Key Economic Factors Influencing Collective Bargaining

South Carolina is 1 out of 26 states that passed the Right to Work law. The Right to Work law means that unions have been eliminated in SC. Unions should be disbanded because they are harmful to the economy and create conflict for everyone.

“How has the American labor movement elevated the standard of living for America’s working class?” Unions have been around for a long period of time. It is apart of our nations history. Labor Unions began around the eighteenth century and the industrial revolution in Europe. During this time there was a huge surge of new workers into the workplace that needed representation. The history of unions in the United States exploded in the nineteenth century with the founding of the national labor union in 1866.

John Morrison's Testimony of a Machinist is a Transcript of Morrison testifying in front of the Senate. The transcript covers changes in factory work environments, possible causes of those changes and effects that they have. This paper is a very good source to see the growing unrest among factory workers, why they feel disenfranchised and why they might wish to unionize. What is overlooked in this which make his arguments weaker than they could be is the fact that technology will always be advancing and must be adapted to.

*The Pullman Strike was widespread by the United States railroad workers, approximately a quarter-million worker were on strike at the peak and it impacted the expedition the railroad system across the states. The strike between the American Railway Union and George Pullman changed the course of future strikes when President Grover Cleveland ordered federal troops to break up the strikers; its influenced how the federal government and the court system would handle labor issues. The labor issues during the Pullman Strike were not limited that of rights of the workers, the role of management in the workers private life, and the roles of government resolving labor conflicts. Pullman planned communities for his workers how he determined

A labor union is a group of money earners that come together to promote and defend the interests of its members with respect to earnings and working conditions. Labor unions deal with employers on the behalf of its members through a process known as collective bargaining. In the United States, the first labor unions were on a regional level, when shoemakers in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, organized in the 1790s. Terrible working conditions in the 19th century led to worker conditions. Employers fought back against the strikes by issuing demands, hiring private detectives and engaging in other dispositions. Sometimes, the strikes became violent. The National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935 to protect workers ' rights to form unions and

This was a distributive negotiation whereby Hormel’s primary interest throughout the negotiation with P9 was to reduce wage bills. Hormel’s management were aware that they had the upper hand in negotiations owing to the existing business situation in America that favored corporate rights to labor. In the process of creating a new contract, there existed little legal recourse against the company if they chose to terminate/not hire current workers, reduce wages, or replaced existing workforce with cheap labour. To add on, Hormel had all of the power in this negotiation due to their market position, control of financial resources, and ability to shift production facilities to another location. Local P9 had exactly contradicting interests as Hormel. They wanted a wage increase to offset the pay cuts from the prior years. Local P9ers felt they were the right to ask for increased wages when existing contracts were about to expire because Hormel was still profitable and didn’t have to go through same plight as other players in the industry. Unfortunately, Local P9 had a weak position in this negotiation with the exception of a lone power to strike. They were emotionally driven and sought an outcome that didn’t account for their substantially weaker power

It wasn’t a union, but a federation, whose goals were to bargain with employees’, resolve grievances and organize strikes. Unlike The Knight of Labor, in order to achieve efficiency, it believed in the capitalist system and the importance of employers’ making a profit, but also seeks to win labor’s fair share of the profits through collective bargaining. Equity was achieved by way of making sure that employees received their fair share of the profits though collective bargaining. Therefore, to ensure that workers received their fair share of the profits, the union had no problem using the threat of strikes. Collective bargaining was a form of employee voice, and was carried out by way of an employee representative on behalf of the workers to address their

When union groups vote to strike it is vital to make sure it is done in a manner that is not going to jeopardize the workforces employment or job security. There are legal and just ways to go about organizing a strike that will allow one to return to their position once the grievances are presented, negotiated and agreed upon. All tactful negations have proper guidelines and steps to follow in order to resolve issues and to a good outcome for all parties involved. Once the proper steps are taken all parties involved generally go back to their position and perform their job duties under the new working conditions agreed upon. Often times the process can take more than a few days, it can take weeks are months to dispute and agree upon the grievance presented for negotiations. An example of a legal strike tactic is an economic strike; this is an allowable method in which employees can strike over wages, hours and less than ideal working conditions. Employees are

Trade unions negotiate on their member’s behalf with employers to find solutions that meet business needs, while ensuring that workers are treated fairly. By giving workers a voice and supporting workers when they are unhappy at work. Trade unions significantly improve staff retention and reduce absenteeism. Improved working conditions in unionized workplace also give workers power incentive to remain in their jobs for longer, and to use their time at work more

An in depth analysis of the factors that led to the rise of labor unions in the United States only reveals that the basic need and the primary objective of the workering people was to secure economic and legal protection from their exploiting employers.

Workers can setup strikes as a form of protest for improvements in their work environment but in 1981, Reagan fired the striking members of PATCO (Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization). He claimed that the strike they were in was illegal. Doing this significantly put a hold on unions and strikes because of the fear of getting fired. Before PATCO, 300 strikes a year would happen, now there is about 30 a year. (McClelland, RIP: The Middle Class 1946-2013) I believe after this event the idea of unions are obsolete. You are not prone to find a union in much of the jobs we have

The creation of unions has impacted Americans lives for many years. Unions were created in the late 1800‘s focused on protecting workers. Later they began to help workers by providing them with rights and benefits. As unions became popular in the 1900s their powers grew enormously. Throughout the years, unions have gained a lot of power due to their high association with political activities. As unions grew, they began to require dues that were supposed to protected members in many ways. Some Modern day unions have an insane amount of power that forces members to pay dues that are not fully used for member benefits. Unions have a disproportionate amount of political power as they use mandatory union dues to fund non benefit related activities

In Charles Kernaghan’s video titled, “Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: The Race to the Bottom”, he tells of the horrific events of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire that occurred in New York in 1911. Kernaghan tells the story of the fire that resulted in the deaths of 146 people, mostly young women, because the main door was blocked by the fire and the fire exit was locked to prevent workers from sneaking out, stealing, or letting in union organizers (00:00:23-00:0:51). The outrage over the murder of these 146 workers was so great that 100,000 people marched in the funeral procession and another 400,000 lined the streets with the plea of, “Who was going to protect the working girl?” (00:01:24-00:01:41). The people of New York recognized the wrong doing

Every time an employee leaves an organization, that organization suffers major costs for the parting and replacement of the employee that has left. Trade Unions help reduce this employee turnover rate immensely because of better management skills, better communication between and laws that leave the organization as well as the employee covered and protected if the parting with the employee is done unlawfully.

It is the most fundamental and primary function of workers associations, which are widely known as trade unions all over the world. Collective bargaining is also known as a type of employer–employee relations that gives opportunity to the employees to be heard in the workplace on matter that effect them. Collective bargaining gives employees the advantage of being able to speak with one voice.