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Employee Unionization Efforts And Its Effect On The Level Of Value Added Essay

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Employees have traditionally sought to join or form unions in workplaces where they feel frustrated or dissatisfied that their collective voice is not being heard, their wants and needs on issues such as wages or benefits are not being met (i.e utility) or their political or ideological views towards their work or workplace (Hebdon & Brown, 2016). However, there are also reasons that management resists unionization efforts, such as the belief that unions restrict operational flexibility, limit innovation, and reduce performance and productivity (Sullivan, 2011). In turn, employees’ unionization efforts can be jeopardized by management through union busting. Union busting, also known as union removal, is a management strategy designed to remove unions from workplaces or prevent them from forming (Hebdon & Brown, 2016). This can consist of different activities that may be initiated by employers, their proxies, and governments (USLegal, 2016). This strategy may have a negative effect on morale and in the level of value added per worker compared to employers who take a cooperative approach with unions (Bernstein, 1991). Recently, employees belonging to the Canadian Union of Public Employees (CUPE) have accused the government of Newfoundland & Labrador of union busting after it was decided to replace paid library positions with volunteers in order to keep as many libraries open as possible as budget cuts are causing 54 closures by 2017 (Power, 2016). This has caused significant
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