Unions and Collective Bargaining
Employees join labor unions because the union represents the rights of the employee in the bargaining process with the company. This can be helpful as there can be a lot of subtle nuances within a contract that only an experienced representative would understand. Another reason employees join labor unions is to have solidarity with other employees, which allows them to exercise grievances more effectively. A union is an organization that is meant to look out for the interests and rights of laborers, so an employee will join the union for these two reasons: to protect his interests and to better assert his rights.
Two reasons that organizations prefer that unions do not represent their employees is that unions can often bog down the contract process and put up obstacles in the way of what the organization wants to accomplish in terms of employee compensation. The other reason is that the organization might feel that the union is taking advantage of their role by squeezing the corporation for everything it can get, thus cutting into the organization's profits. Thus, the two reasons organizations might prefer that employees not join unions are: more bureaucratic red tape to deal with, and the possibility of losing profits through over-compensation...
Thus, unions can benefit employers by simplifying the relations with employees and providing an ordered channel for communications.
Two legal responsibilities that employers have when dealing with labor unions are found in the Federal Service Labor-Management Relations Statue of 1977, which binds employers "to engage in a collective bargaining process" and obliges them to "settle disputes" by working directly with union employees through the union representatives (Jeanty, n.d.).
Two ways in which management and unions might work together to craft mutually beneficial contracts are: first, to lay all the cards on the table, and second, to establish a collective aim towards which both parties can agree to move. The first way requires both sides to be transparent. This is important because sometimes one side or the other will suspect the other of having an ulterior motive and so communication will break down as…
