North American Tire Plant Case Study: Ethical and Strategic Analysis

This case study analyzes the North American Tire Plant in Bailey, Georgia, focusing on the labor dispute between the union and management during an economic recession. The assignment examines the ethical aspects of both union and management behaviors, including issues such as wage policies, union security, and management rights. The analysis provides examples of the pros and cons of the strategies employed by the plant, particularly concerning the union's actions and the management's response. The study also explores scriptural principles that could be integrated into the setting of wage rates to ensure fair and equitable compensation, considering the interests of all stakeholders. The conclusion emphasizes the importance of cooperative interactions between labor unions and management to ensure employee security and organizational productivity. The analysis is based on the provided case study and includes references to relevant scholarly sources.

Running head: ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN TIRE
PLANT
Analysis of the case study of North American Tire Plant
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Author Note

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ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN TIRE PLANT
Introduction
The North American Tire Plant in Bailey, Gorgia got its labour union and its labour
management on a negotiating table over the basic problems of the economic recession and the
wage policies. The employees were on a strike since the company’s initial proposals did not
satisfy the union’s demands.
Ethical aspects of both union and management behaviour.
In order to take care of the contemporary business, there needs to be proper
cooperative and enlightened modes of interactions between the labour management and the
union. Several factors like personal moral philosophy, motivation and moral development of
an individual influence the proper ethical decision making. The labour unions are the
employee organized associations whose responsibility is to safeguard the rights of the
employees and their further interests. Among the ethical issues, problems such as bargaining
power of the wages, the wage policies, the union security clauses and the management rights
might raise ethical questions in the labour-management behaviour (Maroušek et.al., 2016).
The management may tend to threaten the workers, to close down the workplace,
might behave as if they resemble the unions but not allow the workers to work democratically
might be considered as the ethical aspects of the management. Also in many cases, the
management decides to formally create the unions but there is sheer absence of freedom of
association in the workplace. Unions often tend to employ considerable power by taxation to
the employees in order to influence the politicians. They also seek help from the government
to raise taxes to increase benefits for their members (Pearson Seyfang & Jenkins, 2013).
The labour unions tried to remove favouritism from the workplace environment,
which the management tried to bring back, by the productivity of the non-union plants. The
union provided the opportunity for the wage workers to go through the due process amidst

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ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN TIRE PLANT
the disciplinary process and even if there exists a cause of termination, the employer can do
so, with the help of the union. It provided the striking workers the power to raise their voice
and an outlet for advocacy. The positive aspects of this were that both the sides, the
management and the union got to negotiate their differences over the table.
Analysis and examples of the pros and cons in the strategy used by North American
Tire Plant.
Due to the difference in opinion of the Union and the Management, the Unions
decided that the supervisors and the clerical employees must work less and operate at less
than 30 percent of its actual capacity. The Management on the other hand asked and invited
the employees who were on strike to get back to work. on one hand where there was positive
results of these decisions, there were negatives as well (Nkomo, Fottler, & McAfee, 2010).
Although this decision maintained the tightness and the sternness of the labour market
in Bailey, most of the employees refused to get back to work, which resulted in less
productivity of the company. The unemployment rate decreased and was less than 3 percent.
In spite of the decision of the union, the non-union plants of the North American Tire Plant
aimed at increasing and stepping up to the productivity of the company. The cons of the
strategy that the plant adopted was that there was reduced production on one side and on the
other the production kept on increasing.
What specific scriptural principles could be integrated into the setting of wage rates in
this case?
If the striking employees of the North American Tire Plant were invited to return to
work, their wage rates must be taken into consideration so that it could keep them motivated
and encouraged to employ their labour to the organization. In the case of North American
Tire Plant, there could be few scriptural principles which could be implemented in order to

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ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN TIRE PLANT
ensure better wage administration (Budd, 2017). The wage policies could have been
developed in a better way keeping the interests of the management, the consumers, the
community and the employees in mind. The general level of wages and salaries could have a
reasonable parity with the previous labour market. According to Dube, Lester & Reich,
(2016), the wage rates must ensure uniformity and stability and the wage policies must be
evaluated from time to time taking in consideration the adequate need of the employees and
the situation (Schmitt, 2013)
Conclusion
Thus from the above responses it can be concluded that the Labour union and the
management should have interactions among themselves to ensure the employee security as
well as the increasing productivity of the organization, the North American Tire Plant.

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ANALYSIS OF THE CASE STUDY OF NORTH AMERICAN TIRE PLANT
References:
Budd, J. W. (2017). The effect of unions on employee benefits and non-wage compensation:
Monopoly power, collective voice, and facilitation. In What Do Unions Do? (pp. 160-
192). Routledge.
Dube, A., Lester, T. W., & Reich, M. (2016). Minimum wage shocks, employment flows, and
labor market frictions. Journal of Labor Economics, 34(3), 663-704.
Maroušek, J., Hašková, S., Zeman, R., Žák, J., Vaníčková, R., Maroušková, A., ... &
Myšková, K. (2016). Polemics on ethical aspects in the compost business. Science
and engineering ethics, 22(2), 581-590.
Nkomo, S. M., Fottler, M. D., & McAfee, R. B. (2010). Human Resource Management
Applications: Cases, Exercises, Incidents, and Skill Builders. Cengage Learning.
Pearson, R., Seyfang, G., & Jenkins, R. (2013). Corporate responsibility and labour rights:
Codes of conduct in the global economy. Routledge.
Schmitt, J. (2013). Why does the minimum wage have no discernible effect on
employment. Center for Economic and Policy Research, 22, 1-28.