Unemployment And The Rise Of Precarious And Part Time Work

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The issues facing workers and unions include unemployment and the rise of precarious and part time work. Unemployment occurs is when workers have a difficulty in finding a job. Technological changes can play a negative factor because it works against unskilled workers (Johansen & Strom, 2001, p. 388). In today's society many individuals’ jobs are not permanent, as one can lose their job in a flash. An example would be machines taking over people's jobs; this can save a lot of money for the business. The goal of employment and unemployment is to focus on full time and part time jobs (Montgomery, 1989, p. 171). There are positive and negatives of employment and unemployment. It is surprising to see that when increasing wages in a union sector …show more content…

Working for a job that offers a satisfying income can help the workers a lot. A negative factor would be if union wages were inflexible over time and that increased unionism will lead to more layoffs (Montgomery, 1989, p. 177). Another example, which is important, is that individuals will look for union jobs rather than non-union jobs because of the wages (Montgomery, 1989, p. 177). When unemployment rises it causes individuals not to work at jobs that offer low wages Montgomery, 1989, p. 177). If I had to pick between working in a non-union job or a union job, I would definitely work in a union job. The reason is because of the benefits, wages, security, environment and safety that meet the needs of the workers. Unions have an impact on employment as they can fix problems in the workplace but, at times it can result in unemployment. It's important to realize that in Ontario, 38% of the Canadian workforce was undergoing a decline in unionization from 1981 (33.7%) to 2004 (Kumar & Schenk, 2006, p. 50). The rise of precarious and part time work is issue that impacts unions and …show more content…

53). Low wages are not the only factors that have a major impact on workers. Other factors such as quality of employment, providing poor job security and low benefits have a negative impact on workers working in non- union jobs (Kumar & Schenk, 2006, p. 53-54). Individuals seeking jobs face many problems and when they are either fired or let go, it is hard for them to find another job. An example would be getting hired through a temporary employment, the next week get a contract and then the week after that find out that they are no employed (Cranford & Ladd, 2003, p. 46). The positive of being in a union is that individuals are not easily fired or let go as there are many stages to go through. The growth of precariousness in the Canadian labour market affects immigrants and women workers (Cranford & Ladd, 2003, p. 46). In Canada, there a lot of people that have full time jobs which are permanent and that there is a growing number of people who have temporary or contract jobs (Cranford & Ladd, 2003, p. 46-47). Temporary and contract job have their negatives because individual are not 100% guaranteed their

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