Employment Relations - Trade Unions - Essay Example

of unions in the industrial sector relate to regulation of employment relations, collective bargaining, enforcement, and starting new demands for the members. These unions may be in the form of company unions, general unions or craft union (Frege & Kelly, 2004). However, trade unions have been affected by a declining number of members, political interference and the legislative base over time. This has led to their declining power and reduced commitment leading to their ineffectiveness. The need to refresh their capacity is necessary, and various approaches have been suggested and used to revitalize trade unions.

Among them are union organizing, partnerships and corporation campaigns. This paper explores the current nature and structure of labour union movement in the United States, and the evolvement of such unions to date. It also highlights the reasons that have caused the inactive states of industrial unions as well as the measures taken to revitalize the unions. Besides this, the paper gives an evaluation of approaches of revitalization in the US and the most significant when it is to addressing the issues of the employees towards improvement of industrial relations.

The industrial labour movement in the United States dates back to the 19th century, and has evolved since then to include hundreds of employees with most of the workers joining in the 1930s (Freeman, 2005, p.286). It is during this period that organizations were formed to bring together workers for the aim of fighting for their rights at work and radical tactics were formulated to achieve this end such as the use of sit-down-strikes. The contemporary unions formed were to the conservative American Federation of Labour (AFL) which had come into place in the early 18th century to fight for proper treatment of the knights (Kelly & Frege, 2003, p.93). After the Second World War, routine was established, and interactions between the state, the employers, and the labour movements AFL and Congress