Labor Relations A.) Labor Unions Play an

Labor Relations a.) Labor unions play an integral role in the facilitation of labor relations. Labor unions are entities which are comprised of various working class people who are typically not managers. Unions may be codified according to a particular specialty related to a job skill, or by industry. They are organizations that collect dues from their members -- which is typically a finite percentage from the pay checks of the latter -- which the unions then use to procure collective bargaining and labor relations rights for the employees.

Oftentimes, labor unions bargain directly with upper management staff within organizations and in industries to try to procure basic rights for their employees. This bargaining process and many of the rights the union leaders are attempting to procure are typically referred to as labor relations. Labor relations is a term for the process by which upper level management attempts to effect policies concerning the utilization of its employees.

As previously stated, unions will often deal with management staff on a collective basis for employees of a certain industry or areas of job specialization. In this manner, labor unions have had a profound impact on organizations and those individual who employee people at such organizations. Some of the basic achievements that labor unions have been instrumental in effecting are limitations on the number of hours that employees are required to work, as well as other aspects of the basic conditions in which they are expected to labor.

These conditions pertain to time allotted for breaks and eating, as well as conditions that are particular for certain jobs and trades in which employees may be laboring in hazardous conditions. One of the most beneficial ways in which labor unions have affected the lives of both employees and of the organizations they work for is in helping to determine rates of remuneration and health care.

Some might argue that without the collective bargaining of labor unions, individuals within various industries, professions and trades would be making substantially less money and be bereft of basic health care necessities for survival. The general perception is that the collective capacity of a group of laborers -- in essentially the same situation, working for an overarching organization that is looking to maximize its profits while reduce its expenses in the process -- is more efficacious than voicing needs and complaints individually.

b.) The predominant change in employee relations strategies, policies and practices to take place since the advent of labor unions within the 20th century -- especially in the midway point and final decades of this century -- is a deliberate movement towards globalization.

There are a number of organizations that have readily embraced globalization and the obtaining of resources and labor in what were traditionally viewed as 'third world countries' because they have enabled them to do what they were able to do before the labor union movement in the U.S. gained momentum -- to do more with less. By conducting most manufacturing in foreign countries and by routinely outsourcing work overseas (Perrucci and Wysong, 2008, p. 107), organizations are able to continue to maximize their profits while reducing expenses.

There are many labors in foreign countries (such as certain parts of India and Asia or in South and Central America, for example) where restrictions governing the hours of laborers, wages, and health care are inconceivable. By outsourcing work and the obtaining of resources to these parts of the world, organizations are able to achieve their objectives with a degree of efficacy that the state of labor relations in the U.S. prevents them from doing.

Therefore, this one fundamental change -- participating in a global marketplace -- unequivocally improves organizational performance. c.) Unions are a lot less relevant in the United States in contemporary times than they once were (Armstrong, 2014). There are a number of reasons why such a statement is true. One of the foremost of these reasons is the fact that many jobs which traditionally involved unions -- such as manufacturing jobs -- are currently performed overseas.

Overseas organizations can pay labor less and get cheaper resources for manufacturing, as well as exploit loopholes in international taxation codes. Another reason that unions are less relevant in contemporary society than they once were is because membership has declined. When there were more jobs in the country domestically, it behooved laborers to involve themselves in labor unions. However, the aforementioned decline in jobs means that there is substantially less reason for workers to involve themselves in labor unions.

Thus, with declining numbers in membership, the efficacy of unions is greatly reduced when bargaining with.