Case Study: First Central Bank of River City
Statement of Facts
In 1986, the International Metalworkers Union (IMU) began efforts to engage the employees of the First Central Bank of River City (FCB) in joining the union for collective bargaining purposes. As a community, River City had a history of difficult times because of the unions’ involvement in the automotive parts industry, which was a key part of the River City economy. The auto company had had an agreement with the union since 1930, and had operated under a union shop clause since 1956.
The union was active in local politics, and their presence was strong enough in the community that even employees that weren’t unionized knew people or had family members that were. IMU had been successful in unionizing the maintenance department at one of the other local banks, but was not able to persuade any of the other departments to join. Likewise, attempts to enjoin “white-collar” workers even at the auto plant – where their presence was strongest – had failed. The pursuit of the staff at IMU could be perceived as an attempt to break into the “white-collar” market, which IMU could then use as clout to revisit the professional workers at the auto plant and the other banks. This idea will be given more consideration in the “Ethical Issues and Analysis” section.
For most of its existence, FCB had been a positive and stable place to work. It was not uncommon for someone to start after high school, and remain until retirement. The current president, Jack Kramer was doing exactly that, and was scheduled to retire in less than a year. However, over the last decade FCB had gone from being a single bank to having eighteen br ...