Are Trade Unions Still Relevant - Assignment Example

ARE TRADE UNIONS STILL RELEVANT? ARE TRADE UNIONS STILL RELEVANT? Trade union: An overview There are a number of organizations that represent employers and employees of a business and they influence how a business should operate. Trade union is best known of these representative bodies and it influences the entire business environment. Trade unions have existed in the UK for over 200 years. In the past, trade unions were considered to be most relevant as it played a vital role in the business environment and succeeded in building better workplace conditions and employees’ welfare all over the world. A trade union is an organization of workers who join together to further their own interests and to achieve common goals like wages, working hours etc. A trade union should primarily register itself as a union, become affiliated to the Trade Union Congress, and should be independent of employers in negotiation. It should also be prepared to use General Functions of a Trade Union In modern business perspective, a trade union is expected to do a lot of functions so as to promote its members’ interests and to ensure overall development of both work and workplace. Normally, a trade union puts its efforts to obtain satisfactory pay rates and to secure adequate work and workplace facilities. Trade unions in almost all the countries concern number of hours to be worked and the number of breaks allowed by employer for a particular type of job. It mainly negotiates some sorts of bonuses for achieving goals. Job security is a growing matter of concern as it always puts forward strategies and programs in order to ensure job security to its members. Trade unions also attempt to negotiate employment conditions like employment contracts and rights in regard to redundancy and dismissal of employees. Trade unions are considered to be responsible for collective bargaining in the workplace. The bargaining is on behalf of their total membership strengths in order to obtain the best achievable conditions for the workers. Moreover, trade unions are responsible for industrial relations, as they communicate relevant matters to the employers and put efforts to obtain the most favourable conditions. Changing face of Trade Unions Over the last twenty years, trade unions have been widely affected by a number of changes and hence it is generally viewed that trade unions become so irrelevant. The number of union members is an important factor that influences the ability of that union to perform its duties. In 1980 there were around 12 million union members in the UK, but it had fallen to 7.1 million by 1997. Due to acts passed in the 1980s and 1990s, employees thought of quitting trade union membership. There were many restrictions on union activities and level of influences that affected workers to decide not to join unions. “In recent years union recognition for pay bargaining has become a less reliable indicator of union activity at workplace-level due to the hallowing out of unionization even where a union is present” (BLANCHFLOWER 2007). It was obvious from the decline of union membership within unionized workplaces. The decline in the collective Industrial Relation was due to its own effect, rather than behavioral change. New workplaces had adopted non-union method of power and voice. “Across the economy as a whole, the percentage of ‘no voice’ workplace has remained constant since the mid 1980s at around one sixth” (BLANCHFLOWER- 2007). Once people become unemployed in the period of recession, the union membership automatically falls because employees are not allowed to be member of union if they do not have employment. When the economy developed in 1990s unemployment was slow to fall, and hence membership may not have increased. Fall in the union membership may also be caused by decline in the technological and economic market changes. Certain industries like shipbuilding and steel in the UK have declined over a number of years. These declines as well resulted in the fall of union membership. Businesses in the last many years tended to use flexible workers like part time employees, temporary staff and teleworkers. These workers were most likely not to be covered by trade unions. There are many other reasons that led to the fall in union memberships. Decline in the union membership does not show that ‘trade unions are not relevant’, but it can be because of many reasons that led people think to ‘opt out’ of union membership. Arguments for Trade Unions Trade unions have functioned exceptionally good and worked as champions of poor and of the opposed employees. They did great sacrifices to secure economic justice for the poor people and ill-treated workers. So, eventually they have succeeded and they became extremely strong body as the workers organized under trade unions became prosperous. Within recent years, by its own commissions and omissions trade unions have become unimportant in most countries, especially in Britain. Currently public have fewer expectations about a trade union on its further functions and scopes. It is now just regarded to be incapable of change and obsolete institution that seems to be out of touch with new realities. It is widely argued that trade unions are irrelevant in the current situations and it no longer serves a useful purpose. In today’s business where there are individual employment contracts, performance related payment scheme, human resource and quality management; trade unions are often regarded to be irrelevant as they have little to do with these scenarios. But, trade unions can carry out its so called functions in a situation where an individual worker has very little power to influence workplace decisions and employment contracts. In other hand, the main advantage of joining a trade union is that the individual worker can obtain more chance of getting powerful voice and influence in his concerned workplace. Once a worker joins a trade union, his opinions pertaining to his job, his workplace and the working environment as a whole will also be a matter of discussion with union members and thus it would be, as a result, helpful to create a stronger approach against the concerned management. From such a view point it is very obvious that a trade union is most relevant, even in the present business environment, and it can protect employees from a number of industrial or employment disputes and improve workers’ pay and working conditions. Trade unions achieve its goal through negotiation and representation. Normally, trade unions find out view and opinions of employees and hand it over to the management. Union representatives discuss issues like pay, working hours, holidays and other related things that are affecting a particular workplace with management and thus find out solutions. In many workplaces, trade unions are recognized for collective bargaining as there is a formal agreement between the union and the management by which the union is allowed to negotiate with the employer. So, people who work in such situations are better paid and better treated, because trade unions play a vital role to influence most decisions. Employees in a workplace where unions are organized are paid and treated fairly and they are less redundant than those in a workplace where unions are not recognized. Union members can get information regarding workplace issues from the union and hence they can take advantages of this information. Trade unions can offer their members legal representation so as to help employees to get financial compensations for injuries or accidents occurred during work. It also can help by assisting people to take an employer to the court if so needed. Within last ten years of union services, thousands of workers were benefited by education and training programs offered by different trade unions. There are unions that provide basic educational courses on essential skills and qualifications needed for different works to those who left school with little education. Most trade unions help workers by providing legal advices on industrial and employment matters. They also help them in personal matters like housing and other thing. Now also, there are unions that help members by providing financial assistance like mortgages and loans. Arguments against Trade Unions In today’s UK business and working environment, almost every situation is legally protected. So, it is difficult for trade unions to perform their functions in such an atmosphere. It is mainly because of that the laws on trade union and their functions make it difficult to represent their members and negotiate further improvements. Modern management has far developed and is now functioning more effectively than previous times. Modern management concepts towards business environment as a whole and especially towards workplace and working conditions have improved as it gives emphasis on employees’ welfare. Where there the management itself is doing everything in regard to provide better working atmosphere and employee satisfaction, the trade unions are viewed that it has less to do with welfare of the employees. The basic principal of trade union is that all workers must be united, and hence there must be trade union monopoly. It is argued that present day trade union is faulted on three grounds. They have forgotten their fundamental roots; that their main purpose is to serve the poor only. Secondly they have not been adaptable to modern changes. They often demand something but the return or benefits out of it would be nothing. From these points of view, trade unions have lost its moral ground to social activists because of that they often neglected the poor. Trade unions also lost its political ground due to decline in its memberships. Changing role of Trade unions It is widely accepted that the traditional functions of trade unions have been changed. A number of new practices have become part of its functions and hence it can be considered to be relevant in the modern business environment. Some businesses have recently negotiated single union and no strake agreements with unions. Single union agreement means a business can recognize and negotiate with one union in regard to pay and other working conditions. Usually, a union will enter into agreements with business not to strike in return for wage increases, improved working conditions and limited redundancies. Single union recognition is helpful to reduce the time, complexity and administration cost of negotiations. It also provides equal single job status to both ‘white’ and ‘blue’ collar workers and hence it removes differentials in salaries, conditions, uniforms etc. The great evidence of change in the role of trade union can be noted from the partnership between businesses and unions and the mutual understandings. Even though there are always conflicts and disagreements between businesses and unions, they work together in order to achieve their common goals. It seems to be beneficial to both businesses and unions. Businesses get advantages because unions help in supporting improvements. Unions benefit because they are capable of influencing the businesses in job security and training. Same time, it is argued that the partnership in business may come to an end because of a number of factors. To be quite usual, when there are obstacles unions and businesses may not be as committed to the partnership as they were at the beginning. If they see partnership differently, conflicts also would be there. Unions are more likely to negotiate not only on pay but also other matters like facilities provided for women members or older or disabled employees. Trade union and new arenas Relevance of trade union in the modern business environment can be argued, but there is still a great need for their role. A lot of the employees enter in to their workplace with little knowledge or having no more idea about their workplace. Trade unions should exist to provide employment knowledge to these kinds of workers. They can provide educational courses on the features of different workplaces and the skills and qualifications needed for such workplaces. Trade unions are most relevant if they can provide legal advices and legal instructions to the employees. Trade unions can work as a convenient source for workers educational need. They can provide better knowledge on legal matters than that of solicitors because trade unions are ideally placed within the organizations and they are totally dedicated to the concerns and difficulties of the employees. In such a way, trade unions can protect the employees and make them aware of their limits and rights. This can be regarded to be the best way to further the interests of the employees. Trade unions need to learn to promote greater productivity. They should be well prepared to accept all technological advances and accept any redundancies that result from obsolescence of older skills. If trade unions learn to re-train and re-locate redundant labour, it will be beneficial to both those who remain and those who are not retained. In the modern business world where technologies change rapidly and advancements occur on all workplace spheres, the trade unions should have the strength to face challenges and embrace advances so as to be adaptable to today’s business environment. In UK, the society expects trade unions to be less confrontational and instead they should adopt a more co-operative attitude. It has been reported that while two-thirds of employees actually demand a collective strength of voice in their workplaces, regardless of public or private sectors, many potential new members are put off by union campaign of struggle, strikes and other activities. According to former TUC chief economist David Coats, the study says that workers instead demand their trade unions to be more co-operative in their workplaces. Unless these changes take place within the trade unions it may affect them adversely and its membership will continue to fall. Instead of being a sort of problem identifier or problem creator, trade union must work to be problem solver. They should not let the incompetent and corrupt management continue. They should not confine in identifying the problems of employees but they should rather do the best to protect the employees from any difficulties that they face from the management. Trade unions also should find solutions to the difficulties of redundancy. Trade unionism must concentrate on social movements. The workplace safety hazards campaign and workplace related social issues are some areas where trade unions’ activities can play a vital role so as to further its goals. The trade unions need to declare independence from the labour party to which most trade unions are now closely aligned. They need to be free for labour party so as to retain some lobbying clout when the conservatives are in power. Social Trade Union Movement Trade union would be most relevant if it chooses a clear identity and functions well with that new identity. The general public expects a trade union to be more socially committed and dedicated to social issues. So, the most appropriate way for a trade union to be more effective and relevant is social trade union movement approach. In the future, the society and economy will be global and the production will be based on knowledge and technology. The main goal of the movement should be to organize and influence the information society. From the view point of social trade union movement, it plays an active role as the representative of both work and wage earner in the movement for the future. The movement should take care of its immediate tasks, but the framework for these works will depend on global developments. The social trade union movement can be a pro active union that should put proposed works on the agenda of the future. This strategy is mainly to ensure the members’ interests through a pro active role in its future. New ideas and practices will be formed accordingly. The social trade union can either work politically or not, but these should be on new terms. The interplay between a social trade union’s overall political commitment and its members’ interests is very important fact on which the success of the union movement is dependant. The union movement also should be able to connect the overall commitment to its members’ interests and working conditions. Politics is ever changing; hence it is important to the social trade union movement to evaluate its political manner, collaboration partners and businesses. In order to achieve strong member support, the trade union movement should have a target and should be goal oriented towards developing democracy in the union. The modern political approaches like opinion polls, opinion surveys, focus groups, campaign and analyses of certain social issues should be used so as to get maximum advantages of modern political tools. The trade union movement should consider those activities that can make the members aware of that they are part of the community and this feeling should be strengthened. In this new movement style, each member must have a distinctive place to stand and a guide in a changing business environment. The social trade union movement can play an important role in political fields with the help of education policy and industrial policy. It should also need to widen its scope of works and social activities all over the world. Trade union movements should deal with human right issues as well. For instance, over 40 million people are struggling with HIV and AIDS; most of them are workers. The impact of epidemic and disastrous diseases has deeply felt in the world of workplace. There are greater possibilities of discrimination in the workplace between diseased and not diseased. These kinds of diseases especially AIDS reduces skills as well as productivity. There is increasing demand for those activities that protect human rights, support preventive actions and provide access to care and treatment can reduce the spread of the virus and also it can help the public to manage its impact. The new social trade union movement must have potential to work for human rights in all the areas where it so required. As the representative of social public at workplaces, social trade union movement is in a special position of trust and leadership, and it should take initiatives for all the human rights and other social issues. Conclusion Trade unions are being subjected to the arguments that they are no more relevant because of declining of its members and less adaptability to changing conditions. But, still there are areas that a trade union can do its functions well. Trade unions have to focus on providing wide levels of both legal and other knowledge to the employees regarding workplaces and skills required for each kind of workplace. The changing face of trade union can be viewed as its irrelevancy, but still its changing role shows its own relevance and importance in the modern world. In order to adapt to the modern workplace environment trade unions can choose a clear identity of ‘social trade union movement’ and thus it can focus on overall development of the society. In order to be a part of changing business environment, instead of becoming a quite problem identifier, it has to be a problem solver. In order to be most relevant, it can work strategically to ensure the value of wage earner in the future. References DAVID. G. BLANCHFLOWER, ALEX BRYSON & JOHN FORTH (2007) Workplace industrial relations in Britain JONATHAN GUTHRI (2008), Ways for Trade Unions to Avoid Redundancy, Financial Times, Retrieved 19/10/2008 from http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/e1b78714-79d6-11dd-bb93-000077b07658.html?nclick_check=1 T U C (2005) International Development and the Trade Union Role, A TUC fact file and activities for trade union tutors, Trade Union Congress Read More