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Unions and Employers

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What ways do employers and unions exert their power? In a unionized environment, employers exert their power mainly by working against union organizing. Their most important goal is to be union-free. Efforts to control organizational costs have also contributed to employer’s resistance to unions. The management may work towards sidelining union membership by designing work in such a way that it creates a work culture that increases employee commitment and job satisfaction. Employers use a variety of methods to refrain worker’s from organizing campaigns and unionize. Their efforts range from hiring consultants to distributing leaflets and letters to presenting the company’s viewpoint at meeting with employees. Some employers also …show more content…

As workers’ complaints trigger the grievance process, it typically take a long time to resolve, which means that an employer can continue to exert power by violating an agreement for an extended period of time. So, an employer can fire, transfer, or demote a worker and thereby affect the worker’s life significantly for years. And assuming the grievance goes against the employer, the only penalty is to make the employee economically whole again. In this way employers continue to wield significant power even when they are subject to a collective agreement. This suggests that the grievance arbitration process is not necessarily a neutral thing. In fact the delay inherent in the process advantages employers, and legally precluding the workers from working when the employer violates the contract, disadvantages workers. In this way, rules are not neutral, but are themselves tools of power for the employers. Unions exert their share of power also. Unions are organizations formed for the purpose of representing their members’ interests and resolving conflicts with employers. Unions have a critical role to play because some degree of conflict is inevitable between workers and management. This divergence is because the main goal of a union such as increase wages, offer better benefits, and reduce work-time conflicts with the employer’s agenda to reduce

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