Analysis Of The 1911 Triangle Shirtwaist Fire

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Recommended: The development of labor unions

“Unions are about collective leverage, the power of numbers versus the power of capital” - Canadian entrepreneur, Kevin O’Leary. The American workplace has not always provided protections for employees. Until the early 20th century business owners held all of the power in the employee/employer relationship. Workers were subjected to extremely long hours, low wages and dangerous working conditions, with no recourse or protections. Organized labor over the last century challenged the position and power of employers and lobbied the government to create laws and policies that would protect workers and create safer working environments for employees. The majority of policies that today’s average employee takes for granted, such as the eight …show more content…

While many of the laws and regulations that arose out of the labor movement protect workers and define employer’s responsibilities, there has been significant pressure from employers to ensure that their organization does not organize. Dias (2009) states that “most organizations feel the constraints of having a union organization are too great”; negatively affecting the organization’s cost of operation and efficiency (p. 278). In response to the organizational desire to remain union free, Human Resource Managers (HRM) have an important role to play in regards to employee relations within organizations (Dias, 2009). Dias (2009), identifies three phases of unionization, the first is the “organization is union free and there is little to now interest in unionizing” (p. …show more content…

In an August 2014 Pew Research Center Survey “56% of Americans said there income was falling behind the cost of living, up from 44% in September 2007 – just before the recession hit” (Desilver, 2014, para. 10). Furthermore, in the same poll, “only 5% said they were staying ahead of inflation” (Desilver, 2014, para. 10). These pressures and the fears they generate have resulted in some interesting trends. In California and some neighboring states in the Southwest, labor membership rates have increased (Semuels, 2013). In 2013, union membership within California increased by 100,000, compared to an overall decrease nationally. While part of the increase in union membership can be attributed to the growing Latino populations, “Steve Smith, spokesman for the California Labor Federation, states “There’s an appetite among these low-wage workers to try and get a collective voice to give themselves opportunity and a middle-class lifestyle” (Semuels, 2013, para.

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