Star Trek: Deep Space Nine

HR Scenes

The television show I chose to write about is Star Trek: Deep Space Nine and the specific episode is entitled “Bar Association.” In this episode Quark, a Ferengi bar owner, does not treat his employees well. They decide to fight back and in doing so, form a union and ultimately they go on strike. The first scene shows Rom, an ill employee, working anyway, because Quark, his boss, does not give his employees sick leave. Rom passes out and ends up in Sick Bay. The doctor tells Rom, that if he had waited two days longer to come in, he would have died. Rom tells the doctor he had no choice. At Quark’s they are given no sick days, no vacation and no paid overtime, no compensation/benefits package at all. They are not even allowed to leave work unless given permission by Quark. The doctor tells Rom, they should start a union to help them get the benefits they deserve. The second scene shows Leeta, another member of staff, telling Quark he should treat his workers better. Quark tells Leeta, “I don’t pay you to think, I pay you to spin the dabo wheel.” Quark then threatens her job by saying, “If you don’t get back to work this instant, you’re going to have more time off than you know what to do with.” The third scene shows different forces trying to stop the union from forming. Quark talks to Security Chief Odo about breaking up the strikers. Odo says that Captain Sisco has forbidden him from interfering with the strike unless there is violence. Quark then tries to bribe Rom with money. Rom turns him down. The Ferengi Commerce Authorities attempts to stop the union by sending Liquidator Brunt in with some “hired muscle.” His orders are, “to stop them by any means necessary.” The final scene deals with Rom. He changes his career from waiter to diagnostic and repair technician. Forming the union has given him the strength to take a look at his life and see that he wasn’t happy with it. He now has the confidence to go out on his own and try something new.

Links

The first link demonstrates Quark’s total control of the work environment and it is definitely an example of bad human resources management. There is no give and take between management and labor at the bar. All of the power is in the hands of Quark and he uses it as a weapon. He even cuts their pay by one third because he says business is slow. This goes back to the in class presentation on Labor/Management Relations. In this presentation we learned that, “Unions arose to counterbalance business interests by giving a voice to labor.” In essence, they were to protect workers from management abuse, like arbitrary management actions and unsafe working conditions. Before unions workers had no recourse from any of these things. They had to take anything that management “dished out.” Unions gave employees grievance procedures, progressive discipline, employee assistance programs and much more. In this case, the workers are demanding better pay, paid vacation and sick leave. These are things that all workers should get. Unfortunately, sometimes management has to be forced to give them. This leads Rom and the other employees to go on strike, to compel Quark to take them seriously and give them there basic rights. The second link is when Quark threatens Leeta’s job and again shows how not to do human resource management. By treating Leeta in this way, he is taking away her right to not be deprived of her job without due process. All workers should have certain rights. In the class presentation entitled, “Employee Rights and Discipline” we learned about employee protection rights. Even though her employment is at will, according to the contract she signed with Quark, this does not give him unlimited control over his employees’ lives. Legally employees still have certain rights, even if employers force them to sign papers saying differently. If he fired her for no reason she could file a wrongful discharge suit. Probably on the grounds of violation of implied covenant, this means that the employer wasn’t fair in his dealings with the employee. I would hope she would win too, because Quark is a jerk in this episode. The third link shows the different forces at work when a union is trying to be organized. Quark again does the opposite of what would be considered successful human resource management. As mentioned above, Quark does everything in his power to stop the unionization of his workers. The Ferengi Commerce Authority even gets into the act and sends Liquidator Brunt to cause problems. He tries intimidation, threats and even physical harm to discourage them. People in power do not want to share it and early labor legislation in the United States forced management to work with labor for the first time. This leads to the presentation on Early Labor Legislation. Unions have gone through a lot of legislation to get to today. In the early days of labor legislation, The Railway Act of 1926 set forth some rules to help protect labor. It gave railroad employees the right to organize and bargain collectively. This was huge at the time, and was the first substantial legislation to protect labor. The next major encouragement of unions was the Norris- LaGuardia Act of 1932 which gave workers the right to unionize. The Wagner Act of 1935 went even farther. It forced employers to deal with unions and restricted them form interfering with the right of employees to organize. If the workers of Quarks would have had this legislation they would have had a much easier time of unionizing but at least they had Captain Sisco on their side. The fourth links shows how Rom has grown as an individual and has decided to change career paths. Even here Quark puts in his two cents and tells Rom he should stay with his old job, “that he can’t make it on his own.” Quark is definitely not human resource management material. During the course of the show, Rom proved that he can stand on his own two feet and make a difference. That gave him the confidence to step out of Quark’s shadow and begin his own life. The first step he must have taken would be individual assessment. We learned in a class presentation on “Steps to Developing a Career Plan” that this is probably the hardest step of all. This is where he would take a look at himself, his strengths, weaknesses and goals. Instead of doing what most of us do, he could have taken a test like the Campbell Interest and Skills Test. This would help him to narrow down his likes and dislikes. It takes most of us many years to get to know ourselves on this level. His next step would involve an assessment by the Federation and then he would find out his career path options and hopefully get career counseling. Then nothing could stop him.