m-sized city were not immune to the type of global economic pressures which made the prospects of union membership appealing to some of them, despite the prestige, job security and other perquisites that had traditionally been associated with being a long term bank employee.
-One of these pressures was the trend, most pronounced in the data processing center, of newer employees to feel stronger bonds of professional than employer loyalty and to be prone to higher turnover because the Bank's salary and benefit structure was perceived by many of them to be uncompetitive.
-The patronal or personal management style of the Bank, which had helped persuade employees that the Bank was interested in their welfare, was breaking down. This was most evident in the consumer loan department which was headed by a vice president, Frank Locklear, who had been allowed to pursue human relations policies which were autocratic and impersonal. (The problems of the Bank were relatively minor by comparison with those of many other banks which were gobbled up in the mergers of the 80s and 90s, but Locklear's mindless pursuit of profits irrespective of these consequences to employee relations was a harbinger of such problems).
-Because of the obsolete attitude of its majority stockholder, Fred Jackson, the Bank had fallen behind the times by its failure to offer to pay for group medical and hospitalization benefits. However, after Jackson died, the Bank was in a position to rectify that situation and remove that attraction for unionization.
The legal issues in the case are whether the Bank and the Union violated any of their obligations under the national Labor Management Relations Act (LMRA), 29 U.S.C. sec. 141 et seq., in the course of the recently completed Union organizing drive and what ground rules they must follow during the forthcoming election campaign? What ethical responsibilities did they have to each other and to their employees an...