Carolyn Foster had just returned to her office from the weeklyplant IR representatives’ meeting. Her secretary had left a note tocall George Lowrey, the superintendent of the forklift assemblyoperation. She called back and immediately recognized from theserious- ness of George’s tone that a major problem must be brewingin his area. They both agreed she would come right over. AfterGeorge had welcomed her into his office, he leaned forward and,putting his chin in his hands, said, “Carolyn, I feel like I’m sit-ting on a powder keg here. Last year we put in the new SimplexProcess assembly line for our forklifts. It had a rated capacity of35 units an hour. When we installed it, we started up at 28 units,which is the same as the old line, to shake it down and get thebugs out. The new line automates more of the assembly, so eachworker has less of a physical demand than before. Well, last weekwe figured we had all the bugs ironed out, so we raised the speedto 35. We figure each worker has to put out about the same amountof effort as under the old system. “This morning, Steve Bonneville,the shop steward, and three of my general supervi- sors came in,all arguing. Bonneville had a fistful of grievances and was yellingabout a ‘speedup.’ Anyway, the upshot is that he wants theemployees to be advanced one skill level to compensate for theadditional effort and more difficult working conditions underSection 7.03 of the contract. “Carolyn, we can’t give them a pennymore and remain competitive. Besides that, if they get a raise, thewhole plant will paper us with classification grievances.Bonneville is running for union president because Matt Duff isretiring, and if he’s successful with this grievance, he’s ashoo-in. All we need is a long strike over some penny-ante issueand a bunch of hotheads like him running the show. What can you doto help me?” Carolyn had been busy taking notes about the problem.She asked, “Do you have the grievances?” George nodded and handedthem to her. Then she said, “I’ll study the grievances, thecontract, and the union situ- ation and get back to you in time forus to plan a step 3 response. I’ll be back to you this afternoon.”DIRECTIONS 1. Draft a strategy for the company to fol- low.Consider the immediate problem and the possibilities of precedentsbeing set by your action. List the advantages and disad- vantagesof your chosen strategy. 2. Prepare a scenario in which yourresponse is presented to Steve Bonneville. How is he likely toreact? What steps do you expect he will take as a result of yourresponse? 3. What conditions do you consider neces- sary for thesegrievances to be resolvable at step 3?
