Labor Union
The reason why Union membership has not achieved 100% support and membership is opposition from employers and some section of the work populace. Each group gives its own reasons for not supporting the unions. Employers claim that Unions place restrictive sanctions and practices on employers regarding employment terms. Union security practices such as closed shop (pressure on employers to hire union members only), Union shop (forcing newly hired non-union members to join the union) Agency shop (non-members still pay union fee) and preferential shop (union members receive preferential treatment in hiring) raise accusations on unions for restricting employers ability to hire. On the other hand, some employees complain of high union fees levied by the unions.
Formation of a union representation requires a union recruitment drive and finally an election to determine whether workers will accept representation or not. The drive involves steps such as Initial contact where the need for representation of interest receives a clear recognition. Sensitization of employees on union membership can occur through web content, Union salting, and other forms of on-job solicitation without interference with workers performance and labor laws. Workers take a step forward through signing up by filling in authorization cards if the need for union is convincing. The management can give reasons otherwise in support for not signing up. A hearing will follow if the employer wishes to contest on one or more of union’s rights. If not, then the management and the Union proceed with campaign efforts as the fourth step. Each group will raise its concerns for and against the labor Union representation before entering the elections as the final stage. If the employees vote for a labor union, then formation occurs through certification by the NLRB.
The traditional form of election is through the secret ballot. This is where an employee’s decision to vote for or against union formation occurs in secret and the results made public. Those in support of the system claim that it protects the employees from employer harassment. In early 2007, the fox news reported that the Bush administration was pushing for a bid to frustrate the efforts to pass the new employee free choice act proposed by the democrats. The bill was to allow the workers the choice to create a union at work through a majority vote. It allows the union to distribute cards for employees to fill if they wanted a representation. If more than fifty percent filled the forms, then union should come into existence. The bush administration thwarted the bill for its exposure of employees to harassment by both employers and union officials due to its open system.
In the late October 2008, Obama a then presidential candidate used the need for an employee free choice Act as a campaign tool (SEIU, 2008). He supported Majority of workers during the period rooting for the act claiming that the secret ballot system did not allow the majority vote as a basis for a union representation. Some illegal employer practices by supervisors and management on employees pushing for Union representation made majority of voters to root for the new system. An example is the Yale-New Haven hospital in which the management brought in consultants to train the supervisors on anti union campaign techniques and in discouraging employees from joining a union. By the time the secret ballot elections took place, the employees were demoralized despite having decided to form one.
In conclusion, the need for worker protection and ease of Union formation and representation places the free employer act ahead in achieving such goals. Global campaigns, co-operative agreements, and cooperation by relevant stakeholders are necessary to achieve employer-employee rights.
References:
Dessler, G. (2011). A Framework for Human Resource Management (6th ed.) . Upper Sadle River: New Jersey: Pearson Education, Inc. .
PrivateBallot, F. N. (2007, March 2). Report On Employee Free Choice Act. Retrieved from YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1Jht-i0tS14&feature=related
SEIU. (2008, Oct 23). Presidential candidate Barack Obama talks about why America's middle class needs the Employee Free Choice . Retrieved from YouTube: http://freechoice.seiu.org/page/s/obamavideo?source=youtube&subscource=ob
