Labor relations concepts and practices

Labor Relations

Define union and labor relations and their impact on organization

A 'Labor Organization' or a Union can be defined as an exclusive bargaining agent that represents the welfare of a group of workers who are engaged in working together and to produce and provide a joint resolve and supervision of working rules. All the workers engaged with the labor organization or the Union strives together to achieve objectives such as to set wages, working conditions and working hours and many more. (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2008) The Union becomes the voice of common worker. Without a Union the work rules at a workplace will be unilaterally defined by the management of the organization and that may prove to be exploitative for the workers. The union provides a base for the common workers to suggest their opinions and to demand their rights. ("Define Unions and Labor relations and their impact on organizations," n. d.)

Labor relations can be defined as the process of interactions and ongoing discussions or debates in a positive manner between the managers who represents the interests of owners and the Union leaders who represents the workers of the organization to achieve the well defined goals of setting working rules. The labor relation process involves three main steps that are (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2008)

a) Acknowledgment of the legally genuine responsibilities and rights of the management and union representatives.

b) Finding the middle ground of labor agreement, counting apposite strategies, tactics, and impasse resolution techniques.

c) Supervision of negotiated labor accord, the explanation and application of labor contract terms on a regular basis (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2008)

The effect of changes in employee relations strategies, policies, and practices on organizational performance

The basic purpose of a labor union is to provide an enhancement for the social and economical welfare of the workers involved with the union. The representatives of union speaks for the benefits of the workers while negotiating with the company regarding with the employee contract, working hours, working rules, wages, compensations and other genuine issues. This also helps the management representing the owners to understand the practicable expectations of the workers in general and hence to implement changes in employee relations strategies, practices and policies that may benefit the performance of the organization. ("Labor Relation papers," n. d.)

Labor Unions actually help the management to achieve the Best Practice policies for the improvement of organizational performance by providing (Secord, 2003)

1) Explicit job description and detailed process analysis which strengthens the efficiency of workers.

2) High level of participation of managers, supervisors and workers to promote cooperation and interdependent beneficial behaviors between work groups to promote teamship.

3) Performance management based on team or group orientation.

4) Provision of continuous development and training facilities for the employees so that the performance of the employees and the organization as a whole may improve to higher degrees. (Secord, 2003)

All these 'Best Practice' strategies are allocated and implemented by the management with the help of the workers Union because the Unions negotiates with the management during the establishments of code-of-conduct or rule-of-working. The effects of unions on the organizations can be summarized as improvement innovations, quality of work, reduction of production costs and increase in productivity, improvement in opportunities for investors, improvement of workers training facilities and an increment in job creation processes of organization. (Secord, 2003)

Are unions still relevant in the United States?

Unions face opposition from both the workers and management. In some cases, workers complain of tyranny of Union representatives. Often well-educated and skilled workers prefer not to be a part of workers union and union is slowly becoming the representing unit of unskilled and less educated workers. With the implementation of Right-To-Work Laws, the membership levels of union are also decreasing. Some members who choose not to be a part of any union and not to support any such union financially are often termed as free riders. The general belief of such skilled and educated workers is, the Unions often create unwanted troubles, strike outs and confusion in the working environment (Holley, Jennings, Wolters, 2008). The Right to Work laws allows these free riders to avoid unions and to keep working irrespective of union's decisions.