Reasons Why Workers Are Reluctant to Join Unions - Essay Example

Student’s Name: Professor’s Name: Subject: Reasons why workers are reluctant to join unions Date: Reasons why workers are reluctant to join unions Introduction Trade unions are organizations made up of workers and the leaders of the unions. The leaders and workers have unity that promotes and protects their common interest (UNSON 2011). Trade unions have got the principle purposes of negotiating the wages and the terms of work as well as the regulations of workers and employers relation. The unions take collective actions so as to enforce the collective bargaining terms. Many trade unions are also concerned with the raising of new demands for members sake and also help in settling of grievances. Trade unions are at times company unions representing a single company’s interests and lacks connections with any other union. There is always an organization in the trade unions whereby groups of workers join so as to achieve objectives and goals that are common (UNSON 2011). Roles of trade unions The common missions include the need for working conditions that are better, better wages and better working conditions (Mwilima 2008). The unions always get involved in negotiations with the employers. They do so, on behalf of or as representative of the members of the union. The target is meeting an agreement with the employer on work rules, wages procedures of the complaint, rules that govern firing, workers promotion and hiring, workplace safety and benefits together with other significant policies. It is, therefore, important for workers to join trade unions. To start with, in workplaces with trade unions the earnings of an employee are better than that of an employee in non-unionized institutions by 12.5%. Trade unions have the responsibility of lobbying and campaigning to persuade the government that whatever cause they (unions) are enduring is reasonable. A member of a trade union hence end up benefitting from the security and strength coming from the people who work as a team in tackling the problems (Chang 2015). Reasons why workers are reluctant to join unions There are some reasons however why workers may not want to join trade unions (Work-life 1997). To start with, some workers feel that the joining the unions are expensive. These are groups of workers with low payments or whose works are part-time. The workers do not see the actual value of joining the trade unions because at the end of the day they will have made significant losses other than making profits. To the contrary also, several workers who are well paid do not see the need to join a trade union. A well-paid worker does not need the trade union to fight for his or her needs. The key propeller for joining of the trade unions is to fight for the wage increment among other significant causes. A well-paid worker, therefore, sees no need of joining the unions because after all they are comfortable financially. Other workers who are reluctant to join the trade unions are the self-employed group of workers. Being self-employed implies that a worker entirely depends on their projects and businesses for income (Kazvorpal 2009). Their employers are the businesses they run. In such cases, there is no need of joining a trade union because the worker sets his or her work rights and lives to meet them. They do not depend on a second party to determine his or her wages. He or she is the employer of his or herself. Some workers are also ‘parasites’. They are of the opinion that whether they join the trade unions or not they will still enjoy the luxury of the benefits negotiated by the trade unions (Conerly 2015). After all, the benefits are received by the virtue of being under a certain employer and of a certain type or group of the job. For instance, when the trade union of teachers participate in a protected industrial action and strikes, the fruits gotten from the action will be shared equally among all the teachers. The employer will pay all the teachers the amount agreed upon by the trade union whether the teacher is registered in the trade union or not. This reason is the most utilized mechanism of workers being reluctant to join trade unions. Most workers are joy riders and depend on the sweat of their colleagues. The workers feel that after all they will still enjoy the benefits without making payments for the membership fees and lose wages as a result of the strike. Some people also are reluctant to join trade unions simply because they imagine that they are so powerful and influential (Conerly 2015). Teachers, politicians and the media applaud trade unions (Addison 2014). They indicate how important trade unions are capable of helping the workers. However, the reality is that instead, most workers feel reluctant to join trade unions. In fact, some will never join even if they are presented by chance to do so. Unions are in fact dying at an alarming rate. In 1940s, for instance, the percentage of the American workers belonging to trade unions was 35%. However, in the private sector today, the membership has shifted to less than 7%. The percentage gets lower in a state that protects a person’s right to have a job that is specific without having joined a trade union. The reason is simple; trade unions take away more freedom from workers than from anybody else (Addison 2014). Workers avoid trade unions because of several perspectives. ‘The pay is important’ perspective argue that the shortcoming of a trade unions is that unions strip away the controls a worker has over the life-changing questions a worker can ask his or herself. It is never fun when an employee negotiates with their employer about compensation or wage increment. The entire lifestyle of an employee depends on the decision made during the negotiation. A worker needs to ask his or herself whether they need more cash or whether they prefer more off days. Whether they are better off involved with an insurance plan of a company that is cheap but lacking in choice and less responsive or whether they need more cash and hence save for check-ups. The labour unions do not give an employee the luxury of having the options but restrict an employee to specific conditions in the form of benefits. The worker has no powers of choosing how and when to negotiate. The management of the union takes away every power from the worker. The worker can only cross their fingers praying that whatever the union thinks as best or good happens to be a thing that the worker can tolerate. The labour unions will negotiate for a common denominator even in best circumstances. With unions, workers not only compromise with employers but also with the rest of the workers too (Addison 2014). Brinkhurst –Cuff (2014), states that today the technology is taking over the globe. Individuals feel that instead of having a physical confrontation with employers, workers can use technology to reach personally their employers. Unions, on the other hand, fail in advertising themselves. There is a bad image that employers have made of the unions that people have. With advertisements, the unions can get more members. The unions should as well embrace modern technology by embracing social media in their advertisements. That way they will easily reach the young people who are found of the social media and modern technologies (Brinkhurst –Cuff 2014). Most young people contemporary depend on contract part-time jobs and not permanent full-time ones. The nature of their jobs, therefore, makes them fail to embrace trade unions. The unions have also taken advantage of the fine and compensations and are utilizing the courts at a high rate to make profits from the members. With labour unions, employees have to settle for what the average workers are worth (Brinkhurst–Cuff 2014). Workers also lose the power of being paid for their quality, effort, unique traits and ideas. For instance, an employee may be willing to work extra-hard so as to make more cash or rather, to have increased job security. There could also be some special section of a workers occupation that he or she is very good at and maybe willing to capitalize on that. The trade unions, on the other hand, have a worse payment system. The workers are paid on the basis of how long they have been in the ‘game’ other than how committed or skilled an individual employee is. Is this not the worst mode of payment? The efforts of the worker are rendered meaningless. The quality of work is neglected, and hence the customers and the entire company are affected. A lot of other workers are reluctant to join trade unions because of the inefficiency surrounding the unions. Most unions are corrupt, and the leaders use them to benefit themselves. The members are forced to contribute the union dues. The dues are paid whether the worker feels they are worthwhile and relevant or not (Brinkhurst –Cuff, 2014). In the US, for instance, there are the outmoded labour laws of the nation (Connell 2006). The laws are meant to make workers make votes at job sites in secret ballot elections determining whether a worker supports to join a labour union. The reality, however, is more complex and very different from the expectations of the labour laws. The election gives employers an opportunity of routinely harassing, intimidating and coercing the workers that attempt exercising their freedom of forming unions at work. Employers force employees to attend audience meetings that are captive, and the employers make a painting of trade unions very evil. The workers who want to join trade unions are threatened of lousy assignments or demotion (Connell 2006). Many workers in the US risk losing their jobs if they vote in favour of joining a trade union. As much as it is not legal, approximately twenty-five per cent of employers in the private sector fire workers that attempt to form or join trade unions. That makes the workers in the United States very reluctant in joining or forming a trade union. Many more employers issue ultimatums to workers with layoffs, closings and outsourcing. For example, in 2001, the Delta flight attendants started to form a trade union together with the trade Flight Attendants. The company responded by launching an anti-worker campaign that was very vicious. It involved the renting out of theatres that saw the holding of meetings that were mandatory and filled with propaganda discouraging the union. Letters and videos were sent by the senior management to the flight attendants issuing threats and ultimatums about the loss of jobs in case the union was formed (Connell 2006). According to Addison (2014), the unions are always a representation of a lot of people. The decisions and conclusions reached are democratic. The majority group are given the ear. However, some individual members do not agree with each decision made. In most cases, the made decisions are period. Those workers who do not feel like the decisions are fine are simply unlucky. This is because the voice of an individual is not heard. Being a union member means that an individual employee is not in a passion to directly negotiate with an employer. The dues of the trade unions are typically obtained from the members of the trade unions. The collected cash supports the activities of the union. In some cases, workers are expected to make contributions towards the union even when they are not members so long as they are working at the unionised establishment. This shows how unions are unfair and unjust to workers. A member that fails to pay the dues may end up being laid off at the request of the Union (Addison 2014). An employee gets reluctant to join the labour unions due to the consistent labour union Industrial actions and strikes (International Labour Organization 1997). In such cases, all members of the unions neglect working for some times until some given demands are sorted. Strikes, therefore, are making productions stand still. The business is hence crippled forcing the owners and employers to give in to the union’s demands. Labour strikes are sometimes hard for workers as much as they are seeking safer conditions of work, higher pay and better benefits. It is never a guarantee that employers will meet the demands made by the unions and the wages lost during strikes are never recovered. An employee is not even guaranteed that he or she still retain the job he had because the employer may decide to fire him. Non-unionised members, as a result, get reluctant to join the trade unions. The unions also impose levy fines in case a member breaks rules of the constitution of the law. The fines are also imposed in case a member acts in ways that are considered unbecoming of a member of a union. The fines are imposed supposing members cross a picket line by looking for a new union or becoming so much productive. Trade unions have production quotas. The court is used in enforcing the penalties (International Labour Organization 1997). Workers feel reluctant to join the trade unions because being in a trade union means that the individual may lose the power and influence they initially had. The power is absorbed by the union because the grievances of the employees are taken as a group. There is no individualism. People who feel reluctant to join the unions have more individualism and dislike collectivism. Joining trade unions also entirely depends on the characteristic of the industry. Some industries lack the unionised characteristics while others entirely fit to be unionised. Businesses like John Lewis Partnership, for instance, lack the unionised characteristic. The partnership is of two divisions of trading whereby Waitrose and John Lewis adapted the procedures of opening and operating the existing stores. Such businesses don’t need trade unions because they are more of self-employment (John Lewis Partnership 2014). Conclusion In conclusion, there are several factors that deter workers from joining the trade unions. The factors range from the bad image painted of trade unions by various employers. Employers want to ensure that the collective bargaining is not successful. Collective bargaining has more impact because the workers operate in unity such that when they avoid work, industries lose a lot of resources. There are other factors that make workers hesitant to join trade unions some ranging to the shortcomings of the trade union to the non-union industries. List of references Addison, J., 2014, The consequences of trade union power erosion, Retrieved 22nd May 2015 from, Brinkhurst -Cuff C., 2014, Why don't young people want to join trade unions? Retrieved 22nd May 2015 from, Chang G., 2015, The Future of Trade Unions, Retrieved 22nd May 2015 from, Conerly C., 2015, The disadvantages of trade unions for employees, Retrieved 22nd May from Connell, T., 2006, Why Wont Workers Join Unions? Retrieved 22nd May 2015 from, International Labour Organization (1997), ILO Highlights Global Challenges to Trade Unions, Press Release ILO/97/28, Geneva. John Lewis Partnership, 2014, John Lewis Partnership: Working better together, Retrieved 22nd May from, Kazvorpal, 2009, Why Workers Dislike Unions, Retrieved 22n May 2015 from, Mwilima, N., 2008, The role of trade unions in job creation: a case study of the job creation Trust, Retrieved 22nd May from, UNSON, 2011, What is a trade union? Retrieved 22nd May 2015 from Worklife, 1997, ‘The Global Challenge to Trade Unions,’ Work-life, Vol. 11 No.1 1997. Read More