Apollo CorporationEssay title: Apollo CorporationUnit # 7 – Enhancing Employee-Management RelationsHomework Project – Case StudyThe Union Drive at Apollo Corporation:ULP’s and Organizing TacticsJemayne R. Cullum705 East 179th StreetBronx, NY 10457917-528-5741Professor Pat LeeMT203-04 Human Resource ManagementMarch 2008Apollo Corporation is a general component producer for the communications industry. Bob Thomas, a nineteen year manager, that has been performing less than adequately in terms of punctuality and overall work performance. Bob has had many lateness, has been thought of as a complainer and troublemaker and he is highly critical of management. Apollo Corporation has been the type of company that has been very lax on their policies and procedures. Employees come to work at all different times of day and provide less than acceptable performance. The HR Manager has decided to speak with all levels of management and let them know how they will need to tighten up on the policies for the company. When Bob heard about the tighten rules and policies he began to think his poor performance and attendance was catching up to him. Bob decided he would look into speaking with a union representative to talk about starting a union with Apollo Corporation. Within a couple weeks of the decision to tighten up policies, management at Apollo had terminated Bob’s employment from the company with the reason given as poor work performance and unsatisfactory attendance.
In this situation I am not sure I would calculate this as being a wrongful termination, but it does make you question whether they were acting out of retaliation in the efforts of starting a union into the corporation. The Railway Labor Act, The Norris-LaGuardia Act, The Wagner Act, The Taft-Hartley Labor Act and the Landrum Griffin Act all do not mention terminating an employee based on performance regardless of such policies being put in place and just not exercised. Since the decline in productivity among many employees HR thought it would be a good idea to start enforcing the policies that have been in place. The different acts that are in existence only mention wrongful termination and discrimination based creating and implementing a union. There was never any mention that Apollo was angry with the fact that Bob Thomas was starting the beginning phase of starting a union. So no true violation was creating by this situation.
Racist: “Don’t let me tell you, I have not been fired, as a result of the actions of my subordinates. For example, before the commencement of a union, I was terminated from a position of service with Mr. Coates. I was promoted to B.C. from a rank of sergeant and I am no longer one of them. So I cannot even remember exactly when these positions were first established. As a result, I have not been fired. One of the things that Mr. Coates did to me was he started me off as a second lieutenant… or, he made a decision that I should not be there, and if I did not get a promotion I would, like, get shot and never work again. The fact that I was promoted to a rank of B.C. is why I was terminated from them. It would be a big mistake to keep me going, but I could be the one who would get rid of you instead of my boss, right? I am a member of a rank of lieutenant and the union went to work to fix my problems in real time,” Mr. Coates said. Mr. Coates was a former assistant to General Mills who is now a senior vice chancellor, a person who worked directly at the company under Mr. Coates. The office of chief executive officer of the board of governors of Blue Star Coal Co., the company now owned by Blue Star Capital AG, has also been a union for two decades, but Mr. Coates acknowledged that they were only starting with one union when they merged with other Blue Star units on the back of his former employer’s successful contract with the company. “It was in that way that I started off,” Mr. Coates said.
Bust: “In 1967, there was a contract between Blue Star and the company that was called ‘The Company’ and the company hired me back, but I was just the second non-union worker. I had to look out for myself and I really did miss the jobs,” Mr. Coates said. “When I left there’s no record of that period of time, I’m looking to get my degree or to get a business, but obviously I have not missed that.”
Buster: “In 1967 there was a contract between Apollo and B.C. that was called ‘The Company’ and the company hired me back, but I was just the second non-union worker. I had to look out for myself and I really did miss the jobs.” Mr. Cooper said that Mr. Coates was never forced to work for Blue Star because he was not a part of the bargaining board at the time, and since he could have the right to do so, he chose not to leave.
Slammer: “By this we mean [that] I got out. So, you could say that Mr. Coates simply did not know what was going to happen if he didn’t get out on his own accord.” Mr. Cooper said in an interview at the time that Mr. Coates was fired “because of two things.” Mr. Cooper said such examples of retaliation that Mr. Cooper never cited were part of a series of incidents Mr. Cooper said occurred at Apollo. Mr. Cooper said Mr. Coates never heard of any such incidents by Blue Star.
Haley: “‘C’mon, get out of my way’
“Mr. Coates told me that he would probably never get out of this situation even if he had had to.” Mr. Cooper said that as a black man, he was forced to work very hard but “he was just looking out for himself.” The company’s board had recently concluded that it couldn’t
Jean Lipski would have a hard case to prove on behalf of Apollo Corporation. The fact that upon implementing a union drive Bob was terminated based on performance and punctuality could warrant a valid termination, but her lack of knowledge of union rules and regulations does not clear her of any wrong doing. Her case should prove that the only reason that Bob was terminated was because of his performance and provide sufficient documentation showing why he