Originally from Dispute Resolution Journal

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The discharge of a unionized employee is one action which assumes major significance for the involved parties. Management has long contended that the employee discharge option is an essential prerequisite to the maintenance of efficient operations; conversely, a
discharged employee who is reinstated by the arbitrator may seriously frustrate subsequent supervisory efforts at maintaining discipline. While many contend that what management loses in the arbitration hearing appears to be the union's gain, this viewpoint tends to disregard the fact that even when management supposedly wins and is upheld in the discharge decision there are very real losses involved for management. The investment in human resources has taken on increasing importance to the firms of today and the loss of that substantial investment in an employee represents one which cannot be redeemed once the individual is no longer an employee. The union's ability to represent the particular job interest of the individual worker is the criterion most often used by union