Union Advantages and Disadvantages Essays

The National Labor Relations Act seeks to promote collective bargaining to resolve employer and employee concerns. Because many agreements between labor and management sometimes affect and/or restrain competition under the context of the Sherman Act of 1890, a

The unions of yesterday have left the public feeling fearful of what might happen in the future. Will history repeat itself? Will employees be deceived through the mighty power of Labor Unions? Promoting benefits of unionized labor is one approach to regaining the trust of the public. Benefits include medical aid, heath insurance, worker compensation and overall respect of employees in the workplace. I feel with these measures taken Labor unions will once again reach the productivity that it once had pre-WWII.

To help bring about congressional change, the National Labor Union was created in 1866 “to pressure Congress to make labor law reforms” (Library of Congress). It was composed of “national associations of unions” with “trade-printers, machinists, stone cutters” and others (American Federationist).

Not only are there benefits for employees, but the employers themselves receive many advantages as well. The best benefits that employers receive is employee satisfaction. When being a part of a union needs and wants are met allowing people to become more satisfied with their job, with that satisfaction employees will be more willing to work harder for you. Not only will employees be willing to work harder for you, but you will also have less people leave their jobs or the ability to lose their say and position in the organization. With less turnovers of employees as a

Unions do provide a lot of good services to its members, such as higher wages, better hours, more benefits, and safer working conditions. There is a price to pay for these services, though. Every union requires its members to pay dues, whether they are in the form of a percentage of each paycheck, or a flat rate. The money form dues goes towards lobbying politicians to pass union-friendly legislation, or better labor laws. The money also finances officers in the union organization, who are the ones calling the shots, as far as labor negotiations are concerned.

Their goal was to create a group to join the similar careered people and collectively give them an advantage. Unions often treat all their members with equal respect due to this ideology. Inside a union, everyone is given equal rights and is treated just as fair as their peers; someone with a disability is given equal rights as a member who does not have a disability. They create membership benefits and aim that all members have fair wages, in effort to eliminate inequality in the workplace setting. Some benefits include paid leave or larger amount of sick days. An example would be in the United Kingdom where on average, union members are given over 25% more annual leave per year, compared to non-unionized workers. Unions also tend to offer maternity and paternity leave for new parents, something some non-unionized members do not receive. Unions prioritize fairness by giving every single member in their group equal rights and freedoms, creating a safer and healthier work environment compared to a non-unionized work

Unions often prevent more qualified workers from getting the jobs. Less skilful workers are often protected from layoffs or firing. Union contracts and

Thefreedictionary.com defines union as, “combination so formed, especially an alliance or confederation of people, parties, or political entities for mutual interest or benefit.” When I read this definition I found many points’ of contention and imperfections. The first being “alliance or confederation of people”. Everyone knows to be human is to be flawed. Another point of contention is “For mutual interest or benefit” what’s good for one may not be good for another and when greed is placed in the mix everyone is going to look out for themselves and not the betterment of the group.

Barry T. Hirsch and Albert N. Link (The University of North Carolina at Greensboro) analyzed Harvard studies which claims that union’s increases productivity in a study (Unions, Productivity, and Productivity Growth) and in the conclusion their explanations transferred below;

The rise of capitalism as the dominant economic system in the United States made the rise of unions inevitable; given the natural division between those with capital that control the means of production, and labor, who is treated simply as another factor of production (Hodson & Sullivan, 2008). While labor unions have made significant improvements to the working environment, with the regulation of safety, environment, labor and wage; labor unions have also contributed to the decline of U.S. dominance in industries like steel, automotive, education and airlines. In today’s global economy, can labor unions continue to be a force for good in the United States, or have they become harmful institutions?

There are several advantages and positive aspects for employees to be unionized. Unionized workers experience much more job security than those who are non-unionized, meaning those who are non-unionized can be terminated with no reason necessary. Whereas, those who are in the union cannot be terminated for any discriminatory reason, such as being a whistleblower. A union representative who will make the final decision regarding disciplinary action or termination represents unionized worker. Another great benefit of being unionized is that you are allowed to file grievance or complaints with a union representative, who then take them up with management on their behalf (Saez, 2010).

One of the major concerns of any worker is benefits and pay scale. In terms of union and non-union work, union workers, not only make more money but are also more likely to have better overall benefits. In addition to making 30% more than non-union workers, 92% of the union members have health coverage through their work while the non-union

Other ways that Unions have caused their own downfall, would be the disregard of woman and minorities. “Women's presence as union members, for example, falls short of their presence in the labor force as a whole, while gains in leadership have been "quite modest" in relation to gains in membership.” (Clawson & Clawson, 1999). According to Clawson and Clawson, Unions viewed social movements as something unnecessary and something to distant themselves from. Unions did not see the needs of addressing issues raised by civil rights, feminists and environment movements. (Clawson & Clawson, 1999). But in fact, they were more involved in issues which dealt with the law, such as legal rights, government regulation, new social movement and class action

The workers usually join unions for gaining benefits suggested by such membership. For example, the union workers tend to have higher wages than the ones who do not belong to the union. Besides, the union members can get other benefits in the form of insurance, sick pay, and overtime premiums, among others. Additionally, joining a union provides additional security in terms of not being fired or laid off without a substantial reason for that. All in all, unions defense their members from being treated illegally and unjust. Thus, the advantage of joining a union for workers is the security and the representation opportunities that they provide to the employees.

1. Employees decide to form a union to gain job security and higher wages or when they feel management is not doing their job correctly or fairly. The labor laws are in place that provides rights to unionize. I am not convinced they encourage, but they provide a protection to workers who feel they need the support of the union. The National Labor Relations Act of 1935 (Wagner Act) basically provides employees the right to unionize. When under a union, employees are protected in ways such as employers must bargain in good faith regarding all issues. Union members have the right to bargain over wages and other terms of their employment.