Grievance Arbitration and Conflict Regulation

Industrial conflict, when viewed as an incompatibility of objectives in forming or operating the employment relationship, is a common occurence which can take many forms. Some are initiated by individual workers, others by groups of workers and yet others by the employer. Despite this diversity, much of the effort to regulate conflict centres on only one form, namely, the strike. Very often it consists of providing alternatives to the strike. An extreme example is New Zealand where legislation has provided conciliation and arbitration and prohibited strikes. In the United States, the parties to most private sector labour contracts have specified a grievance procedure, capped by arbitration, intended to take the place of the strike in conflicts over "rights"