifications
is $9 per hour, with an increase to $9.50
after a 60-day probationary period. Wages
increase to a maximum of $11 per hour in three
50-cent increases at six-month intervals. About
75 percent of the employees are earning the
maximum hourly rate. CCD pays for comprehensive
health insurance for all employees and
provides for 80 percent of the cost of dependent
coverage. Turnover is very low, averaging
about 5 percent per year from all causes. Two
other plants in Cumberland hire employees
with the same types of skills and pay a starting
wage of $8 per hour. Most of GMFC’s employees
have been hired from those plants.
The plant earned over $1.25 million after
taxes last year on gross revenues of $9 million.
Sales have been increasing about 20 percent per
year recently. Total labor costs last year were
$4.5 million. Materials cost $1.5 million. Facility
maintenance was $0.5 million and depreciation
on the plant and equipment equaled $0.75
million. Taxes totaled $0.5 million. Labor and
material costs are variable. Maintenance and
depreciation are fixed for the next year since
the plant has about 20 percent unused capacity.
If expansion continues, there is enough space
on the current property to double the plant size
at a cost of about $10 million. The local labor
market can provide workers with the required
entry-level skills if the operations were to double
over the next four years. Five other competitors
manufacture this type of equipment,
but GMFC-CCD has established a reputation
for high quality and low cost, and its market
share is expanding. Because most of the conveyer
systems are used in airports and warehouse
operations in large cities, transportation
is required for each unit shipped. GMFC paid
about $16.5 million for the operation when it
was purchased last year.
UNION ORGANIZING
The district director of the United Steelworkers
in the region in which Cumberland is located
wants to increase the number of members in
the district. He received an e-mail today from
Dave Neumeier, an employee of GMFC-CCD,
who is a former Steelworker member. Dave
suggested that CCD was ripe for organizing
given the $2 and $5 difference in wages
between CCD ($11 maximum) and GMFC’s
main Central City operation. He said some of
the preppers were dissatisfied, too, because
their work was much more repetitive and
dirtier than the other jobs but the pay was the
same.
The district director assigned two of his
newest organizers, Rebecca Shea and Rick
Anderson, to attempt to organize the plant.
Rebecca just graduated from the state university
with a bachelor’s in labor studies. Rick
was a welder for a heavy-equipment manufacturer.
The district director has given them
a copy of the GMFC contract that’s currently
in force (see the mock negotiating exercise at
the end of Chapter 11). Rebecca and Rick have
been instructed to try to get jobs at the plant
and begin organizing internally. If that’s not
possible, they are to contact Neumeier and
get names and addresses. In either event, they
need to formulate a strategy for organizing.
MANAGEMENT
James Holroyd, the plant manager, has just
held his weekly supervisors meeting. A supervisor,
Steve Christian, said a new employee
who just moved to the area, Dave Neumeier,
has a Steelworkers local sticker on the inside
of his toolbox. While there has been no union
activity at CCD, Holroyd was told by GMFC
top management to make sure the operation
remained nonunion. While work has been
steady lately, a layoff is possible in two months
if new orders aren’t received.
The plant has a generous recreational program
for employees, with a party every quarter,
an outboard runabout, a recreational vehicle,
and an extensive videocassette library for free
use by employees.
Explanation / Answer
Ans:
Since the plant was created for the assembling manufacturing of overwhelming material. Like steel sheets and different types of equipments. There were every one of the works related with overwhelming apparatus and devices. Prior there was an extraordinary effectiveness in the work and methodologies of the organization.
As per the new involvements and application the plant were needed to be reorganized for the more effectiveness and efficiency. There were various kinds of departments like welding, painting, fabrication, and assembling.
These all functions were actually interdependent to each other. Like if the welding works get done the only the fabrication and painting works will be done for that particular manufactured product.
It was a kind of complex and interlinked manufacturing category of material. As the newly appointed organizers Rebecca Shea and Rick Anderson were assigned the work to re organize the whole plant in an effective and efficient manner. There will be integration in the strategic formulation for the plant development.
All the costs incurrent will be calculated and as per the requirement the financing requirements will be done. Then the staffing situation will be met as per the need to run the plant effectively consisting of workers, engineers, welders, mechanics etc.
These are the main strategies that can be inculcated and upon which both the organizers can work out to make an effective and efficient manufacturing plant. These integrated strategies will surely work for the betterment of the plant towards the new integrity and effectiveness. That will also help in getting competitiveness and sustainable development for the long term goal achievement.
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