Chapter Fourteen
Contract Administration
After a contract is negotiated and ratified, the parties are bound by its terms. But contract clauses may be violated or interpreted differently, so disputes often arise. Almost all contracts contain a grievance procedure to resolve intracontractual disputes. This chapter identifies types and causes of disputes and the contractual means used for resolving them.
As noted in Chapter 13, team-based work designs have reduced the use of first-line supervisors. In these types of work situations, grievances or problems in implementing the contract are increasingly resolved within the work team in consultation with management.
In reading this chapter, keep the following questions in mind:
- What areas of disagreement emerge while the contract is in effect?
- What actions by the parties violate the labor acts?
- Are disagreements resolved by bargaining or by evaluating the merits of a given issue?
- How can team-based work environments lead to proactive grievance procedures?
- What does the union owe individual members in grievance processing?