Public Worker Strikes Should public workers have the right to strike? If you said yes, you are saying that public workers should be able to fight for safer surroundings. A teacher strike in 2012 did not prove to be very beneficial to anyone. When these teachers went on strike, many students did not get the proper education fundamentals. Public workers should have the right to strike while public service officers should not. I believe this because public workers need a say in their environment, strikes are a last resort and are not used lightly, and public service officers work in very dangerous surroundings, so if something's not right it could easily be fatal to one of the officers or a bystander. That is why they should find peace through arbitration and not riots and strikes. If they are not at work, chaos will erupt. Public workers should have the right to strike, while public service officers should not. Public workers need to have a say in their environment. Their working conditions are very important. Strikes can be used efficiently and …show more content…
This is an important question that needs to be brought up in the decision of striking rights. Yes, crimes and deaths would increase if people in the crime and rescue departments went out of the line of duty and put on a strike. There is a simple solution to this problem. We can either solve this problem by relying on arbitration, or take more precautions. If the arbitration does not please the public service workers, we can make a way for the workers to vote on what they would like to have. If this majority vote works, there would be no need for rioting. In Source #3, Mia Lewis says, “To win a strike, you must still be seen as righteous and worthy to the public”. If criminals went on rampage, I don’t think a striking police officer would be seen as worthy or righteous. Arbitration is a great way to settle any
This strike was a battle over several issues. One factor that escalated the strike intensity was the pensions battle. Billons of dollars in pensions were on the line. The Teamste...
... (Piven & Cloward, 18) Workers protest by striking against their employer, it is easier for employees to protest because they are all located and working together under one roof and are fighting for one thing, and that one thing is related to the workplace. While it is easier for employees to protest, it is not that easy for lower class employees to protest because they have little ability to protect themselves against their institutional managers. When the lower class workers have an informal organizational protest the government is eventually stepping in to disarm the protestors and make efforts to conciliate, “…mobs of unemployed were granted relief in the 1930s…” (Piven & Cloward, 29) The protests cause disruption and sometimes that disruption can make a change but when people are protesting blindly they are more prone to social injustice then making a change.
This type of strike would be similar to something unions would embrace today. Things changes when it seemed the Carnegie Steel was going to try and bring in replacement workers for those on strike. The company was within limits of the law if they brought non-union members in to work. The first official battle occurred on July 6 because it was discovered that 300 Pinkerton detectives were coming ashore from up the river to the Carnegie Mills. The union workers were then going to seize the mills and keep out all people working for Carnegie. They were going to take control of the facility in order to try and persuade management to agree to their terms. The union members were aware of replacements coming in and planned to stop them at all costs. At this point gunfire began from parties on either side; both the strikers and the detectives. It was never clearly recorded who took the first shot, but more union members were in trouble than anyone else. About 11 men died, two from the Pinkertons and 9 from the union. An incredibly large number of men on both sides were also injured from the battle. In the days following the battle, it was discussed between the AA and the company to end the rioting that had begun yet there were no signs of the strike stopping. Militia was called in and remained for a while, and troops were given warrants to arrest members of the strike for murder and other crimes. However, the
In conclusion, the period from 1875 to 1890 brought many attempts at bettering the working conditions, but many of the working class’s attempts at being recognized went unnoticed. This resulted in violence, frustration, and unnecessary deaths. The series of failed strikes and attempts to receive government intervention resulted in heightened anger among the employees. Without an increase in wages, decrease in working hours, and improvement of working facilities, many workers left their jobs leaving the employer angry and in need of workers. None were available, however, because they were either protesting for better working conditions, signing a contract with a better company, or blocking rail and roadways in order to get their points across to the government.
Union efforts to improve the lives of workers consistently met with resistance, oftentimes violent, from businesses, police and the government throughout their turbulent history; and yet unions have persevered and were able to improve working conditions. The National Labor...
Teachers’ strikes seem to occur whenever satisfactions are not met in the contract. Whether it happened in recent times or many years ago, salary improvement has always been the number one issue. The American Federation of Teachers (AFT) and the National Education Association (NEA) think that teacher’s salaries are lower than other workers in other private companies, the service, or some of the organizations. Government reduced the budget of the education through cutting down the salaries and dismissing a number of employees.
From 1870 to 1890, the laborers of America came to realize the dangerous conditions and unfair pay they were working for. These conditions developed out of the expansion of industry which required more laborers to work for less pay in order for the employer to achieve the same profit. Employers were in a sense, cheating their workers with long work days and very few benefits. In response, workers began to form large unions, both nonviolent and violent, such as the Knights of Labor and the American Federation of Labor (AFL). Smaller unions were also formed but they were short lived and held no substantial power to improve the working environment of the laborer. Strikes were frequent and when laborers became aware of them, the strikes spread to different cities. The Haymarket Riot and the Great Railroad Strikes are prime examples of violent strikes that ultimately led to the improvement of labor conditions. Of all the efforts on part of the laborers, it was the violent strikes in the 1870’s - 1890’s, such as the Haymarket Riot, that caught the attention of employers and motivated them to listen to the laborers and improve working conditions and wages.
...ise in ways to easily break strikes, and the passage of anti-union legislation. While strikes have become much harder to begin and maintain successfully, citizens vying for change now have a better opportunity of reaching each other using vast media supplied by the internet, allowing for a chance of forming larger coalitions around the country .The methods used by social movements in the past still have great potential to show our current generations feasible ways of gaining social benefits, and while some actions may be considered radical, the drive and organization the labor movement displayed could still easily prove successful. A movement away from the endless and scattered interest groups and more towards organized and larger movements aiming for improving the greater social good could bring about political and economic improvement that many Americans desire.
Labor unions were established as a way for workers’ needs and grievances to be heard by management. According to Fossum (2012), “forming a union creates a collective voice to influence change at work” (p. 7). The collective voice of workers in a union holds much more power than any single employee’s voice. It can loudly draw attention to mistreatment or abuse of workers. The organized collective voice of workers demands to be treated in a fair way by its management in terms of wages, hours, benefits, and working conditions.
They are appropriate in many situations to ensure the demands of the employees are properly addressed and potentially adhered to. Management and unions seek to avoid a strike. With an honest assessment of the internal resources and external forces that affect union strategy, the union should be able to identify concrete accomplishments that are within reach and those matters that would be nice but are probably unachievable (Missouri, 2015). An example is the NFL referees union that organized a strike in 2012. The strike materialized for two primary reasons. First, the referees were seeking benefits that they put at $16.5 million over the five years of a new contract (Mills, 2012). Secondly, the NFL felt as if they could use replacement referees until the referees union
The Norris-La Guardia Act of 1932 was one of the first major pieces of federal legislation establishing the rights of unions and union members. This act granted workers the right to organize and strike without fear of federal interference (CSU-Global, 2013). Norris-La Guardia limited the ability of the federal government and employers to engage in anti-union activities (Fossum, 2012). Workers were no longer required to sign “yellow dog contracts” which prevented them from joining unions and allowed dismissal due to union membership (Reed & Bogardus, 2012, p. 419). Although it legalized collective bargaining, the scope of Norris-La Guardia was somewhat limited because employers were not required to recognize labor unions established by employees (Fossum, 2012). Even so, passage of the Norris-La Guardia Act gave workers a foundation on which to as...
Unions have an extensive history of standing up for workers. They have advocated rights of steelworkers, coal miners, clothing factory employees, teachers, health care workers, and many others. The labor movement is based on the idea that organized workers as a group have more power than individuals would have on their own. The key purpose of any union is to negotiate contracts, making sure workers are respected and fairly compensated for their work. “In theory” unions are democratic organizations, resulting in varying inner authority. Workers look for security within a job a...
My first reason supporting the motion that workers should be allowed to strike is in order to bring to the fore poor safety conditions. For instance, in the nuclear power industry, any breaches of safety can have tragic consequences. If the employees are exposed to nuclear material, this could lead to serious illnesses such as cancer, leukaemia and radiation sickness. Radioactive material could also affect residents of the surrounding area, as in the case of the Chernobyl disaster. In the light of poor safety conditions, workers striking can be justified by the fact that the government and public would be informed.
They have higher rates of substance abuse, divorce, suicide, burnout, job dissatisfaction. This is not surprising considering the dangers and challenges police face in the course of their duties.
In an effort to address the burred and rough spots found by Quality Control on several defective panels, upper management uncovered several poor managerial decisions and employee relations issues. In order to stay competitive within the automotive industry, the company must make some major decisions. A decision to support one of their line supervisors’ decisions of disciplining an employee could cause a potential strike. Although, a decision of not supporting their line supervisor could potentially avoid a strike and paint a positive image in the company.