Organizing Employees in an Organization - Assignment Example

Human Resource Question one The first important trend in contemporary U.S labor relations is the high cost of employee health care. Statistics indicate that this trend has been the top issue in the year 2005, 2007, 2009, and 2011(Mathis, 2013). In addition, in 2013, employee health care issue was the top trend. The federal health care legislation had its implications. According to HR professionals, these implications are the second most important trend affecting the workplace. The other trend is the skills issue. Being more specific, there is a shortage of both skilled workers and science, technology and mathematics graduates in the US. Human Resource professionals argue that this trend will hurt the workplace the most in the coming years. The rationale for this trend is the existence of competitive global business environment. Furthermore, there have been increases in demand for more specialized and technically demanding jobs. Some market analysts argue that the increase in the number of boomers leaving the workforce has influenced the above trend. The other trend is the economic issue. Due to the great recession effect on the whole sectors of the economy, HR professionals have put into consideration economic conditions. Example of the economic issues include decline in retirement savings, increase in gas prices, and the fear of dipping back into recession. Question two To manage a workplace effectively, the management should consider the physical, spiritual, environmental, intellectual, emotional, occupational, and mental health of all the employees. With such governance, not only will the employees benefit, but also the organization. The organization will be productive, and it will retain its top employees for long. The management has to ensure all the employees observe the work-life balance. Studies indicate that an employee who balances his work and job can reduce absenteeism, increase productivity, good morale and work relationships, low levels of stress, and attracts customers. Therefore, a workplace that helps their employees balance between their jobs and life will attract more employees and help retain the current ones. The workplace has to contain flexible work arrangements. The governance should allow more freedom in the workplace. The freedom allows employees to organize their works effectively and increase productivity. In addition, the governance has to provide flexible benefits. Flexible benefits plans help the employees to develop a benefits program that is commensurate to their needs and budgets. There should be availability of leaves of absences and vacation. Furthermore, the management has to offer education and training opportunities to its employees. The management has to provide stress management training to its employees. A stressful workplace would lead to job dissatisfaction, performance issues, absenteeism, and such. Lastly, the workplace should have an occupational health and safety legislation to regulate the standards of safety(Mathis, 2013). Question 3 IWW is much smaller than the AFL and CIO. However, IWW is always principled on class-consciousness and is a critique of the capitalist system. AFL-CIO is collaborative with the capitalist system. IWW leans towards socialism and anarcho-syndicalism. History indicates that AFL did not include non-whites and women in its unions. IWW, on the other hand, welcomed people of all races and included the women. Failure of the Knights of labor’s leadership in addressing every day’s working issues led to the creation of AFL. After the creation of AFL, there was the formation of IWW. IWW was a militant alternative. If IFL failed in its business unionism, the management would turn to the help of IWW. The main reason for the creation of CIO was to encourage unionization of mass manufacturing industries. The unionization would depend on the industrial unionists, who were worried by the ineffectiveness of AFL’S craft union model. The above cases mean that the future of U.S unionism will involve changing from today’s dominant model(Mathis, 2013). Question 4 Both the Wagner Act and Taft-Hartley Act are statutes designed to address the unfair labor practices in the US. The Wagner Act, signed into law in 1935, resulted to the creation of the National Labor Relations Board. The board would ensure there are fair labor practices and gave the workers the opportunity to decide whether they would like to join a union. The Wagner Act gave the board more powers than other organizations meant to cater for the need of the workers. It led to the emergence of opponents of this Act. The opponents proposed many bills aimed at amending or repealing the Act, but all of them failed. However, the introduction of Taft-Hartley Act came as relieve to these opponents. The Act became active in 1947, and it limited the actions and powers of the labor unions. Many labor activists argue that the Ac was a ‘slave-labor bill’. The Act gave new responsibilities to the National Labor Relations Board. The Taft-Hartley Act demanded the NLRA to promote commerce and rights of employees and employers in relation to commerce. In addition, the Act added new prohibited actions on the part of the unions. The Wagner Act prohibited unfair labor practices committed by employers. The new prohibited actions include jurisdiction strikes, wildcat strikes, political strikes, boycotts, and monetary donations by unions to federal political campaigns. The Act led to the restriction of union shops, and union officers signed non-communist agreements with the government. The Wagner Act did not allow encouraging or discouraging union membership either through discrimination against union members hiring or any special conditions of employment. The Taft-Hartley Act banned closed shops. In addition, it discouraged union hiring halls that did not favor the non-union members. It allowed union shops in states that allowed them. Managers should know that the Wagner Act protects the rights of employees related to a collected activity. Therefore, the managers have to understand the law affects their human resource section in three areas, communication between employees, organization policies, and HR staff knowledge level. The Act requires the management to ensure the training it provides to the supervisors and managers are of high quality. In addition, the Act does not allow unfair treatment of employees who either support or do not support unions. The Act demands the HR departments to have staffs with enough expertise in labor-management issues(Mathis, 2013). Question 5 Taft-Hartley Act and Landrum-Griffin Act both dealt with the powers of labor unions. Specifically, the Taft-Hartley Act reduced the powers of these power unions. It dealt with unfair labor practices on the part of unions. The Taft-Hartley Act was a tool used by the government to curb increasing labor unrest especially in the steel and railway transport industries. The Landrum-Griffin Act resulted from pressure from the public on the government to act on the increased corruption in unions. From many investigations, it was concluded that union officials misappropriated the union funds. Other unions were associated with criminal activities. The Act advocated for equal rights among members of labor organization, freedom of speech and assembly, no increase in dues, and initiation fees, protection of the right to sue, and safeguard against improper disciplinary action. The Taft-Hartley Act mainly concentrated on the powers of unions, whereas the Landrum-Griffin Act concentrated on oversight policy, administration and financial activities associated with labor unions. The unions learnt that the Taft-Hartley Act promoted equality, listed the rights of employees and employers, and empowered the US president. The ACT tried to balance the power between labor and management(Mathis, 2013). Question 6 The private sector labor laws are meant for business or non-profit corporations, whereas public sector labor laws concern public sector officials who perform public service. Both the sector labor laws have provisions for unions, interrogations and investigations, and job security. The first difference is laws concerning job security. Private sector workers are working at their will. They could be fired at any reason apart from race, gender, and rights provided by Acts. Public sector workers cannot be fired without an appropriate cause such as violation of rules, poor performance and such. In addition, private sector workers are not protected for the statements they make, unlike public sector workers. Therefore, public sector workers could not be disciplined based on their views. The other difference is the rights to join unions. The law only gives private sector employees the right to join unions. The unions would negotiate for an increase in wages, improvement in working conditions, and right to strike. The employers in the private sector do not have the right to fire employees who join unions. Nowadays, some states have allowed public sector employees to join unions. The other difference is the difference in interrogations and investigations. Public employers cannot force its employees to make statements that could be used against them in courts of law. However, employees in the private sector do not have these rights(Mathis, 2013). Question 7 There are many strategies unions used. One of them is defending immigrant rights. Some unions defend immigrant rights by stopping airport raids. Most unions storm into airports and prevent arrest and deportation of workers. Others defend firings due to no-match of data. There are cases where some employers use ‘no-match’ letters to fire immigrant workers. Such employers rely on confirmation sent by the Social Security Administration, who find are in charge of Social Security Numbers. Some unions use strikes. They organize these strikes to shift power in the workplace. The power shifts from the employers to the employees. Some unions demand their employees to work slow, for example not so speedy deliveries. Other unions incite their employees to slow their supplies. Strategies such as these are meant to catch the attention of the employers. Lighting strikes is the best strategy for the 21st century. Nowadays, employers do not want to lose even an hour of work. The employers have structured their production, and most employees are under intense pressure. By organizing strikes, the unions would turn the tables on employers because workers are most needed. Factors that impact the effectiveness of labor union strategies are solidarity, independence of the labor unions, democracy, unity and responsibility(Mathis, 2013). Question 8 Workplace injustices involve many aspects. For example, it could be unfair employee treatment or unequal distribution of employment. However, managerial strategies, union strategies, or the external environment could influence how the employees react to these injustices. There are some managers who have created boundaries between different types of employees. It is a strategy meant to avoid creating a feeling of injustice. If there is any form of injustices, workers who have been categorized as ‘small’ will have a small chance of reacting to injustices in the workplace. On the other hand, some union strategies mainly deal with procedural injustices. Procedural injustices are like unfair distribution of income, informational injustices, lack of respect, and interpersonal injustices. If such injustices happen, the employees will follow whichever the unions have decided, for example, lightening strikes. If the external environment seems to affect only a particular group, the group will create a means of addressing the issue to the administration. For instance, if the environment is biased towards women, the feminine gender would come together to protect themselves. The group members will implement any resolution passed by the group leaders. A person would choose labor unions to fight for workplace injustice because of safety. Union strategies consider safe working environments, and they have the expertise to fight for this need. In addition, the unions have powers and leverages to fight for an employee’s rights. A union is a collective force that has a much more bargaining power(Mathis, 2013). Question 9 Before organizing employees in an organization, certain things occur within the labor union. The process begins with the organizer, working for a union, contacts the employees. Thereafter, the union collects signatures. The signatures are an indication that the union wishes to represent them. Only 30% of the employees are enough for the union, before asking the NLRG to conduct an election. NLRA provides two processes before a union can represent the employees. The two processes are the card check and the secret ballot. The card check involves card-check process. An authorization card signed by 50% plus one of the employees is enough for the union to represent the employees. In secret-ballot elections process, the labor union that wins the majority vote of the employees is eligible to represent the employees. If a union loses, it can contest the election to the NLRB (Mathis, 2013). Question 10 In order for an organization to be better off operationally and to improve the morale of employees, it has to hire a union avoidance consultant. The consultant will help the organization avoid union costs and avoidance of uncertainty of collective bargaining. Before hiring a union avoidance consultant, the organization has to determine whether the employees are motivated, level of direct communication with the employees and performance of the organization. In addition, the organization has to develop a response to a union organization campaign. The response has to consider an analysis of the operational situation, emotions of employees and managers, and the effect on other parties, such as the customers. The use of union avoidance consultants would enhance the institutions’ performance, improve the staff morale, and reduce the management’s sensitivity to issues. However, the consultants will bring negative impacts on the rights of employees (Mathis, 2013). Reference Mathis, R. L. (2013). Human Resource Management. Cengage Learning. Read More