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The role of unions today
What do unions do? essays
What do unions do? essays
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Collective Bargaining Unions provide a vital service for employees and management by negotiating contracts, ensuring workplace safety, and representing employees in grievance hearings. While there are hundreds of unions in the United States, this paper focuses on three major unions, the National Treasury Employees Union (NTEU), the American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees (AFSCME), and the American Federation of Teachers (AFT). Furthermore, this paper will compare and contrast these agencies, summarize their roles in optimizing employee relations with organizations, describe four challenges management and union officials face, and evaluate privatization as a means of breaking public employee unions. Compare and Contrast Three Unions The NTEU started in 1938 as the National Association of Employees of Collectors of the Internal Revenue (NAECIR) to reflect their expanded membership they changed their name to NTEU in 1973 (History of NTEU, n.d.). The NTEU is an independent organization whose mission is "to organize federal employees to work together to ensure that every federal employee is treated with dignity" (Who We Are, n.d.). While the AFSCME started in 1932, in response to the depression and out fear of the reestablishment of the spoils system their mission "to promote, defend, and enhance the civil service system" (AFSCME: 75 Years of History, n.d.). Whereas the AFT started in 1916 Chicago as part of their mission, they sought to increase wages for all members including women and minorities (AFT History, n.d.). Consequently, the AFT and the AFSCME full under the AFL-CIO and the NTEU remains independent. While the AFT focuses on educators, the AFSCME centers on state and local employees and... ... middle of paper ... ...s, R. S. (2011). Blue-collar public servants : How union membership influences public service motivation. The American Review of Public Administration, 41(6), 705-723. doi:10.1177/0275074010392367 Kearney, R. C. (2011). Randi Weingarten, the American Federation of Teachers, and the challenges of policy leadership in a hostile environment. Public Administration Review, 71(5), 772-781. doi:10.1111/j.1540-6210.2011.02418.x Masters, M. F. (1998). AFSCME as a political union. Journal of Labor Research, 19(2), 313-350. Perry, J. L., & Wise, L. R. (1990). The motivational bases of public service. Public Administration Review, 50(3), 367-373. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/976618 Tobias, R. M. (2004). The future of federal government labor relations and the mutual interests of congress, the administration, and unions. Journal of Labor Research, 25(1), 19-41.
The paper will discuss minicases on ‘The White-Collar Union Organizer’ and ‘The Frustrated Labor Historians’ by Arthur A. Sloane and Fred Witney (2010), to understand the issues unions undergo in the marketplace. There is no predetermined statistical number reported of union memberships in this country. However, “the United Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) excludes almost 2 million U.S wages and salary employees, over half of whom are employed in the public sector, who are represented at their workplaces by a union but are not union members. Not being required to join a union as a condition of continued employment, these employees have for a variety of reasons chosen not to do so. Nor do the BLS estimates include union members who are currently unemployed” (Sloane & Witney, 2010, p.5). Given this important information, the examination of these minicases will provide answers to the problems unions face in organizational settings.
It is the first national organization raised by the American working class. Social Labor Party was founded in 1876 to form the center of the socialist movement in the United States, the decline of the late 19th century. In 1901, the American Socialist Party stead. 1919 suddenly decline. In the same year, the US Communist Labor Party and the Communist Party of the United States was born. In 1921 the two parties merged, said the US Communist Party. In the same year the rapid collapse after losing presidential campaign, only Minnesota agrarian labor longer exists, it is the history of the United States effective local third party. In the mid-1880s, it had a huge number of members. Later, due to the leadership class cooperation policy in the late 1980s it declined sharply. American Federation of Labor (the “AFL”) then took its place. Its predecessor was the trade unions and the Confederation of Labor of the United States and Canada organized. The organization was established in November 1881 in Pittsburgh. 1886, launched the “51” national general strike, the end of the restructuring is to AFL Gompers President. American Federation of Labor was founded in 1881 was a great influence of labor organizations. It was a loose coalition of various trade unions organized by industry for skilled workers. Because of the leadership’s extraordinary organizational skills and it lasted as long as 40 years, the AFL has absorbed many
In 1794 organized labor unions were formed to protect workers from poor working conditions and low wages. The Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor were formed in the late 1800’s. (Difference Between Knights of Labor and AFL). Both the Knights of Labor and The American Federation of Labor original goals were to improve working conditions for employees. Although the unions started out separately, during hard times and low membership they had to combine worker unions to regain their strength.
Throughout the history of the United States of America the continuation of misfortunes for the workforce has aggravated people to their apex, eventually leading to the development of labor unions.
Yellin, Samuel. American Labor Struggles New York: Harcourt, Brace and Co. 1936; Reprinted New York: Arno Press, 1970.
Union affiliation was first seen in the 1600’s when the roots of the United States were just being planted with skilled trade groups such as artisans, laborers, goldsmiths and printers. Over the next two hundred years, unions developed their desires for higher wages through the use of strikes and protests. The nation’s progress spurred the need for more labor and so began the Industrial Revolution. During the Revolution, many union members began to witness the power that employers had and as a result decided to make use of the concept of power in numbers. The National Labor Union formed in 1866 and worked to persuade congress to set a Federal eight-hour workday, which applied to government employees (Miller). Many large unions formed following in the NLU’s footsteps and uni...
Obama owes his presidency to the unions; therefore, everything he does is payback for that support. Every piece of legislation passed during Obama’s presidency has been a socialistic, redistribution of income to please the unions. He has a complicit Congress in complete agreement with his agenda of totally t...
American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) think that teacher’s salaries were lower than other workers in other private company, the service, or some of the organization. Government reduced the budget of the education through cutting down the salaries and dismissing a number of employees. Teachers began to negotiating their safeguards even to rise the strike.
This is better explained by the public servant knowing why he is doing the job and who it is benefiting, socially, and how he is impacting and making a change for the better in their own mind, personal. In the first two “chapters” of Caught between the Dog and the Fireplug, or How to
40). Public service motivation is a crucial component in public administration and nonprofits due to the nature and mission of these organizations. In the case study, the King County Library System did foster PSM through hiring the right people dedicated to their jobs, but they failed to promote it throughout the organization by providing further training and education and clarifying goals and empowering
Throughout American history, labor unions have served to facilitate mediation between workers and employers. Workers seek to negotiate with employers for more control over their labor and its fruits. “A labor union can best be defined as an organization that exists for the purpose of representing its members to their employers regarding wages and terms and conditions of employment” (Hunter). Labor unions’ principal objectives are to increase wages, shorten work days, achieve greater benefits, and improve working conditions. Despite these goals, the early years of union formation were characterized by difficulties (Hunter).
Domhoff discusses the prevalence of labor unions in the New Deal era. In fact, by 1945, with the help of the liberal-labor alliances, union membership had increased five-fold to fifteen million in that past decade (pg. 172). However, after 1945, the liberal-labor alliances never saw a victory against corporate conservatives. Because of the corporate world’s domination of policy implementation, politicians rules time and again against labor unions because it works in corporate America’s favor. Labor unions serve as many working class Americans’ avenue into the political sphere; denying them a right to unionize is not only a fundamental violation of free speech but also morally and ethically wrong. Overall, Domhoff’s critique of wealthy politicians (primarily Republicans) is merited considering he argues empirically with statistics supporting extremely skewed voting trends against unions. Additionally, Domhoff’s argument exudes sympathy toward those less fortunate; I share Domhoff’s sentiment that is imperative we promote equality amongst classes, one way in which we should do so is through advocacy of labor
Flanagan, R. J. (2005). Has Management Strangled U.S. Unions? Journal of Labor Research, 26(1), 33-63.
CBA  Collective Bargaining Agreements A collective bargaining agreement collectively sets the terms on which an employer offers individual work contracts to each of its employees in the bargaining unit. A bargaining agreement, also herein referred to as a labour agreement, is a legally enforceable written commitment, which states the rights and duties of all parties involved. The labour agreement should be made in good faith and is intended to be observed and not violated. The National Labour Relations Act obligates employers and unions to bargain in good faith concerning terms and conditions of employment, including hours and wages. Like any normal contract, competent parties must enter into a labour agreement.
Collective bargaining is the process in which employers and unions undergo a series of negotiations that include terms and typical of collective bargaining where both parties concur to conditions of employment. These conditions may include wages, hours, and working conditions (Budd 229).