International Industrial Relations - Assignment Example

International Industrial Relations Name Institution 1. Identify and list the reasons which encourage youth membership/participation in unions among the countries listed and critically evaluate the future trend. The countries include; Sweden, Norway, Germany, Canada & Australia. The drive for youths to join trade unions across the stated countries is the need for better working conditions and particularly better pay. In Sweden and Norway, the trade unions provide special insurance policies, contact negotiations and training which apparently attract the youths. In Australia, youths have greatly been neglected in the work force; this has greatly led to the questioning of competence in the future Australian work force (Oliver, 2010). The youths thereby join trade unions on the basis of job security and to ensure they are accorded conducive working condition as they work amongst the ageing workforce. Across this country's youths belief trade unions are in a better position to persuade employers to adopt policies that respect their dignity given that most of them are associated with less experience. In addition, most of the youths have little understanding of the right channels to present their complaints; in this case they heavily rely on trade unions to bargain on their behalf . 2. In your own words, describe the role of Trade Unions in society. Trade unions are organizations formed basing on membership of employees who work in different professions, trades, occupations. They could also be described as workers who have a common brand with an intention of achieving specific goals common to them. The major focus of these organizations is the representation of the members at a particular workplace and in the broader society. Through the process of collective bargaining, trade unions strive to advance the interest of members. Theses interest may include protecting the members’ integrity, striving to increase the pay of workers, increase the number of employees and to improve the general working conditions. As it is hard for a single worker to bargain or fight for particular rights of workers, trade unions provide a forum that to raise their issues and it also gives them a legal and strong voice before the employees. The decisions made by trade unions bind all the workers thereby providing a unified approach in decision making and reducing chances for single workers is being victimized by the employer. Additionally, trade unions reduce chances for personal conflicts between the employers and the and thereby create order in the various industries. The bargaining process follows specific procedures and stated in the union's constitution and in accordance to the law, the unions are just forum for raising grievances as they arise in different industries (Kochan, 2012). They thereby link the workers and their employers and make the necessary communications to the two extremes in an effort to strike a balance that ensures the survival of both the workers and the employers. They protect the welfare of workers within the ethical boundaries and ensure employee satisfaction with both the teams and the working environment. 3. Describe convergence and divergence and which you think is more beneficial and why. Convergence and divergence concepts in trade unions refer to different approaches in which the international human resource is managed and reflects the different traditions by which the same is explored. The divergence human resource management compares different systems in one country with those in another country identifies differences and similarities and later developmental antecedents from the differences. Divergence and convergence can alternatively be stated contextual and Universalist paradigm. The convergence or Universalist paradigm concentrates on the form of management of human resource HRM across various borders of a nation. In that case, the human resource policies and practices may be transferred from one nation to the other in the believe that policies that worked well in one country will definitely do well in another. The contextual paradigm on the other hand employs the necessity of considering each of the organization’s external and internal factors before adopting any policies (Bamber, 2004). 4. There are 6 key attributes of the USA and Canadian IR systems: employee choice, majoritarianism, decentralization, exclusive representation, bargaining power, written, legally enforceable collective bargaining agreements. Choose 2 of these and discuss what they are and how they contribute to the USA and Canadian systems. Majoritarianism Majoritarianism refers to a traditional agenda or political philosophy that asserts that the majority of a particular population should be entitled to a given degree of primacy in the society and thereby has the right to make crucial decisions that which affect the society. This is distinguished from the concept of a majoritarian electoral system which refers to an electoral system that normally accords most of the seats to a party that has the most votes. The proponents of majoritarianism assert that the concept of decision making is democratic intrinsically and thereby any restriction on decision making by the majority is regarded as undemocratic. Another argument is that if a constitution restricts democracy in the amendment of a constitution that could be changed by a simple majority then the previous majority is given more weight over the present (Harcourt & Wood, 2006). In the context of trade unions particularly in the US and Canada, this concept is applied the marority of the employees makes the choice to be represented by a union in an employment unit. This implies that unlike in other countries such as Australia where the unions are able to influence agreements in collective bargaining to include all employment sectors, sectoral bargaing does not exist in Canada and USA. The unions in the US and Canada instead represent only the employees who subscribe to be represented and it megotiates different issues on their behalf. Exclusive representation Exclusive representation refers to a situation where only the union is allowed to speak for all the employs regardless of whether they voted for the union or not or whether they joined the union or not. Additionally, the union is entitled to represent all employees in an employment unit if the majority of the workers chose to be represented by a union. In this case, no other union, representative or individual is allowed to negotiate the terms or conditions of work or employment on behalf of the employees apart from the union. The individual is thereby greatly deprived of the chance to represent the interests. Under the principle of exclusivity, the interests of the officials of the union mostly win over those of non-union workers (Harcourt & Wood, 2006). Most trade Canadian and American systems and trade unions have adopted this concept in the trade unions as it is perceived to give strength to the union. Even though both Canada and the US have greatly embraced the democratic majority rule, it is considered less apt in the context of trade unions. As the trade unions are granted an exclusive status of bargaining by the government, workers subscribe to them as they have offered better bargaining grounds than individuals. 5. Much of the contemporary literature identifies the decline of unionism in many countries around the world. What do you envisage is the future of unions in society? Since the conservative reforms of the 1980, there have been various studies indicating the decline of trade unionism particularly in the United States of America. David Blanch flower and Alex Bryson (2008) explore trends and explain the change does not seem to matter to the employees. In most advanced economies, workers are less interested in trade unions than they were in the last two decades. However, most studies indicate that the influence trade unions are fading more in the private sector as compared to the public sector (Kuruvila &Venkataratnam, 1996). This is greatly associated with the decline in the large scale manufacturing firms. Other assumptions are that the unions have lost the strength to disrupt businesses in pursuit of the interests of the workers (Baldwin, 2002). However, there have been few literatures detailing the evidence of the causes of this decline. Bibliography Baldwin, R. E. (2002). The decline of US labor unions and the role of trade. Washington, D.C., Institute for International Economics. Blanchflour, D. G. et al (2008). Union decline in Britain. Retrieved from http://ftp.iza.org/dp3436.pdf Bamber, G. J. (2004). Is there convergence or divergence: employment relations in Australia and internationally-owned enterprises in fast food. Retrieved from http://www98.griffith.edu.au/dspace/bitstream/handle/10072/1846/24414.PDF?se quence=1 Oliver, D. (2010). Union membership among young graduateworkers in Australia: using the experiencegood model to explain the role ofstudent employment. International relations journal. 41 (5), 505-519 Kuruvila, S. &Venkataratnam C.S. (1996). Economic development and industrial relations: the case of South And South East Asia. International Relations Journal. 27 (1). Niesche, C. (2012). State of the unions. Industrial Relations Journal. 21 (1) Kochan, A. T. (2012). Collective bargaining: crisis and itsconsequences for American society. International Relation Journal. 43 (4), 302-316. Hollensbe, E. C. (2008). How Do I Assess If My Supervisor And OrganizationAre Fair? Identifying The Rules UnderlyingEntity-Based Justice Perceptions. Academy of management journal. 51 (6), 1099-1116. Read More

 

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