1. Introduction
Gall, Gregor, Adrian, and Richard (27) define Labor Unions as legal entities that represent the interest of workers in a country. These labor unions draw their members from employees of various industries that they serve like Teachers, Physicians, and Health Practitioners, Lawyers and business people etcetera in a country. Their primary objective is to bargain collectively for workers’ rights and privileges and be a watchdog over employers and ensure they adhere to the contracts with their respective employees. Durrenberger and Karaleah (56) add that in some countries like India and France, labor unions are political in nature and can take part in lobbying, advising the governments, influencing national politics and formulation of policies. Notably, membership to labor unions has been on the decline globally due the fact that public sector jobs are diminishing significantly while private sectors expand and the industry is notorious for opposing these unions.
Labor unions have the origin in the 19th century during the industrial revolution. This revolution brought with it massive social and human rights violation for workers where employers in factories overworked and underpaid workers. Unions mushroomed backed by governments, and they were able to streamline these industries, since then they have been in existence with numerous ups and downs because of global events like the great depression of the 1930s and market liberalization of 1980s that shifted manufacturing to China, India, and Thailand to cut operation costs. Additionally, capital flights, government policies and global competition influence these unions (Gall, Gregor, Adrian Wilkinson, & Hurd, 34).
2. Pros of Labor Unions
Labor unions are of benefit to three main parties in any nation where they exist; that is: The employees, the employers and the government (Gall et al., 45)
Employees are the main beneficiaries in this case and due to this, they usually have an excellent job security. This is because it is the labor union that has the final say on whether to terminate employment or whether to proceed with disciplinary action in case of unethical behavior by a worker. Another benefit is that employees in a union usually receive more salaries and wages than their non-unionized counterparts. The reason behind this is that these unions can engage employers on a one to one basis and by so doing strike a favorable bargain for the workers.
Statistics have also shown that employees in labor unions are happy because they enjoy designated sick leaves, vocational holidays and career and salary advancement. Most importantly, these unions promote the welfare of their members themselves through offering financial services like savings at high interest, loans at low rates, insurance cover, credit cards issuance, home mortgages, car rental to name but a few (Schiavone &Michael, 89).
The second beneficiaries of the labor union are the employers and company management systems.
They benefit because they usually have high-quality workers as the labor unions try their level best to keep up with the pace of trends in the particular industry by training their members, this reduces the budgets of the human resource development programs for them. Managers are also able to operate on a stable basis as the agreements that are usually agreed collectively go undisputed by either party until their expiry. Another advantage of labor unions to company management is that since the payments and benefits are accepted for a period, the financial situation of organizations can be predicted, and the management can, therefore, make informed decisions in strategic planning for future programs.
The government also benefits because of the labor unions due to the official nature of labor unions all salaries and benefits are known to the taxation authorities which can collect taxes efficiently as tax evasion for unionized workers almost impossible. In some countries, the government can be able to know the extent of the macroeconomic problem of unemployment and make the necessary policy amendments. The governments can be able to serve the people of a country effectively by adhering to recommendations of these labor unions as they represent the interests of workers who are citizens as voters. In cases where labor unions are strongly political, there is a strong voice of control that puts the governments in check as the government opposition parties normally do. The final benefit to the state, though callous, is the fact that labor unions can influence the elections and reelections of government in countries as they have strong ground root network (Schiavone, &Michael, 39).
3. Cons of Labor Unions
Recently, there has been a widespread opinion in the world over that labor unions are disastrous to economies and therefore unfavorable in various ways. However, this is not the actual case as the benefits these unions bring far outweigh the cons though the cons can be few, they can have serious consequences that can take years to rectify. Likewise to the pros, there are also drawbacks to the employees, employers, and the government.
Finally, the government suffers greatly at the hands of labor unions. As is the case for the company management, Schiavone & Michael, (20) believe that these labor unions can coerce the government to do as they wish by threatening the government with de-popularization causing the government to take actions that are popular yet not economically viable. The public sector that includes the federal, state and local governments have workers who are members of unions because labor unions are sluggish in taking disciplinary action, the result is that the service delivery and production cycle suffer incompetence and services rendered are poor leading to public distrust. This problem is more pronounces in countries with weak institutions in the developing world.
Another widely known problem that is still subject to debate is that labor unions scare away investors to particular industries, this is because their standards may not be feasible to them. In another perspective, the industries whose workers are in labor unions may be operating on unsustainable basis due to the unreasonable demands by labor unions; this can cause capital flights and crumbling of institutions. For instance, various manufacturing sectors crumbled because of the demands of labor unions, other manufacturing sectors like cotton industries shifted their operation to the Asia and other countries with cheap labor where labor unions were nonexistent (Palokangas &Tapio, 56).
4. Conclusion
Labor Unions started initially as an avenue of collectively bargaining for rights of employees. It was as a result of the continuous violation of their rights by their employers. However, much has passed under the bridge as the labor unions serve their purpose and even surpassed expectations by being political and acquiring nationally recognized voices. However, in the recent decades, labor union membership prevalence has been on a decline in the world, and their relevance is dwindling day by day. Despite the cons that exist, the pros outweigh them. The important issue is for the human resource managers and labor unions and the government to be reasonable in their demand and ensure a win-win situation for all concerned parties.
Works Cited
Durrenberger, E P, and Karaleah S. Reichart. The Anthropology of Labor Unions. Boulder, Colo: University Press of Colorado, 2010. Internet resource.
Gall, Gregor, Adrian Wilkinson, and Richard W. Hurd. The International Handbook of Labour Unions: Responses to Neo-Liberalism. Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2011. Print.
Palokangas, Tapio. Labour Unions, Public Policy and Economic Growth. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000. Internet resource.
Schiavone, Michael. Unions in Crisis?: The Future of Organized Labor in America. Westport, Conn: Praeger, 2008. Internet resource.
