Industry and Labor Relations - Assignment Example

Industry and Labor Relations Q According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics the with the highest union membership rate was New York with slightly over 25% of employed wage and salary workers. On the other side of the spectrum, North Carolina was the state with the lowest rate of unionized wage and salary workers with approximately 3% of workers. The reasoning behind why the numbers of unionized workers are higher in New York State is probably owing to the long tradition of an economy that is based on industry (Metalworking, ship building, building construction, stevedores, carpentry, manufacturing etc) which are trades that are more likely to be unionized.

Moreover in Virginia which traditionally had been dominated by agriculture and commodities had had an economy that was less likely to be dominated by unionized workers. Q#2- The challenges and opportunities that are faced when dealing with labor practice are varied between different professions and economic entities insofar as all organizations conduct different initiatives to help improve their competitiveness. In the American context one could argue that one challenge would be better integration of professionals from different fields (Metalworkers and carpenters for example) to better integrate their practices to ensure a better building project.

However the challenge associated with this would be that different stakeholders have different needs tan the accommodation of these needs may be challenging for human resource professionals. Q#3- Globalization is the integration of different economies, societies, countries etc. through improved communication techniques, trade and less expensive transportation. The way in which globalization has had an impact on labor practices is that it has in effect made labor practices more transparent. By having different stakeholders gain a better understanding of labour practices from different regions one would have the opportunity to find improvements or shortcomings in their own labor practice.

Q#4- The reason why unions exist is for workers to pool resources in order to achieve common goals. The issue of whether or not I would want my employees to for a union depends entirely on the type of organization that I run. In some circumstance I would promote the formation of a union if for example it would take some benefit to my operations, for example if the union alleviated some of my human resource responsibilities. However if for example I ran a very small sales organization the legal costs incurred by the formation of a union might in the end make my firm insolvent, and naturally I would oppose the formation of a union.

REFERENCES Bureau of Labor Statistics (January 29th 2009) Union Membership by State 2007. [online] Available at http://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2008/jan/wk4/art02.htm Accessed on February 6th 2011.