Labor Relations Essays - Labour Relations, Trade Unions,

Labor Relations This paper will attempt to discuss the cost and benefit of trade unionism, as it exists in the United States. To understand the pros and cons, it is important to understand the environment in which trade unionism developed and the needs they attempted to satisfy. It will discuss the evolution of Trade Unionism through the centuries. From that understanding we can discuss the topic as it relates to our current environment. Historians agree that American Unionism started in the early 19th Century. These early organizations were formed along the lines of Craft. Daniel Mills explains, in Labor Relations, Crafts people worked for themselves, or in small shops. They were often in conflict with customers or merchants which they supplied. (35) These associations were formed to protect their craft, rather than as a collective bargaining union. In the mid 19th Century, America was in the middle of the industrial revolution. We were becoming an urban industrial society. Immigration was becoming a great source of labor supply. These large manufacturing enterprises, exploiting workers without regards to human cost, were ripe for National Union Organization. Jerry Borenstein states in his work, Unions In Transition, They were often loosely organized associations, which were quite short-lived and likely to disappear under hostile pressure from employers and government. (15) The unions of the late 19th and early 20th centuries were formed largely to protect basic human dignity in the work place. Unions addressed basic concerns regarding safety issues, length of work day and wage. They were largely unsuccessful due to the public perception of unions as Socialistic as well as anti American. People viewed trade unions as being disruptive to the flow of free trade. It was only during the 1930's that trade unions, as we know them today, were created and accepted. With the passing of the Wagner Act of 1935, formal, legal protection was now afforded Trade Unions in America. Trade uni ons moved from being virtually outlawed by the US Government to being the beneficiaries of their legal protection. Morgan Reynolds tells us, in his Power and Privilege, the common definition of Labor Union in the American dictionaries is an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions, through the process of collective bargaining. ( 33 ) This definition is an all encompassing one that justifies the existence of unions. Assumptions must be made by unions and the union members that these items are not being provided for by the employer and therefore require an organization, the union, to fight for them. This definition describes a Good Guy / Bad Guy relationship between worker and Employer, that I believe is too simplistic. Both Union and Management act in a checks and balance relationship that is difficult to describe. We must take specific points of concern and describe the benefits trade unio nism brings to the table. Union Approach Wages Trade unions are filling a need of the American worker just as much today as they did 30, 50 or 70 years ago. Unions historically have represented the workers who were from manufacturing, Blue Collar, job classifications. These workers are not being paid an equitable share of the profits that corporations are making. The disparity between the union worker and the management personnel is ever growing. The AFL-CIO News dated June 28, 1996 describes an incident where Steelworkers were locked out of a Common Wealth Gas plant for turning down a contract calling for more than 50 concessions while two weeks previously management was given 3 million dollars compensation. This occurred while the company was making a record 54 million dollar profit. ( 2 ). It follows, when considering the previous statement, inequities in pay are as prevalent in 1996 as they were in 1926. Unions are needed to lessen these inequities by fighting for workers wages. In Richard Freeman's, What Do Unions Do, he states, Union membership advances pay treatment for groups that are historically the least paid. There is a wider disparity in the wages of Union vs. non Union workers among the following groups. The young, who are the lowest paid, the worker with least tenure, non whites and women. (