Grievance and arbitration
To help you understand the perspectives of the union and the employer when they approach termination/discipline grievances, this assignment requires you to prepare arguments for both sides.
On page 320 of the text, read the “Northern Timber Company” case. After reading the case, prepare the following:
1) A briefing note written from the perspective of management identifying the arguments that would be made to an arbitrator to uphold termination.
2) A briefing note written from the perspective of the union officer responsible for this file outlining the arguments that would be made to an arbitrator to have the employee reinstated.
Layout
Both briefing notes should start with background of facts that you take from the case. I’m not asking you to quote verbatim, or copy and paste the case. Extract the facts that you need to build your case and present them as background.
After establishing the background, you should present your ‘arguments’. These utilize facts of the case and connect them to points of law, process, rules, that would allow you to construct a compelling case. You will want to refer to information in your textbook about these types of cases and you are entirely free to do other research that you feel may help strengthen your arguments for either side.
Your conclusion of the briefing note would reiterate the position that union/management would want to present to the arbitrator and summarize the compelling arguments you just outlined in the previous section.
Formatting
These briefing notes should be written in either 11 point Arial font or 12 point Times New Roman and double spaced. Each briefing note should be a minimum of two pages to a maximum of four pages in length.
