Human Resource Management School : Free Market Competitors Are Competition Outcome Essay

Labor unions are an organized association of employees who come together who would all like to better the relationship with their employer. They have power to impact things such as wages, job training and other work related issues. So why would employees want to start and organize a union? Well, one reason employees would want to start a union it’s usually because employees are dissatisfied with something in their job and they would like to fix it. The ‘things’ they would like to fix could range from something as basic as wages and to job security (Hunter 1).

During the Progressive Era of the Gilded Age, many laborers were being mistreated by the companies that they worked for. Because of this, workers started forming labor unions or organized association of workers, formed to protect and further their rights and interests. Many of these labor unions failed, while few of them achieved their goals and still exist today. Many factors contributed to the failure of these labor unions. The labor unions were given a bad image, the reason for this was the media, and they did this by publishing articles depicting the unions as violent, communist groups. The government supported big business during this time, since the government had a lot of power; this was a huge setback in the labor unions’ battles.

The labor relations movement has been one of the most successful driving forces behind such efforts as: providing aid to workers who were injured or retired, better health benefits and to stop the practice of child labor in the workforce. Ostensibly, unions in the United States arose out of the need to better protect the “common interests” of laborers. Today, many of the social movements and alliances forged are created under the guise to better protect the employer from a plethora of interests made against the organization, rather than, increasing wages, improving reasonable employment hours and/or enhancing work conditions.

Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).

A major topic that comes up with unions is getting better wages for the employees. This is one of the main reasons that unions came to be. Workers of all fields were tired of being paid unfairly by big companies. They realized that they needed a way to organize themselves to fight for better pay. Unions helped aid in this fight. According to History.com, “ The formation of the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers (shoemakers) in Philadelphia in 1794 marks the beginning of sustained trade union organization among American workers.” This was the first time workers tried to organize themselves to get more money for what they did. A key way that unions used workers to make businesses meet their demands was organized strikes. With these organized strikes, the big companies had to comply with some of the demands to raise the employee 's wage, or it would cost them more money in the long run. Strikes are a very powerful tool that unions have used often in the past. Unions orchestrated the strikes in the past pretty well, and the majority of strikes accomplished the goal they were trying to complete. Unions have always fought with companies to give the workers the pay they deserve.

The labor union movement over the years has shaped the way individuals work and live for both the nicest and unpleasant. Some would think the unions influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In today’s time, some citizens insist the existence of unions are a must to aid in employee freedom, while others view the labor unions as just another problem in the line of progress. The purpose of labor unions was for employed workers to come together and collectively agree on fundamental workplace objectives. The rise of the union came about after the Civil War- responding to the industrial economy. Surprisingly at the least unions became popular within the 1930-50’s and began to slowly decrease,

This is when a group of staff or workers is formed into a labor union. These unions play a big role in the firm as they can talk about issues between each other. An example is when there is a problem with the staffs pay amount of even the working conditions.

Being part of a union gives members the benefit of negotiating with their employer collectively, as part of a group; giving them more power than if they were to negotiate as individuals (Silverman, n.d.). Overall, unions demand fairness which can lead to the unions influencing and changing ‘managerial decision-making at the workplace level’ for decisions in which employees are affected (Verma 2005). Unions are also beneficial to have present in the workplace because their bargaining of better condition will often benefit non-members as the conditions negotiated with management are implemented across the organization with no regard to membership status. Management is also able to avoid union disagreement by benchmarking conditions to that of an already unionized workplace.

The abusive behavior of large companies left worker looking for help to improve working conditions and wages. Skilled workers developed union demanding higher pay and regulated training in their fields. Semiskilled and Unskilled workers soon followed but met much resistance from the larger companies. These workers were easily replaceable often with immigrants or children. Despite the resistance workers formed unions sometimes going as to strike or riot for what they believed in.

Individuals have been at work for thousands and thousands of years. Over the last century there have been many changes in the United States that protects workers in their positions and the duties they perform. There has been many changes for employers as well that protects companies and organization and offers beneficial information to keep them in compliance with changes and away from any from and form of discrimination. Over the last century there has been the organization of Unions (Bargaining Unit) in which are to protect workers in their positions, give them fair marketable pay and be the liaison between the employer and employee. Union organizations represent employees and negotiate contracts that

The role of management and unions in society today is to protect the employee. The management team needs to make sure she/he is treating the employee fairly, needs to provide a good work environment. If management fails to do a good job and the employee feels discriminated, treated unfairly, feels discontent for different reason, management does not want the union to get involved, they feel respect for unions and will do whatever it takes to make their team happy. This is why so many companies have employee parties, employee recognitions, etc.

In fact, the unitarist management views trade/Labor unions and government-mandated Labor standards as unnecessary. If management is applying effective policies and has good communication with its employees then conflict will not be an issue, hence conflict is seen as a result of poor management. Management with this frame of reference tend to be against unions and government intervention hence will not want unions in their workplace. However, many manager and employees tend to see their workplace or firms in unitary term and are happy with their situations. So in order to avoid conflict management will provide a better working environment, decent wages and work flexibility. However, this perspective is market based because if the company with these frame of reference have goals that are not met, maximisation of profit, then they will tend to cut cost in order to meet this goal. This will lead to several cuts in the workplace such as bonuses, paid leaves and so on.

A union is an organization of workers who join together in order to have a voice in improving their jobs and the quality of work within the organization. In many occasions, unions help employees of an organization negotiate pay, benefits, flexible hours and other work conditions that may arise. Unions have a role because some degree of conflict is inevitable between workers and management (Noe, 2003). In this paper, I will be discussing the impact of unions and labor relations within an organization.

The evolution of China’s labor market system is worthy of exploration because its transformation was strongly influenced by Western culture. Its sheer size provides an adequate basis of comparison, even though Chinese cultural and social values are unique from the United States. The objective of this paper is to analyze the merits and disadvantages of both labor systems based on research conducted by various experts in the field. Secondly, this paper seeks to identify differences between the roles of unions and collective bargaining in China and the United States.

Labor relations in China have become more and more complex, labor conflicts have occurred frequently, and thus labor disputes have been growing with a rate much faster than that of the development of GDP in the past decade. They could become a potential obstacle to the economic development if not appropriately managed. The paper studies the condition of labor relations, and probes the profound reasons for it, and compares it across the world in order to give a description for it.