Merits and Demerits of Trade Unions Essay

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Trade unions have emerged as vital parts of the modern working environment to an extent they are regarded as crucial components of the social fabric and economic future. This paper examines the advantages and disadvantages of labor unions in the modern workplace, especially with regards to representing workers' interest and negotiating for better working conditions and incentives. The author begins with examining the history of these organizations with regards to their development and increased spread in the workplace. In this case, the author demonstrates that labor organizations started in the early 18th Century and played a crucial role in America's independence. Moreover, the author discusses how these organizations exploded in the 19th Century, particularly during the Industrial Revolution, which contributed to the influx of new employees into the workplace.

The discussion of the development and growth of labor unions is followed by an analysis of the reasons for unions. In this segment, the author examines the factors that contributed to the emergence of these organizations and the reasons for their existence. This analysis entails the reasons for the emergence of trade unions from the employers and employees' perspectives. The next segment of the paper provides a discussion of the advantages of labor unions in relation to modern practices in the working environment. The final segment of the article provides a discussion about the disadvantages of trade unions. During this process, the author examines how these disadvantages have played a major role in resistance of labor unions by many employers across different industries and sectors.

Pros and Cons of Unions Today

Unions have been part of the labor activities and organization for a long period in the country's history. These organizations are organized and established in different sectors and industries for various purposes including fighting for better pay, education and public participation, better and safer conditions of work, and health care and retirement benefits. Throughout their existence, labor unions have brought various voices together and acted as crucial factors in employment negotiations between employers and employees. Generally, labor unions have played a crucial role in elevating working conditions and improving living standards and recognition of their members as well as non-members. However, labor unions are associated with some advantages and disadvantages that have influenced their growth in the recent past despite their significance in the social fabric and economic future.

History of Unions

Unions in today's labor department are recognized as vital parts of the social fabric and economic future and not simply regarded as orthodox organizations whose time has elapsed. Unions have been part of the history of the United States for a long period of time and have continued to emerge to fight for various issues, particularly better pay and improved and safer working conditions (Brazile, 2012). It is reported that labor unions have existed in America in some form since the formation of the country as there have been various organizations advocating for safe working conditions.

However, the origin or birth of labor unions can be traced back to the 18th Century, especially during the Industrial Revolution in Europe. The emergence of labor unions during this period was influenced by the huge influx of new employees into the working environment that required representation. In the United States, the history of labor unions dates back to the period of the nation's birth because early workers and these organizations played vital roles for the nation's independence. Despite emerging during the birth of the nation, labor unions exploded in the 19th Century following the establishment of the National Labor Union in 1866 ("The History of Labor Unions," n.d.). This was followed by the emergence of the Knights of Labor in 1869, which had approximately 700,000 members and channeled its efforts on dealing with major issues such as demands for working hours and opposition to child labor.

The American Federation of Labor, which was established in 1886, remains the most prominent trade union in the country's history. This organization once had nearly 1.4 million members and is credited for extraordinary success in negotiating for increased wages and improved work safety for its members and all workers. Notably, membership and power of trade unions peaked during the 1970s though membership in unions in the public sector started to decline till date. In contrast, membership in public sector labor unions has continued to grow steadily to more than 36% based on recent statistics.

Reasons for Unions

As previously mentioned, trade unions have developed and continued to grow for various reasons that are largely attributed to handling workers' interests and improving working conditions.

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The first reason for the development and increased growth of unions is to negotiate better pay and benefits for their members. From a general point-of-view, union jobs have better pay than non-union jobs, which has been a major reason why some companies and business have started to resist them in the recent past. Actually, recent statistics indicate that union wages are relatively between 10 and 20% more than non-union wages. Moreover, trade unions play a crucial role in negotiating better benefits for employees including pensions, holidays, overtime premiums, paid vacation, sick pay, and medical insurance.

The second reason for the development and growth of unions is their role in negotiating for better and safer work conditions for their members and non-members as well. Actually, unionized workplaces are considered safer than non-unionized working environments (Macaray, 2011). This is primarily because labor unions give employees an immediate platform and right to deal with an unsafe condition in the working environment. Third, unions exist to fight any unsuitable practice in the workplace that could be detrimental or harmful to employees. Unions achieve this through activism and helps in ensuring employers establish suitable work practices depending on required standards.

Pros of Unions

Throughout their history, labor unions have developed and continued to steadily grow because of the numerous advantages associated with them. While employers seemingly argue that unions are harmful to business operations and detrimental to the economy, these organizations are seemingly more beneficial or advantageous to employees. The first advantage of labor unions is that they contribute to better wages, benefits and working conditions for their members and non-members in some cases. This advantage is attributed to the ability of these organizations to negotiate for better working conditions and terms for employees depending on the specific job sector or industry.

The second advantage of unions in today's working environment is job security. Non-union workers are generally employed at will and can be terminated or fired for no apparent substantial reason though without violation of exceptions in labor laws. In contrast, unionized employees can only be fired or terminated for a just cause or in case of misconduct. However, the misconduct that leads to termination needs to be severe enough to warrant such decision. Actually, unions help workers to go through a comprehensive grievance process before termination is considered as the most suitable course of action.

Third, unions provide strength in numbers since unionized employees have more power to work cohesively and collaboratively rather than acting individually as in the case of non-unionized workers. Therefore, unions enable workers to have the muscle of collective action, which has become an essential element in collective bargaining and management of working conditions (Keller, 2012).

Finally, unions sometimes influence job promotion depending on seniority. Seniority is a crucial factor in layoffs where despite differences in rules of collective bargaining agreements, employers are always required to dismiss the most recently hired workers. This implies that the most senior employees in terms of when they were hired are usually the last to be fired. In some situations, seniority is used as a factor in receiving preference for an open job, especially job promotion. The use of seniority in job promotion is based on the fact that it eliminates favoritism in the working environment, which helps in maintaining a healthy and fair workforce.

Cons of Unions

Despite their numerous advantages, labor unions are also associated with several disadvantages, especially from employers' perspectives of their role and impact on the working environment and work practices. The first disadvantage of trade unions is that they are linked to high initiation fees and dues. In some cases, union dues can be at least $200, which implies that they relatively offset the higher wages they negotiate for. In this case, while these organizations help employees obtain higher wages, they eventually obtain the wage difference with non-unionized workers through high initiation fees and union dues. Unions charge high dues and initiation fees because the money is used to pay the salaries of their officials and for conducting union operations.

Secondly, unions contribute to loss of independence since members become dependent on unions for relatively all issues relating to their employment. This implies that union membership makes a worker to lose direct contact and relationship with the employer. Actually, the other side of enhance job security brought by labor unions is that unions force their members to sacrifice individuality by becoming part of a group and obtaining representation. In….....

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