Union Leaders and Organizational Management.
Management and union leadership are two different centers of power that hold significant power over the employees. Changing dynamics that are prevalent in management circles over the years are affected by external and internal factors. According to Booth (1995) primary focus between management and union leaders is different from both sets of leaders have specified objectives that serve various interests to a common population that is within their domain. Therefore, it is expected there will be adversarial relationships between the management and the union as management serves the interest of the company while union is concerned with the benefit of the employees. According to Beland (2001) the role of the labor union is fundamental in ensuring that there is continued representation of labor employees.
Areas, where the management and the union leadership have adverse relations, may vary based on the nature of the issue. Wage issues are the most prevalent form of adversity that may exist as unions strive for wage increments and are against wage cuts that may be brought forth by management. It is the mandate of the union leadership to ensure that the workers they represent are not subjected to the minimum wage provisions, but receive commensurate figures to the work done and financial status of the company. As stated by Fossum (2009) non-wage issues are also prevalent in that they form the basis of bad relations between the union and the leadership.
Non-wage issues consist of matters that range from the design of work that is incorporative of the various management strategies that have been employed over time and may be in use in the organization. Loss of work and lack of job security are critical areas that lead to confrontations between unions and management. Changes in the design of work have deleterious effects on the role carried out by workers that have resulted in labor strikes. Contract issues may also lead to adversarial effects between management and unions as administration problems may occur especially among a large group of workers. In my opinion, several factors bear the risk of confrontations between the unions and management, but this is not limited to wage issues as several other parameters that are non-wages issues i.e. job security will most probably lead to adversarial relationships.
References
Béland, D. (2001). Does labor matter? Institutions, labor unions and pension reform in France and the United States. Journal of Public Policy, 21(02), 153-172.
Fossum, J. A. (2009). Labor Relations, Development, Structure, Process. New York: McGraw-Hill/Irwin. (Chapter 10).
Booth, A. L. (1995). The economics of the trade union. Cambridge University Press.
