Question

The Postal Service is negotiating a new three-year agreement with two of its unions. One represents the clerks and one the mail carriers. The USPS negotiators are in two separate teams, one negotiating with each of the two unions. The two unions are not affiliated or legally tied to each other in any way, but they do talk informally. After both negotiations have concluded, the USPS management negotiators discovered that the clerk union and the carrier union were sharing information about what they were getting from management. For example, at the time that the clerk union was seeking to have management pay 50% of health insurance, the carrier union quietly told the clerk union that management had tentatively agreed to pay 55% for the carriers. Knowing this, the clerks decided to raise the demand to 55%, and were ultimately successful. The USPS is now considering a lawsuit or filing an Unfair Labor Practice for the unions sharing this information during the conduct of active negotiations, and voiding the 55% coverage of health care insurance that had been agreed to for the clerk union, arguing that it was negotiated based on illegally obtained information. Which of the following is most correct?
A. The actions of the clerk and carrier unions are not prohibited, and management does not have any recourse to recover damages nor to win an Unfair Labor Practice.
B. The actions of the clerk and carrier unions are not prohibited, and management cannot fire an Unfair Labor Practice. USPS can successfully sue both unions for damages related to the 55% paid for health care insurance for clerks.
C. This is an example of a lock-in agreement between the two unions and is prohibited by the NLRB.
D. All of the above are correct.

Answer 1

Answer: A. The actions of the clerk and carrier unions are not prohibited, and management does not have any recourse to recover damages nor to win an Unfair Labor Practice.

Explanation:

An unfair labor practice simply occurs when the National Labor Relations Act is being violated. Some if the unfair labor practice include when a worker is threatened when he or she files a ULP charge. Also, the refusal to negotiate with an agency in good faith etc.

In the scenario in the question, we should note that the actions of the clerk and the carrier unions are not prohibited, and then the management does not have any recourse to recover damages nor to win an Unfair Labor Practice.

Therefore, the correct option is A.