Essay On Unionism In South Africa

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.

This essay will look at various methods that have been used in the historical and modern context to give employees ‘voice’ which include Voluntarism, Trade Unions (TU’s) and

     The past of Unions is indisputable; however, the outlook can be altered to form a promising future. The reversal of history can be done through reconstruction and restatement of workers rights. A reestablishment of worker liberties should be considered in order to clarify any confusion in which present and prospective employees are faced with. Unions are notorious for being tyrannical and inconsiderate towards employees and thus union heads should confront this issue head on and give workers a voice (i.e. vote). In order to regain union strength in today’s society I believe Unions must give workers honorable rights and a democratic right to be heard.

Title: Unions have played a significant role in workforce history, have they outlived their purpose.

It’s not union. Unlike the union labors which are groups of workers and employees who bond together to be placed in good working condition including good paying wages and fair working hours.

     Labor unions have been in America for a very long time. There are many unions in a myriad of different fields. Labor unions were and are used to allow for equal treatment of workers. Employers always want to maximize their profits and they try to give the least to get the most in return. For reasons such as this is why unions were formed. Generally a union boss is appointed or hired to protect the rights and privileges of the employees. The union boss is generally very representative of the demographics of the workers. The leader of the employees needs to know what they want and what is fair for them and this is why he tends to represent one type

Over the last two centuries the relationship between organizations and their employees have changed as the result of interactions between the two groups and in response to changing governmental legislation. During this period, labor unions arose to advocate for workers and address the inherent power imbalance between individual workers and organizations (Thornton, 2013). In workplaces were unions represent employees, Foss (2008), defines labor relations as the “ongoing interchange between the union and the employer that identifies their common and specific interests and creates mechanism to clarify, mange, reduce and resolve conflicts over their specific interests” (p. 1). The legal framework governing the practice of labor relations is

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,

Union organization is not formed out of hallow space in a society. Trade unionism is not a system of structure which has already been developed. It is the patterns, social issues of elements, factors contributing to changing economic structure, it’s ever changing, twisting and restless experience of human striving toward a collective goals plagued by endless obstacles.

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.

From this perspective, trade union is perceived not necessary and the role of it is creating conflict, and it is seen an unwelcome intrusion into the organization from outside competing with management for the loyalty of employees (Rose, 2004). Trade unions exist either as the result of wickedness or perverseness of individual employees, or because of a failure of management to anticipate and incorporate worker needs and concerns (Bray, Deery, Walsh and Waring, 2005).

History shows that there has been conflict of power within the workforce between union and management. This essay will discuss if management should have the right to determine whether a union should operate within their workplace. It is necessary first to discuss the roles of unions and management in the workplace and discuss both points of view on the power distribution between unions and management in the workplace.

“Collective voice achieves what a lone voice could never do”. Collective representation is also the foundation of a partnership relationship between employers, employees and unions that bring positive benefits for the business (Prosser, 2001).

With globalization,many changes have been brought up in the workplaces that are leading towards more flexibility and enrollment of the employees (Tong Fay and Anil Verma,2002). “According to a survey -unionized workers across Canada earned$5- 28/hour more than non-union workers; Women with unions earned more too and got paid more fairly (Why unions? ,2015)”. Thus ,it gives us an idea what changes are being brought about by the unions in comparison to non-union when it comes to the wage sector. The union workplaces give a chance to the members to bargain for their benefits which includes not only social well being but also the say,the right to speak up about their own views therefore giving them the chance to talk about their problems. The union have been progressed to give a fair wage

Besides, power imbalance between employer and employee in the workplace seems to be unavoidable. As noted by Wilkinson et al. (2014), employees are citizens who have the right to be informed and consulted; therefore, the aim of employee voice is to communicate with management and express employees’ concerns about their work situation. Nevertheless, in recent years, decreasing union density has gradually shifted the form of voice in most organisations and countries from collective and unionized channels to direct and individualized mechanisms (Wilkinson et al., 2014).