Labor and Unionization (Essay Sample)

Summer I 2017 Managing Total Rewards (201750_HRM-5375-WB1_50076)
Nova Southeastern University H. Wayne Huizenga School of Business & Entrepreneurship
Submitted to: Lori Ford
Submitted by: Samantha Galeas
Address: Florida
Date Submitted: 5 – 20 – 2017
Labor Relations: Unionization
In an era of high employment rate in most countries, many individuals who work are thankful that they have a job. However, being employed is not a guarantee of receiving decent benefits and pay, and having good working conditions. Labor unions are organizations of workers whose aim should be representing employees and protecting them at negotiations between labor and management (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007). An overall assessment of the unions’ in the current world depicts that although labor movements organized by labor unions and employees benefit their members with equity and voice, they delays economic recovery, reduces jobs, and retards economic growth.
Employees see labor unions as a means of achieving equity and voice. They have played a vital role in voicing for fair benefits and wages, safe and healthy work environments, and many other types of employee advocacy. Research has shown that nonunionized employees tend to have less paid time off, poorer pension and insurance benefits, and lower earnings as compared to unionized employees (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007). Moreover, employments with lower unionization levels have a higher gender pay gap. Unionization can result to better working environments. For instance, the America’s largest union for poultry-processing employees, the United Food and Commercial Workers, played a crucial role in the establishment of an OSHA rule that authorizes employers to establish washroom facilities that workers can use whenever they need to (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007).
A disadvantage of unions to employees is that they must pay their ever increasing membership dues and other fees (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007). In a competitive market whereby employees are registered in a labor union, firms with higher costs of labor are likely to be forced out of business, and so labor unions cannot raise wages and cartelize labor. Therefore, members of a labor union in a competitive market will face the negative challenge of paying for dues without serious benefits.
The mainstream economic school outlines the economic activity of companies, employees, and other self-interested agents who conduct their doings in competitive markets (Budd, 2013). In the approach of mainstream economic, voice, equity, and efficiency are accomplished through free-market competition (Budd, 2013). In a competitive market, prices reflect the worth of what is being bought, and so there are efficient outcomes. Likewise, the price of labor reflects the worth contributed by that labor to the process of production. In other words, poorly paid labor equals to its less worth, and so voice is expressed by abstaining or freely participating in the transaction. As a result, this approach does not view labor problem conditions as exploitation if there is enough competition in the labor market.
According to Budd (2013), the mainstream economics school view labor unions as monopolies of the labor market whose objective is only to interfere with free-market competition and restrict labor supply. Unions, through strike intimidations, utilize their monopolistic authority to increase wages beyond their level of competition and thereby distorting the levels of output and jobs throughout the economy. In addition, it is seen as a dreadful activity established only to make money. They interfere with the market discipline by protecting lazy employees. Moreover, their monopolistic authority interferes with the economic operation efficiency.
The human resource management school believes that the conditions of the labor problem results from the outcomes of poor management, and, therefore, the resulting solution is simply better management (Budd, 2013). This approach believes that human resource management should use better management strategies to align the interests of the company and that of the employees in order to establish efficient and motivated workers. Using responsive management policies brings equity to workers, and utilizing open-door argument resolution measures enables employees to air their voice informally to their superiors.
The human resource management school views independent labor unions as unfavorable and adversarial to a business. According to this approach, if firms follow the effective management ideas outlined by this school, employees will be contented and will not need a union. The human resource management school sees union as a fever due to unhealthy practices by the human resource management. The school also considers independent labor unions as pointless organizations that restrict employees and employers from getting their relationship much closer (Budd, 2013).
The industrial relations school sees problems associated with labor as to result from unequal power of bargaining between employees and companies (Budd, 2013). Employers with greater power of bargaining than their workers tend to be authoritarian and autocratic, and can pay low salaries for long working hours under poor working environments. In short, unequal bargaining power, according to the industrial relations school, is the major cause of labor problems. This school believes that the labor market is determined by bargaining and not competition, and so the society is not in a good shape if either party has too much power (Budd, 2013). The supporters of the industrial relations school believe that creating independent labor unions to pursue cooperative bargaining between employees and employers will solve the labor problems.
According to Budd (2013), the Marxist industrial relations, also called the critical industrial relations school, illustrates that institutions of capitalists are established by society through laws governing business incorporation or market transactions, and via social ethics governing acceptable conducts. It asserts that corporations can formulate the labor relations’ social context to serve their own needs, and thus achieve th