Short answer responses to common questions

Employee Representation

A labor union refers to an association of employees that have come together in pursuit of common goals, such as better pay. Labor relations are wider in scope; they refer to the interactions between the labor unions (employees' representatives) and employers - and usually deal with the maintenance of collective bargaining agreements.

Labor relations date way back to the formation of the very first significant unions: the Knights of Labor, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), and the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO). The Knights of Labor, however, failed to achieve its objectives due to its large membership. AFL, unlike the other two, initially restricted its membership to skilled tradesmen. However, with the 1935 formation of CIO, which incorporated both skilled and unskilled laborers, conflicts resulted and the two unions later merged.

Question Three

Enacted in 1926 and later on expanded to rope in the airline industry, the Railway Labor Act provided a framework for the resolution of labor disputes in the two industries. It addressed issues of collective bargaining, employee representation, and the administration of contracts. The Wagner Act sought to facilitate the development of labor unions by ensuring that employers did not interfere with the operations of the same.

Question Four

The U.S. structure of unions consists of; the Federation of unions, intermediate bodies, national and local unions. The Federation of Unions (AFL-CIO) is the umbrella of all labor unions, and mainly seeks to strengthen and increase the influence of the same. This it does through providing financial and other kinds of assistance to the unions under it. Intermediate bodies have a narrower scope and therefore, interact more with individual unions. In so doing, they are able to organize membership for these unions and coordinate discussions between unions and the relevant stakeholders. National units seek to provide an enabling environment for the smooth operation of local unions, which are the lowest in the hierarchy and are directly connected to the workers.

Question Five

Union organizing campaigns can be triggered by; unfriendly employee supervision, inadequate job security policies, lack of employee benefits, and pay that is incoherent with the demands of the job. The campaign begins with the employees signing up for union representation through authorization cards. A certification election then follows to petition the management to recognize the union. This, however, depends on the number of employees that sign up; if more than half of the workforce signs up, then there is no need for a certification election. Employees in a bargaining unit can decertify a union by signing a decertification petition, after which there may be an election. If more than half of the workforce signs the petition, the management doesn't need an election to withdraw its recognition for the union.

Question Six

Recent years have seen massive growth in the labor unions sector, which can partly be attributed to the federal government's increasing support for the same. There has been a number of executive orders and supportive legislation to this effect.

Question Seven

Collective bargaining is the process through which an employer and a labor union negotiate, with the aim of determining the employment conditions. Effective collective bargaining helps to prevent the losses that come with employee strikes, boycotts, and lockouts.