...Good morning ladies and gentleman. Today I am going to talk about some of the challenges facing labor unions today and how we can rise to meet them. Government policies may vary from province to province but we are fortunate enough to have some of the strongest labor legislation out there. The economic recession has been hard on everyone and unions are no exception, with the lay-offs or closures of plants and businesses, the union faces the challenge of ensuring we stay strong and effective. In the workplace there are many challenges relating to diversity, changing human resource management and organizing one of the largest sectors of workers in Canada, the service and retail industry. (Very good introduction!) Economic and political change, globalization and restructuring have made people question the effectiveness or need for unions. With the changes in the workplace and workforce, such as shrinking public sector and primary industries and the growth of the private sector coupled with the changes in work arrangements, unions are faced with challenges relating to their survival and vitality. (McQuarrie, 2003) Traditionally unions were structured to represent employees in industries with a fairly stable workforce and hierarchical relationship with management. Today unions face the necessity of “having to adapt to new realities of work and proving their relevance to a new generation of workers in a variety of workplaces.” (McQuarrie, 2003) Workforce demographics are changing,...
Words: 1631 - Pages: 7
...Unions thrived in the 1960s but are now facing declining membership in the 21st century. Unions have attempted to rebuild strength and numbers; however, membership continues to decrease. Manufacturing jobs declined; therefore, union membership declined. Membership has not kept up with the increase in jobs. Unions must bring themselves into the 21st century, because their original purpose may no longer be valid. Are unions a viable entity in the 21st century, and can they meet the challenge of new membership demands? Due to lack of unionization, workers have not shared the benefits of the U.S. economic upturn of the last 40 years. CEO compensation has increased dramatically, but U.S. worker wages remain stagnant. However, as members continue to lose jobs, such as automotive employees, unions do not believe that their members should accept the same benefits given to managers. Unions have become blind to the economic reality, and workers have lost trust in the union concept. Approximately 57 million unorganized workers would join a union if given the chance. The AFL-CIO sees this interest in unions as an opportunity in the 21st century; however, the same fears from years ago continue to plague union organizing. The problem is that workers are still afraid to join a union for fear of retaliation by their employers. Unions can take a more proactive role to disseminate this fear by providing a variety of ways for workers to join unions. For example, if there is employer retaliation...
Words: 1102 - Pages: 5
...Safety 3 Unions 4 Discrimination 6 Disability 7 Privacy 7 Job Security 9 Conclusion 9 Employment Law Introduction Employment Law is applied by the department of labor while expressing the USA employment laws and regulations. The purpose of employment law is to protect the rights and mistreatment of any employee working under any organization. The employment law plays an essential part in protecting the employees according to USA employment laws because every country has their own employment laws. Protection is provided to employers by the acts which are defined by the Department of Labor (Greenhouse, 2011). There are even legal rights for the foreigners, in which it is stated that under what conditions they can work in the country. Various acts of law that come under the employment law are: Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC), Sexual Harassment, The Americans with Disabilities Act and The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 (FLSA). In that particular regard, this paper focuses on the health and safety, unions, discrimination, privacy, and job security. Discussion Health and Safety The Safety and Health at Work is always profiled as catalysts factors improving the quality of work and competitiveness. This is now well proven through various indicators of quality of work and competitiveness, whatever their origin, social or technical. However and given the changes which we live today, reflected in changes in the workplace and in the labor force, caused...
Words: 2126 - Pages: 9
...Labor Relations and Management Interview Student Date 1. How has the Labor Relations Officer/Manager's job and function changed in recent years? In looking at the job function of Labor Relation managers in recent years the focus has altered significantly. Legislators are negotiating major changes in the traditional structure or labor management as the states are getting more involved by making reforms that favor corporations (Rabinovitz, 2007). It is apparent that the importance of labor relations in the boardroom has decreased significantly. Labor is no longer an issue requiring strategic direction by top managers. In the late 1980s often Labor managers participated in top manager’s roundtable to gain ammunition in pursuing wage increases. The initiative of the Board being to limit the size of the increases and Labor negotiating through collective bargaining (Trends in Labor Relations, 2002). While representing the union members, managers would argue the case for increases bringing supporting labor regulations, overtime, and quota requirements. Even up until the 1990s there were practices in place to recruit non-union employees as part of the Union Board meetings on an ongoing basis. Not so anymore. The managers on the Union Board are not concerned with membership unless a new labor agreement is about to take place. Primarily the reason for this is the decisions made concerning changes to labor benefits is usually for several years (Trends, et...
Words: 1569 - Pages: 7
...RUNNING HEAD: LABOR RELATIONS COURSE PROJECT PAPER Sudie Foday HRM 330 Labor Relations Devry University Professor Ellison Abstract This paper addresses the following labor union issues, as it relates to both the United States and its Global counterparts: The changes that are needed for unions to maintain support from their membership, the community, and the employers within organizations. The Decline in labor union membership and political influence and the influence of politics in membership decline. The continued influence of generational aspects on the labor unions by Baby Boomers, as well as Generation X, and Generation Y. Also some other external dynamics that are affecting labor unions such as the impact on union strategies by the global workforce, the past, present evolution of the unions. And will conclude with considerations for the labor unions to remain active and viable organizations in the 21st century. Labor Relations Course Project Paper There are changes are needed for unions to maintain support from their membership, the community, and the employers. The recommendations I would make to union and management leadership in order to meet the demands of a constantly changing workplace, would be that in order to reach the more professional labor market, unions must remove the blue-collar mentality and appeal to more contemporary workers. Unions must determine how to organize 21st-century industries. In the market...
Words: 3556 - Pages: 15
...American people we as a nation was brought together to defeat the Axis of power which is widely known as the German power house. Hitler was the benefit of this war that the United States tried so hard to avoid. In the recent information that I have put together there was evidence that many people did not want the U.S. to get involved. We as a country was facing our own economic problems the Stock Market crashes and many investors who placed solely all their savings, checks and balances in the trust of the banking systems. The failure of the baking systems placed a strong grip on the American people forcing them to profit off other means such as hoarding their possessions and even entering into the war against Hitler and his German advisories. During the ordeal there also was a mass accumulation of immigrants into the United States and many were from Ireland, did not want the United States to intervene in the War to assist the British. There were shortcomings of the reaction on how the Irish who already rooted themselves into the American economy, and stressed they did not want American to help the British because the Irish was facing their own tyranny from their homeland against the British. But with great disregard the American people pulled together to face the enemy at the front line this. The mass productions of...
Words: 1775 - Pages: 8
...Running Head: LABOR RELATIONS Ric Hillock Labor Relations Paper University of Phoenix- Online The creation of labor unions began in the late nineteenth century as a result of workers collectively uniting to force companies to limit the hours in a workday, improve wages and working conditions. Currently, labor unions are “formed for the purpose of representing their members’ interests and resolving conflicts with employers.” (Noe et al., 2007) Some of these interests may include increases in wages, improving healthcare and retirement benefits, and job security. Labor relations can be thought of as the working relationship between management and the leaders of the unions. Their cooperation with each other helps to eliminate strikes through collective bargaining, which will ideally be mutually beneficial for both management and workers. It involves the critical skill of arbitration and compromise. According to the text labor relations involves three levels of decision, which are labor relations strategy, negotiating contracts, and administering those contracts. Labor unions have a considerable impact on the organization. One impact is on productivity. There are opinions on both sides as to whether productivity increases or decreases with unions. “There is a common myth that unions hurt productivity, supposedly because they impose work rules that make their employers less efficient.” (Eisenbray, 2007) In fact, according to the article titled “Strong Unions, Strong...
Words: 1261 - Pages: 6
...The first issues led to another issue of the HRM policy goal. According to Brunetto, Wharton and Shacklock (2011), since the employees did not have much involvement of into the decision making process, they would not have high commitment to the organization goals. This is because the employees do not understand what is the goal the organization wanted to achieve, and if the organizational goal is clarified, they also want to know whether the decision is matched with their personal objectives. From the lacking of acknowledgement and understanding, staffs would somehow do it as the duties they are paid to operate for or worst as they would deny participating in the procedure; hence, the organization’s objective would be under-qualified or even fail to achieve. In the employees’ side, the situation might raise the conflict between the organization and employees, or between employees who were interested in the adjustment and who were not. According to Rilkoff (2012), Canterbury Hospital did not provide selection and training process or establish job design which support to employees to get used to the working procedures as well as new adjustments, in this case is the generating of new committee. Therefore, most of the employees did not know what they were going to do when the hospital selected people to be in the committee. Moreover, many people who were working in the hospital have skills only in medical fields; thus, it is difficult and takes time for people to acknowledge the...
Words: 1802 - Pages: 8
...company is struggling to stay afloat. The organization has diverse problems that are undermining its progress, even its existence. From ineffective to unethical negotiation practices, the management is facing challenges to make it profitable again. In the following lines, we will identify the issues that GC is facing and the different opportunities open for its future. We will assess the different interests in the situation and review the problems in the decision making process and the negotiation failure between the management and the union. Finally, we will make a gap analysis to understand what didn’t work and what needed to be done for a better closure in this situation. Situation Analysis Issue and Opportunity Identification Telecommunications industry has experience important changes over the time. Many new businesses have entered the industry to compete on local, long distance and international markets with innovative and technical advanced products. For instance, cable companies have introduced a services bundle encompassing an internet, television and plain old telephone service that has achieved a great success and change the face of the industry. Profitable in the past, business leaders and pioneers such as Global Communications (GC) are now in deficit, facing a lack of confidence of the marketplace and stockholders. The company...
Words: 2154 - Pages: 9
...Danasia Kearney Labor Unions and Workers’ Rights Dear President Teddy Roosevelt, There has been a numerous amount of problems, regarding labor unions and workers’ rights. To start off, the amount of children workers had rose tremendously. This is a problem because, a lot of the children are getting hurt, and dying from facing these crisis. Also, many of these children develop health problems because of this working, and that number is increasing more and more. These young children are forced to work, and are forced to make money for their families. No child should have to suffer and die, due to a low paying job. A reform should happen NOW, because if this continues to happen there would be a higher number of children dying and hurt and that would affect a lot of people, and would cause tension between the people. In addition to the harsh treatment of the children, the workers’ rights were restricted. During work hours, workers could barely social. If they were caught socializing or not getting their work done, they would get in trouble, and might even get fired. Some workers weren’t needed much at the time, because it was easily for them to get replaced. Also, during work hours, the people were forced to work nonstop, if they didn’t get the job done when it was asked to be done, there would be a problem. Basically, the workers’ rights were restricted. The workers were treated harshly, and were sometimes threatened or harassed while working. A reform is needed because...
Words: 317 - Pages: 2
...The Civil War was the bloodiest war the Americans had ever experienced up to that period. After the four year long fight to preserve the union over six hundred thousand lives were lost. In an attempt to recover from the damage of the war the Unites States entered The Reconstruction Era. The Reconstruction Era was the period after the Civil War when Northern political leaders created plans for the governance of the South and a procedure for former Southern states to reenter the Union. As the United States recovered, the Reconstruction Era faded away and industrialization took hold in the healing nation. Industrialization brought about the Gilded Age, a time period of rapid economic growth and corrupt politics. People responded differently to...
Words: 1488 - Pages: 6
...customers. Simply put, Global Communications is not where it needs to be in terms of globally viable business opportunities and general profitability. Our paper will present the problems currently confronting Global Communications (GC) and the solution of implementation of an aggressive approach to be a truly global resource. This paper will discuss the alternative solutions to their existing problems, risk assessment for the suggested alternative solutions, the optimal solution, and lastly the implementation plan to deal with the problem. Issue Identification GC has four major issues to confront. The first issue is their falling stock price. "Three years ago, its stock traded at $28 per share; today, the stock is valued at $11, more than 50 percent depreciation." (Anonymous, 2007). The second issue facing GC is competition. GC competition "cable companies" offer a full service of phone, cable, and internet. The third issue is operation costs of GC and...
Words: 4407 - Pages: 18
...Labor Laws and Unions HRM/531 07/26/2012 L. Robinson Labor Laws and Unions In this paper I will briefly give background information on Union Pacific Railroad. Identify any legal issues and obstacles that Union Pacific may have or encounter. Discuss if any federal, state, or local laws were broken because of the legal issues and why. I will also provide recommendations to minimize any litigation. The Pacific Railroad Act of 1862 was approved by President Abraham Lincoln, it also provided the construction of railroads. Union Pacific Railroad is a transportation company chartered by Congress to build the nation’s first transcontinental railroad line. Because of the Pacific Railroad Act, Union Pacific was approved to build a line west from Omaha, Nebraska to California-Nevada line, there it was to join with the Central Pacific RR, which was being built at the same time from Sacramento, California. Each company after completion of the railroad was to be granted 6,400 acres of public lands. The Union Pacific Railroad has their headquarters in Omaha, Nebraska. Union Pacific Railroad is the leading railroad system in the United States. The Company has employees of more than 45,000, and operates at least 9,000 locomotives on 32,000 miles of track across 23 states in central and western United States. Union Pacific has purchased a large amount of railroads. Union Pacific’s main competitor is BNSF Railway. Union Pacific is one of the most powerful railroads in the country. It...
Words: 1285 - Pages: 6
...and private sectors are heading in opposite directions in labor-management relations. Private sector employers and unions are collaborating in an effort to meet the requirements of today's business realities; While recent government cutbacks have damaged the relationship between the public sector and its unions. Unions remain an important political factor (especially within the Democratic Party), both through mobilization of their own memberships and through coalitions with like-minded activist organizations. Both the private and public unions are very influential in politics but in different ways. In public unions, they are more influential in the local government and Private unions are more influential at the national level. This is due to their interest. Private unions are usually much bigger and have local unions across the country and thus they need to be political at the national level to influence people across the country. Public unions are smaller in they only needing political influence over there area. For example, if a City is having a bargaining issue, they are not going to call their Senator; they are going to call the City Manager. That is the person that has influence over their decisions. American union membership in the private sector has in recent years fallen under 9%--levels not seen since 1932. Workers seem uninterested in joining, and strike activity has almost faded away. The labor force in unionized automobile and steel plants, for example...
Words: 574 - Pages: 3
...like to earn. The establishing of unions assisted in creating a platform for individuals to voice concerns and issues to employers to create a better work environment and benefits that employers offer to employees. The Wagner Act of 1935 gave employees the right to organize unions, bargain collectively with employers, and engage in other concerted actions for the purpose of mutual protection. The Norris–La Guardia Act had previously granted these rights the Wagner Act went further and required employers to recognize unions chosen by employees and to bargain with unions in good faith. The Taft-Hartley Act placed the federal government in a position to ensure that union-management relations are conducted fairly by both parties. The act allowed employees the right to organize a union, bargain collectively with an employer, and engage in other concerted activities for the purpose of collective bargaining. Major provisions of the Taft-Hartley Act established a number of unfair union practices unions are not able to coerce employees who do not want to join, force employers to pressure employees to join a union, refuse to bargain in good faith with an employer, force an employer to pay for services not performed (featherbedding). Engage in certain types of secondary boycotts (taking action against an employer that is not directly engaged in a dispute with a union) or Charge excessive initiation fees when union membership is required because of a union shop agreement. A...
Words: 1176 - Pages: 5
