In this essay I’ll write about union membership, membership trends, the two types and levels, and the importance of unions. I’ll also discuss some of the negative sides of unionization in corporate America today.
Labor unions are groups or clubs of workers and employees who bond together to get good conditions, fair pay, and fair hours for their labor. These unions are usually joined together, and most unions in America are some branch of the largest labor union organization in the United States, the AFL-CIO with thirteen million members.
One of the largest unions is the Teamsters Union, formed in 1903, and perhaps the most contentious, union with 1.3 million members, were expelled from the AFL-CIO, in 1957. The labor organization grew rapidly and secured the important membership of the trucking industry.
Some of the largest unions are: National Education Association of the United States, Service Employees International Union, United Food and Commercial Workers International Union and Communications Workers of America.
According to the U. S. Department of Labor's Bureau of Labor Statistics In 2004, 12.5 percent of wage and salary workers were union members, down from 12.9 percent in 2003. The union membership rate has steadily declined from a high of 20.1 percent in 1983. The public sector also declined from 37.2 percent to 36.4 percent in 2004. The number of union members fell to 15.5 million the past year. Within the public sector, local government workers such as teachers, fire fighters, police officers had the highest union membership rate, 41.3 percent. Among the private sector transportation and utilities had the highest union membership rate, at 24.9, but construction, information and manufacturing industries also had high rates. Among occupational groups, training, education and library occupations and protective service workers had the highest, and farming, fishing, sales and related occupations had to lowest unionization rates in 2004. In 2004, the union membership rate was 2.7 percent higher for men than women and African Americans were more likely to be union members than were whites, Asians, or Hispanics. Among the age groups, the highest union membership rates were among workers 45 to 54 years old and were lowest among workers 16 to 24 years old. The largest numbers of union members lived in California, 2.4 million and New York 2.0 million.
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...nsferred to other businesses and consumers. Businesses that are affected by the cost, in order not to lose profits, have to also raise costs that will end up costing consumers. Being in a labor union has its privilege for employees of a particular union because they prevent businesses from firing union members. This is not a privilege to the economy. The workers are not driven by any incentives and the businesses don’t get the best workers and eventually this leads to a slow productivity.
In today’s world of employment, one can choose to work in a unionized or a non unionized workplace; both situations have positive and negative attributes. In a unionized situation, members experience benefits such as union representation, and aversions such as layoffs and strikes. In a non-union situation, workers experience benefits such as better treatment by management, and aversions such as decreased benefits and overall decreased wages. Although over the last few decades union membership and growth have decreased, organized labor is becoming popular.
References: http://www.bls.gov http://www.laborresearch.org http://www.aflcio.org http://www.tdu.org
http://www.thelaborers.net
As companies look to expand operations and hire new employees, many economic and environmental factors are taken into consideration. The cost of labor is one of the primary concerns as labor generally constitutes a large part of company budgets. The organization of labor by unions further increases this concern. The wages of unionized workers are significantly higher than the wages of nonunion workers in almost every industry (Fossum, 2012). Higher wages generally result in reduced company profits, lower share prices, and reduced shareholder returns (Fossum, 2012). Unionization also reduces the employer’s flexibility with regards to hiring, transferring, or promoting employees (Fossum, 2012). Productivity may be negatively impacted by unionization because merit is often eliminated as a criterion for wage increases or promotions (Fossum, 2012). As a result of these negative impacts, employers are motivated to oppose unionization.
U.S. Labor History Unionism can be described as "a continuous association of wage-earners for the purpose of maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment" (Smelser). This means that a group of workers can unite to gain more power and leverage in bargaining. The bargaining process may include many aspects but usually consists of wages, benefits, terms and conditions of employment. The notion of union came about in the 1700's. In the beginning, as it is today, workers united to "defend the autonomy and dignity of the craftsman against the growing power of the company" (Montgomery).
Union affiliation was first seen in the 1600’s when the roots of the United States were just being planted with skilled trade groups such as artisans, laborers, goldsmiths and printers. Over the next two hundred years, unions developed their desires for higher wages through the use of strikes and protests. The nation’s progress spurred the need for more labor and so began the Industrial Revolution. During the Revolution, many union members began to witness the power that employers had and as a result decided to make use of the concept of power in numbers. The National Labor Union formed in 1866 and worked to persuade congress to set a Federal eight-hour workday, which applied to government employees (Miller). Many large unions formed following in the NLU’s footsteps and uni...
Across the United States there has been a decline in union membership. Looking back as far to 1954 the union work force had peaked at 34.7% but has since been in decline. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the total number of union members fell by 400,000 in 2012 to 14.3 million even though the nation’s overall employment rose by 2.4 million (Greenhouse, 2013). In 2011 the percentage of union workers was 11.8% and in 2012 dropped to 11.3%, which is the lowest union membership has been since 1916. The percentage of private sector unions in 2012 was down to 6.6%, which left many labor specialists questioning whether private sector unions were sinking towards irrelevance (Greenhouse, 2013). What are the reasons for this decline? And what does this mean for the future of private sector unions? This essay will take a lot closer look at these two questions.
Unions have an extensive history of standing up for workers. They have advocated rights of steelworkers, coal miners, clothing factory employees, teachers, health care workers, and many others. The labor movement is based on the idea that organized workers as a group have more power than individuals would have on their own. The key purpose of any union is to negotiate contracts, making sure workers are respected and fairly compensated for their work. “In theory” unions are democratic organizations, resulting in varying inner authority. Workers look for security within a job a...
The term “union” tends to be interchangeable with “brotherhood” in many unionized workers’ perceptions. Many of those workers view union representation as protectors from corporations for the sake of the quiet worker. However, unions subject the represented worker to many disadvantages that in turns affects the economy. In a time when unions are political giants and overstep their boundaries on worker’s rights, surprisingly the organized workforce gives workers incentives to not perform at their best and slow down industries. Only when the unionized workers are educated to the misconceptions that accompany unions, the nation can witness the return to productivity that leads to a superior workforce.
To begin, we need to look towards the first recorded instance of a labor union in the United States, a union known as the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (http://www.lovkoandking.com/federal-society-of-journeymen-cordwainers---commonwealth-v-pullis.html). In 1794, a group of cordwainers, shoemakers, in Philadelphia banded together to form the United States’ first form of organized labor union through a series of strikes....
The paper will discuss minicases on ‘The White-Collar Union Organizer’ and ‘The Frustrated Labor Historians’ by Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney (2010), to understand the issues unions undergo in the marketplace. There is no predetermined statistical number reported of union memberships in this country. However, “the United Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) excludes almost 2 million U.S wages and salary employees, over half of whom are employed in the public sector, who are represented at their workplaces by a union but are not union members. Not being required to join a union as a condition of continued employment, these employees have for a variety of reasons chosen not to do so. Nor do the BLS estimates include union members who are currently unemployed” (Sloane & Witney, 2010, p.5). Given this important information, the examination of these minicases will provide answers to the problems unions face in organizational settings.
Gottlieb, Julie V. Aftermath of Suffrage: Women, Gender, and Politics, 1918-1945. Web. 21 May 2014.
In her publication of A Vindication of the Rights of Women and Femininity, Mary Shelley states, “I do not wish women to have power over men; but over themselves” (Shelley 34). She desires to let women acknowledge that they need to take control of their own lives, and to not rely on a man for their success. This widely unaccepted message is not visible in The Taming of the Shrew. In the late 1590s, around the time William Shakespeare wrote the piece, women were scrutinized as the “weaker sex”, both physically and emotionally. This factor plays a huge contribution in the evident sexism scattered throughout the play. Shakespeare shows this mainly through his main character, Katherine, and through what she endures including an unwanted marriage,
Unions provide a vital service for employees and management by negotiating contracts, ensuring workplace safety, and representing employees in grievance hearings. While there are hundreds of unions in the United States, this paper focuses on three major unions, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Furthermore, this paper will compare and contrast these agencies, summarize their roles in optimizing employee relations with organizations, describe four challenges management and union officials face, and evaluate privatization as a means of breaking public employee unions.
John Stuart Mill, who openly supported women’s suffrage, was elected to British Parliament in 1864. Throughout his campaign, he called for an amendment to the Reform Act to include female suffrage. Although the Reform Act was ultimately defeated by the entirely male conservative government, for the first time it did succeed in raising awareness of the issue of women’s enfranchisement across the commonwealth.
A labor union is, as described by Investopedia, “…an organization intended to represent the collective interests of workers in negotiations with employers over wages, hours, benefits and working conditions”. In todays date, some people believe the labor unions hurt the economy when negotiating for a higher salary for the workers. With a higher salary, people work less and that means that the market gets a lower supply. When demanding a higher salary, the equilibrium wage is affected. The equilibrium wage is the state in which supply and demand balance each other. If supply goes down, prices go up. Therefore, a lot citizens consider labor unions as a bad thing in the United States.
Before a proper analysis can be completed on the current issue of whether unions are more productive, it is necessary to develop an understanding on what effects they have on the workplace and how it impacts management decisions and in particular the policies that will be created as well as enforced by human resource management so that the organization is compliant will all aspects of the collective agreement, should one be in force at the time. This agreement is at the core of the employer-union relationship since it expressly outlines all benefits of workers as well as the necessary behaviour of management, anything outside of this legal arrangement falling onto the authority of the employer under the context of “management’s rights”. (Verma, 2005, p. 418) Taking this newfound relationship into consideration, the realistic effect that unions now have on the workplace is their “strong use of their monopoly power to force employers to pay significantly better wages and benefits.” (Verma, 2005, p. 416) These are the aspects of labour relations that are the most prevalent and visible to the general public; however, there are other areas where unions have a major impact, referred to as “industrial jurisprudence where the union, both their leadership and members gain a significant voice in almost all aspects of managerial decision-making that can have major consequences, not only for the workers, but the organization as a whole.” (Verma, 2005, p. 416) According to this same author, the primary motivation for unions to behave in this manner rests on the pursuit of fairness and to achieve more favourable working conditions as well as maintaining a strong voice in workplace matters. (Verma, 2005, pp. 416-418)
1.) Individuals may elect to become involved as a member of a union for many benefits and advantages they offer. The primary issues surrounding individual decision for unionization are their dissatisfaction with wages, benefits, operating conditions or environment, promotions, and lack of job security (Rue, Ibrahim, & Byars, 2016, p. 392). Union involvement opens up a direct line of communication with members and their employers to increase the odds of negotiations or attempts to resolve any discrepancies employees may experience within the workplace (Rue, Ibrahim, & Byars, 2016, p. 392). Unions advocate on behalf of employers for their health, safety and overall well-being (Rue, Ibrahim, & Byars, 2016, p. 392). Having stronger communication