Labor and management are indispensable in the decision making processes of industries. They have to reach a compromise and draw up contracts in the making of economic settlements. Where unions and management within industries differ, employees lose money in terms of income when strikes are issued. The collective bargaining that unions undertake result in increased costs of management and ultimately translate into benefits to employees.
Unions increase employment for members through negotiating for better salaries and compensation for members and advocating for better working conditions that enhance the productivity of employees. Unions can also engage in advertising the products and services that are offered by the companies they are affiliated to (Russel, 2015). Unions also need the support of government policies and need to advance aggressive campaigns that champion the needs of their members (United Press International, 2000).
Delegate your assignment to our experts and they will do the rest.
Research has advanced that union workers are more loyal to their employees compared to non-union workers. Loyalty in this spectrum has been analyzed as the difference between employees choosing the uncertainties of exercising the power of their voice compared to the certainty of exit. When union members exercise their voice, their manner of grievance filing, handling and resolution depict the union’s dispute resolution procedures of employment-related grievances (Lewin, 2017) .
Unions and management do not necessarily have to act as adversaries. In drawing up contracts and making negotiations, both have to compromise in order for unions to gain better deals for their members and for management to function effectively and efficiently. This translates into greater levels of employment, higher growth levels and stability within the industry.
Research has shown that unions have two aspects, that of institutional response or collective voice and that of monopoly. These aspects are attributed to the fact that established authority is often challenged by dissatisfied citizens and yet customers seldom switch their preferences to other firms. In taking employment relationship conflict in the subordinate form, emphasis was placed on efficiency as a monopoly aspect of unionism and governance as a voice aspect of unionism. Efficiency was taken as largely negative while governance had positive effects, such that the positive outweighs the negative (Lewin, 2017) .
This aspect of the employment relationship conflict is important in the spectrum of viewing the relationship between industry unions and industry management. This would help in determining any unobserved productivity differences between management and unions (Lewin, 2017) . Most employers are opposed to unions and there has been a general decline in unionism, thus recommendations have been passed to revise the labor laws, weaken the monopoly face while strengthening the voice face.
The goals of labor unions are to achieve the best employment conditions and the highest level of income for their members. Unions are crucial in industries and public sectors in determining salaries, health benefits and employment opportunities for members. The underground economy that involves illegal immigrants has caused an unlikely collaboration between unions and industry management as would otherwise lose ( Watts, 2018) . Unions fear that cheap labor may undercut the wages and cause poor working conditions for their members while management fears hiring unqualified professionals.
References
Lewin, D. (2017). Unionism and employment conflict resolution: Rethinking collective voice and its consequences. In What Do Unions Do? (pp. 313-345). Routledge.
Russel, M. (2015, December 22) South Africa apparel industry rising. Just-style.com
United Press International (2000, October 24). Advertisers’ call new contract ‘historic’. Accessed 21 Nov. 2018 from http://link.galegroup.com/apps/doc.
Watts, J. R. (2018). Immigration policy and the challenge of globalization: Unions and employers in unlikely alliance . Cornell University Press.
