Advantages And Disadvantages Of Unions

Labor unions were established as a way for workers’ needs and grievances to be heard by management. According to Fossum (2012), “forming a union creates a collective voice to influence change at work” (p. 7). The collective voice of workers in a union holds much more power than any single employee’s voice. It can loudly draw attention to mistreatment or abuse of workers. The organized collective voice of workers demands to be treated in a fair way by its management in terms of wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.

The document outlines the pros and cons of labor unions in America. The analysis takes into consideration how unions have improved the working environments for workers, and may continue to do so. The paper considers the power of unions for net social benefit, including the role they play in lobbying lawmakers, using collective bargaining to advocate for employees, and the prevention of abuse and discrimination. The cons of labor unions are also addressed. These drawbacks to labor unions include but are not limited to: decline in competitive advantage for American companies, corruption, potential decrease in productivity, possible reduction in employee motivation, and increased inefficiencies.

Not only are there benefits for employees, but the employers themselves receive many advantages as well. The best benefits that employers receive is employee satisfaction. When being a part of a union needs and wants are met allowing people to become more satisfied with their job, with that satisfaction employees will be more willing to work harder for you. Not only will employees be willing to work harder for you, but you will also have less people leave their jobs or the ability to lose their say and position in the organization. With less turnovers of employees as a

The role of unions and their importance has changed over the years. A mixture of poor wages, high unemployment, non-existent benefits and insignificant professional stability amongst the more youthful era makes a ready demographic for restoration. The younger era is the slightest unionized section of our general public today by a long shot. Unions are important in today’s society because checks and balances are necessary entities in business and government, so if CEOs are just focusing on themselves and profits, unions are a necessary check to all that corporate power. Today and in the future, labor unions will continue to play an important role in our country 's work force and the quality of life for working families.

First some disclosure about myself: my mother was a strong union member for General Motors for over 32 years where she held several different offices in the union. My stepfather was a member of the local iron workers union and then a member of the union at Tinker Field Airbase. When I got out of high school I worked at General Motors wishing I could join the union. Within a year of being out of school I hired on the fire department and joined their local union where I was a member for over 22 years. Needless to say I have a long history with labor unions and the benefits they provide. I know unions have done great things for our nation and have been a counterbalance to greedy companies that take advantage of

“Unions are no longer beneficial in our society because today we have so many laws protecting the rights of workers. In the 19th and early 20th century the workers of America had virtually no rights and were unable to improve their work conditions, salary, etc. With the arrival of unions, the state of the common laborer greatly improved. But today, with so many laws ensuring the rights of employees, unions are doing more harm than good. For example, many analysts believe that union's demand for so many raises and benefits for the auto industry workers has driven it into the ground, so they are no longer able to compete with other countries.” (Nett, 2014).

To understand the worth of today’s unions, we must first understand the history and purpose of these organizations. Simply put, a union is an organization of employees formed to bargain with the employer. There are many types of unions. For instance, a craft union is one whose members do one type of work, often using specialized skills and training. An industrial union is one that includes many persons working in the same industry or company, regardless of jobs held. A federation is a group of autonomous national and international unions (Mathis 529). The main purpose of all these organizations is to secure benefits and rights in the workplace. The history of unions in the United States dates

Unions were created with the everyday worker in mind, an opposite to the previous mindset where the employer ruled his employee and the employee had no recourse. Unions helped pave the way for many of the current rights we have in place for American workers today; such as the length of the workday and weekly hours, child labor laws, minimum salary requirements, workers compensation and safe working conditions. With so much advancement in the American workforce because of Unions, it is interesting that there is a steady decline in Union membership in America. There are many factors that contribute to the decline, such as change in workforce, outsourcing jobs, right to work states, economic interests and political

Labor unions have been around ever since the industrial revolution in Europe when working conditions in factories were very low. The concepts introduced in this time by the labor unions have become ingrained in our culture here in America. While workers benefit when they join a union by being able to fight for higher wages and better working conditions, these benefits that the unions get often “come at the expense of consumers, nonunion workers, the jobless, taxpayers, and owners of corporations” (Reynolds). Unions, while once playing a very beneficial role in history, are no longer all that necessary and may even be hurting all those outside of the union workers that they help.

The companies and industries that have tension between the employees and employers benefit from collective bargaining. Although the strong unions can impair market prices and strain the economy, I believe they have the best interest of the employees and ethical intent. Times have changed since the unionization boom in the 19th century. Global competition has caused the unions to compromise on the labor contracts. There have been three primary waves of American unionization. The first wave brought gains to the workers while providing stable production. The second wave responded to the downfall of that system by highlighting employer opposition, union decline, and strategic choice. The third wave or present wave of American industrial

What the union can do to help labor is to increase pay, help fix or get improvements in working conditions, or increase benefits, like vacation time, health benefits, etc. For example, according to Walters & Mishel, “unions raise wages of unionized workers by roughly 20% and raise compensation” (2003). So unions play a pivotal role in taking our issues as workers and taking those issues to management to represent us. Some of the advantages of forming a union is job security since termination of an employee has to

This Paper is a systematic review of articles relating to labor unions and how they affect the workplace. Labor unions are becoming a part of the past workforce as we move forward into the modern workforce and the right to work laws. In general the literature pointed to many different benefits of having a unionized workforce. These benefits are on both sides of the line, employees and employers. These benefits can range from group bargaining during contracts, protective action when to come to discipline, and overall organization for employees. On the employers side the union brings organization when it comes to discipline, and gives direction when it comes to policies and procedures.

Unions can be understood to be both positive and negative in an organization just like everything. An employer might consider bringing unions into their organization to provide staffing for their organization when the staffing situation is in crisis. However, research shows that unions such as nurse union provide bargaining with the employer that has staffing issues a resolution to their problem which would create a positive employer look on unions (Clark, Clark, Day, & Shea, 2001). On the other hand, if the company had a union and they had staff that was not performing what was expected of them, they would have to go through a lot of hoops with the union to terminate the employee.

Thefreedictionary.com defines union as, “combination so formed, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities for mutual interest or benefit.” When I read this definition I found many points’ of contention and imperfections. The first being “alliance or confederation of people”. Everyone knows to be human is to be flawed. Another point of contention is “For mutual interest or benefit” what’s good for one may not be good for another and when greed is placed in the mix everyone is going to look out for themselves and not the betterment of the group.

The relationship between unions and organization is a touchy one. Dating back to the start of unionization in the 19th century, the two bodies have held opposing viewpoints. Unionization was formed from the opinion that organizations took advantage of workers and some form of a negotiating agreement was needed. There were documented events of workers working long taxing hours for insignificant pay; no healthcare coverage; dangerous working conditions; and gender and or racial discrimination. Companies believed that unionization caused less productivity which endangered profits. Companies also believed that unions interfere in daily processes, and limits the employer’s say over compensation and benefits. The