Union Management and Organization - Essay Example

? Union Management and Organization of the of the Historically, labor movement has played vital role in reshaping the industrial dimension in USA. Since the discovery of USA 500 years ago, many people came to the country as labors or better to say servants and slaves (Murray, 2011). However, unionization of labor became prominent during the time of civil war but unionization at that time was temporary in nature. For example, some printers formed group during 1778 in New York City in order to create pressure on printing press owners to increase wages but the group was disbanded after few months (Murray, 2011). USA as country was growing due to rapid industrialization during 19th century as subsequently demand for labors was also growing at rapid pace. Historians named the phase as ‘Industrial Revolution” and as the frequency of inclusion of labors in the workforce increased subsequently the fear of insecurity from owners of the industry was automatically generated among workers. At that time, labors came across various examples of mistreatment such as physical abuse, extended work hours etc conducted by the owners of organizations and in such situation, they felt the urge of a protector group who can communicate the demand of labors to owners. As the time passed by, the protector group became the first organized union in USA. In 1837, the union of labors demanded to reduce the work hour and make it of less than 10 hours and finally organizations were compelled to grant the legislation of ten-hour workdays. After the success of first attempt to form organized labor union, small level city unions had organized and successfully established National Labor Union during 1866 (Murray, 2011). National Labor Union lobbied for Federal eight-hour workday but the demand was set for only government workers. At that time, two separate groups were also formed American Federation of Labor (AFL) and Knights of Labor in order to protect interest of workers. During late 19th century and early 20th century, valuation of unskilled labor pool in USA decreased due to the fact that owners of the organization had started to replace the unskilled workers by immigrants. As a result, unskilled workers in USA became vulnerable to low wages and poor working condition and these labors organized riots and strike in order to get their demands noticed (Murray, 2011). For example, strike by United Mine workers and Pullman Railroad workers in Pennsylvania were ended by Federal Government interventions. In many instances, AFL pressed Federal Congress to amend Union Labor Law and U.S. Department of Labor was created in order to protect the rights and interest of wage earners. For example, Clayton Act was passed in 1914 in order to legalize boycotts and strikes. However, the situation had changed during Great Depression because during Great Depression, unemployment rate in USA significantly increased. At that time, legal act like Fair Labor Standards Act and Public Contracts Act were passed in order to address issues like child labor, overtime pay and minimum wage. Unionization had lost its wind during World War II and labor organization took no-strike policy at that time. After the War, Civil Rights Acts and Equal Pay Act were passed during 1960’s in order to address discrimination in workplace. After understanding the historical context of Union Labor Management, the essay will shed light on actions of unions and management to determine basic compliance with the major U.S. federal labor laws. According to draft published by U.S Department of Labor (2011), there should be an Administrator which will direct and supervise the actions of unions and management in the organization. According to the direction of Administrator, management and unions should appoint, select and classify labors in accordance to their merit. Unions should contact management regarding any discrimination in terms of wage, racial, working hour etc and both of them should take actions in order to redress the issue. For example, section 212 of labor law in USA states that no organization is allowed to use labors below the age of 12 or child labors for business purposes. Section 206 and section 207 of labor law directs the union to check whether any labor is working fewer than 40 per centum of work hours during weekdays or not and in such cases management has the authority to take action against the employee (U.S Department of Labor, 2011). Unions should also help the Administration investigators to investigate regarding working hours, working conditions, wages and other practices in the workplace. However, summarizing the all the actions taken by unions and management to comply with the major U.S. federal labor laws is beyond the scope of this essay but above mentioned examples can provide the silhouette of some key actions. In USA, National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) was enacted and the law addresses the issues like collective bargaining and labor-management relations. NLRA has empowered workers to organize for their rights, bargain collectively over working hours, wages and working condition (Collins, 2012). NLRA is also backed by National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) in order to permit collectively bargaining contracts which covers the contract to pay issue for workers. In such context, Taft-Hartley Act was passed in 1947 over presidential veto and act was created in order to treat employees, employers and labor unions in equal measure. In such context, Taft-Hartley Act amended the NLRA in order to give the independence to different states of USA to pass ‘Right to Work’ (RTW) legislation. Following states in USA has commenced ‘Right to Work’ legislation. (Source: Collins, 2012) According to RTW state norms, key participants are prohibited from mandatory union membership or giving initiation fees. In RTW states, non-union employees are qualified to get equal amount of wages and benefits as union members. In RTW states, key participants shouldn’t be forced to pay membership fees to any labor unions as condition of employment in an organization. However, supporters RTW say that the policy not only decreases the chance of riot and boycotts in industry premises of a given state but also economically benefit the industry. In such context, supporters of non right-to-work (NRTW) state argued that implementation of RTW can give the opportunity to industry owners to reduce the wage of labors by $1,500 per annum (Koba, 2012). According to Koba (2012), it is very difficult to predict whether working in RTW state is more beneficial than working in NRTW states because the benefit is decided by the conjunction of multiple points such as how industry is using the act, how workers are perceiving the act etc. Philosophers such as Dunayevskaya (2003 and 2002) and Gramsci (2007) used Marxism concepts in order to understand the conflict of interest between labors and owners. According to them, good intention of owners of organizations decides the outcome of and industrial revolt or better to say violent outburst of unionization. For example, Texas is RTW state but Southwest Airlines has given the freedom to employees to join unions (Koba, 2012). Hence, it can be surmised that there can be no word like “non right-to-work state” because the phrase is created in order to define states which are not RTW states. In NRTW states, key participants are bound to join unions due to union security agreements between employers and labor unions. Workers in NRTW states are also liable to pay financial incentives to labor unions and they are free to bargain collectively to employers through unionization. Research scholars such as Wang (2011) and Wang (2007) criticized the tendency over unionization among labors. According to these scholars, in many cases union leaders provoke workers to go for riots, lockout, boycotts etc in order to fulfill personal interest and in such cases unionization works against the interest of workers. Wang (2011) pointed out that decertifying a union or better to say shutting down unionized facilities may cause financial loses to employers and in worse case, the action might raise question mark over the existence of the organizations. Majority of research scholars such as Wang (2011) and Wang (2007) slammed decertifying a union as ill and self destructive measures. Wang (2011) suggested that unionization can be managed through inside door agreement between union leaders and employers without halting work or loosing single work day. In USA, almost 95% of unionization problems are settled down through successful negotiation process (Koba 2012). In some cases, mediation can be used as management tool by employers to settle down disagreement with unions. In mediation process, employers in USA take help of third party mediator or the Administrator motioned in U.S. federal labor laws. According to the Taft-Hartley Act, labor union and managements are needed to notify each other at least 60 days prior before incorporating any change in the union security agreements. Employers can even take help of Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service in order to settle down disagreement with labor unions. Impartiality of mediator can help of both employers and labor union leaders to reach a conclusive point. Such impartial mediator is also known as arbitrator who has mutual trust from both unions and management and arbitrator has the right to take legal actions in order to settle down disputes. References Collins, B. (2012). Right to work laws: Legislative background and empirical research. Retrieved from http://www.fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/R42575.pdf. Dunayevskaya, R. (2002). The power of negativity: Selected writings on the dialectic in hegel and marx. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Dunayevskaya, R. (2003). Philosophy and revolution. Lanham, MD: Lexington Books. Gramsci, A. (2007). Prison notebooks. New York, NY: Columbia University Press. Koba, M. (2012). Why more states may adopt right-to-work laws. Retrieved from http://www.cnbc.com/id/100296460. Murray, G. W. (2011). A brief history of labor unions in the united states. Retrieved from http://ellerbruch.nmu.edu/classes/cs255w02/cs255students/GMURRAY/p11/history.pdf. U.S Department of Labor. (2011). The fair labor standards act of 1938, As Amended. Retrieved from http://www.dol.gov/whd/regs/statutes/FairLaborStandAct.pdf. Wang, K. (2007). A changing arena of industrial relations in China: What is happening after 1978. Employee Relations, 30(2), 190-216. Wang, L. (2011). Perceived equity and unionization propensity in China. Management Research Review, 34(6), 678-686. Read More