BA 325 Week 1 Assignment Importance of Unions in Labor Relations

Importance of Unions in Labor Relations

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Importance of Unions in Labor Relations

Unions are very important to trade and labor relations. These unions have been there since the industrial revolution whereby they took the responsibility of equal bargaining power existing between the employees and the employer. Unions are necessary in any organization as they are able to represent the worker’s interests to the employer or in an organizational relationship. It is through the unions that the employees are given proper treatment in working conditions and the employers ensure that the working conditions are favorable for the workers. Trade and labor unions also play a responsibility of ensuring that the employees are paid well and their rights respected.This paper therefore discusses the importance of unions in labor relations and why there are inadequatealternatives to unions (Noe et al. 2006).

Unions are necessary in labor relations

There are variousimportances of unions which make these unions necessary in labor relations even though the membership has been declining. Unions are the best representatives in collective bargaining whereby they are given the responsibility of negotiating the employees’ need and interests to the employer. Unions have greater power than the employees when presenting their interests to the employer because if their grievances are not listened to they can organize for strikes and other activities until their proposal is considered. Unions are also responsible in considering the employee’s welfare whereby they fight for the better terms and working conditions of the employees. The unions have secured high salaries and benefits for the workers whereby they ensure that there is also job securities and protection. The unions ensure that the workers have safe working conditions, access to the health care and also they are not discriminated by the employers (Ghazzawi, 2009, July).

Unions are necessary in developing labor roles and regulations for the protection of the workers. They play very important roles in initiating in situations which include the regulations to ensure that the employees are safe and protected in their working conditions. They represent the workers voice on their rights and regulation to curb the employer’sunfair practices. For instance, Health Act exists in most of the industries to ensure that the employees are provided with better working conditions. All the unions ensure that they stand out for the employees and supervise the status of the employees through the implementation and monitoring of the employee’s laws to be enforced in the industry. There still remain valid issues which trigger the need of unions in labor relations. The unions were created in order to respond to the employee’s time exploitation and the wages theft. The need for unions play very important role in any organization throughout the world and they will still remain to play key role in ensuring that the employees welfare and working conditions are safe (Noe et al. 2006).

Reasons why the alternatives to unions are inadequate

According to Ghazzawi (2009, July) there are various reasons as to why the alternatives to unions are inadequate. The collective bargaining does not appeal to the most of the workers which have led to the fall to the registration in the unions. It has been witnessed that the private sectors are more than the public sectors whereby these unions have got very little say concerning the pay of the workers to their employees. In the competitive private sectors, the employers believe that they are working on the same side as the employers and no need of the labor unions. The employees are on the first line to reject the unions to be able to unite with the non-union to raise their volume on their interest to the employers. The non-union and other employees are working hand in hand to improve their environmental working conditions. It is evidenced from the research that the membership to unions has registered a continuous stagnation due to the employee’s perspective (Noe et al. 2006).

Additionally, the effects impacted by private sectors have largely affected the membership to unions. The people working on portal services and other private sectors double the people working on government sectors which make them reject the unions and also affect the union’s membership. The biggest percentage approximately 81% rejects the unionization while the 19% are willing to join the union. This makes the union alternatives inadequate in the industries. Unions have been made less effect by the changing economy and the places of work. It has been noted that, private sector unions have little or no power to raise the wages of the workers. The managers of private sectors take full control of the organization providing the best working conditions and salaries for the employees. The unionized companies are unable to raise their labor pay because the members can move to other non-unionized companies. The workers working with non-unionized companies earn more than those in unionized companies which make many employees reject voting for the unions (Frege, 2004).

In conclusion, the alternatives of the unions are inadequate because most of the employees are satisfied with their job positions. Today’s human resource managers have implemented new strategies of treating their employees as the most important people in any business. This makes the employees not to participate in the unions because they feel that they get what they deserve from their employees. The employers build effective relationships with their employees giving them chance to express their interests and decisions. The workers feel free to socialize and interact with the employer reducing the need of negotiation from the unions. Finally, despite the arguments of some people claiming that the unions are unnecessary, I stand with unions in the labor relations because they are essential bodies in any industry (Holley et al. 2017).

References

Holley, W., Ross, W. H., & Wolters, R. (2017).  The Labor Relations Process, 11th Edition. Mason, OH:  South-Western (Cengage).

ISBN:  9781337442404  

Frege, C. (2004). Varieties of unionism: Strategies for union revitalization in a globalizing economy. Oxford University Press on Demand.

Noe, R. A., Hollenbeck, J. R., Gerhart, B., & Wright, P. M. (2006). Human resource management: Gaining a competitive advantage.

Ghazzawi, I. (2009, July). Gender Role in Job Satisfaction: The Case of the US Information Technology Professionals. In Allied Academies International Conference. Academy of Management Information and Decision Sciences. Proceedings (Vol. 13, No. 2, p. 19). Jordan Whitney Enterprises, Inc.