Importance of Unions

 

HR MANAGEMENT AND UNION RELATIONSHIP.

 

Importance of Unions:

A trade union is an group of workers or employees who have united to achieve common goals in areas such as in working conditions and protecting and promoting their mutual interests through collective action (Shrestha, 2012).

At the organisation level, Budd et al (2010), stated that unions not only provide employee voice, but that this collective voice is reasonably exceptional to exit and individual voice because of collective, majority-based decision-making. Much of the traditional research has therefore focused on analysing the degree to which labour unions affect compensation, benefits, and productivity (Bennett & Kaufman, 2007). The union also is involved through consultation in the development, implementation, the review, and the modification in anything that concerns its members (Moeti-lysson & Ongori, 2014). With all the above new avenues, unions primary goals are protecting employees from unfair labour practices, encourage training of employees, offer incentives to members (Swarnalatha & Sureshkrishna, 2011).

Robert B. Reich (2019) explains (Ref: Video 1) that unions balance power between workers and managers. In the video it is further explained that future workplace requires a strong union existence.

Video 1: Why union matter to you?  

(Source: Inequality Media, 2019)

With reference to the Figure 1, it has been explained that declining number of union membership has directly affected the income of the middle class workers (Madland & Rowell, 2016). 

Figure 1: Union membership vs Middle-class income.

(Source: Center for American Progress Action Fund, 2016)

In management perspective, unions can enhance productivity by improving communication between workers and management (Doucouliagos & Laroche, 2003). The opening of communications channels between management and workers can result in integrative rather than distributive bargaining (Dhal, 2015). Unions may provide additional information to a firm about the preferences of employees, thus permitting the firm to choose a better mix among working conditions, workplace rules, and wage levels (Rau, 2012).

Managerial responsiveness is more towards unionized employees because unions presents a collective arguments unlike individual problems (Bryson, 2004). Unions identify the most common and pressing matters at hand and prioritize the order in which they should be addressed, this is normally has to be done by the management if there was no union (Douglas, 2011).  

COVID-19 pandemic has created huge insecurity in the job market associated with the economic downfall (ILO-OECD, 2020). It has been elaborated in researcher done by McNicholas et al (2020), unionized workers surviving the pandemic successfully than the un-unionized workers due to protection of union voice. Employees with strong unions have been able to set industry standards for earnings and benefits that help all workers, both union and nonunion (Rhinehart & McNicholas 2020). Never has it been more important that all workers have a voice in the workplace and access to a union and workers’ lives and the health and safety of working families depends on their ability to have a say in how they do their jobs (Deborah & Sonn, 2020).

Unionized workers are less likely to be in uncertain employment compared to non-unionized workers as half of non-unionized workers are outside of stable and secure employment (PEPSO, 2017). As a whole unions improve the benefit levels of employees than un-unionized employees (Budd, 2005).

    

Reference:

Bennett, J.  Kaufman, B. (2007) What Do Unions Do?, A Twenty-year Perspective. Transaction Publishers, New Brunswick.

Bryson, A. (2004) ‘Managerial responsiveness to union and nonunion worker voice in Britain’, Industrial Relations, 43(1), pp. 213–241. doi: 10.1111/j.0019-8676.2004.00324.x.

Budd, J. (2005) ‘The effect of unions on employee benefits: Updated employer expenditure results’, Journal of Labor Research, 26(4), pp. 669–676. doi: 10.1007/s12122-005-1004-6.

Budd, J., Gollan, P. & Wilkinson, A. (2010) ‘New approaches to employee voice and participation in organizations’, Human Relations, 63(3), pp. 303–310. doi: 10.1177/0018726709348938.

Deborah, B. & Sonn, P. (2020) Protecting Worker Safety & Health in the COVID Crisis: A State & Local Model Policy Response. National Employment Law Project, 1(2), pp.23-26.

Dhal, M. (2015) HR Practices & Union Management Relationship on JSTOR. Available at: https://www.jstor.org/stable/24547011?seq=1#metadata_info_tab_ contents.

Doucouliagos, C. & Laroche, P. (2003) ‘What do unions do to productivity? A meta-analysis’, Industrial Relations, 42(4), pp. 650–691. doi: 10.1111/1468-232X.00310.

Douglas, C. (2011) The Advantages and of Unionization in the Workplace. Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Michigan.

ILO-OECD (2020) ‘The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on jobs and incomes in G20 economies’, p. 46. Available at: https://www.ilo.org.

Madland, B. & Rowell, A. (2016) Unions Help the Middle Class, No Matter the Measure. Center for American Progress Action, pp. 1–13.

McNicholas, C., Rhinehart, L., Poydock, M., Shierholz H. & Perez, D. (2020) Why unions are good for workers, especially in a crisis like COVID-19. https://www.epi.org/publication/why-unions-are-good-for-workers-especially-in-a-crisis-like-covid-19-12-policies-that-would-boost-worker-rights-safety-and-wages. Accessed on: 04/09/2021.

Moeti-lysson, J. & Ongori, H. (2014) Effectiveness of trade unions. Promoting employee relations, 1(4), pp.57-64.

PEPSO (2017) The Union Advantage : Unions and the Response to Precarious Work Series.

Rau, L. (2012) ‘The diffusion of HR practices in unions’, Human Resource Management Review, 22(1), pp. 27–42. doi: 10.1016/j.hrmr.2011.06.001.

Rhinehart, L. & McNicholas, C. (2020). Collective Bargaining Beyond the Worksite. How Workers and Their Unions Build Power and Set Standards for Their Industries, 1(5), pp.51-57.

Shrestha, B. (2012) The effect of trade unionism on workers. A case Study on PAM, pp. 3–86.

Swarnalatha, C. & Sureshkrishna, G. (2011) Job satisfaction and quality of work life among employees of automotive industries. Global J. of Arts & Mgmt., 1 (3): 59-62.