Labor Union Giving an Overview

¶ … Labor Union giving an overview as to how the Labor Unions came into existence what were the factors due to which the Labor Union declined. It also talks about the pros and cons of Labor Unions and how effective and ineffective they are in today's world and their role in future.

The labor unions have played their significant role in the past, however, in this modern era, where everything is revolutionized, a number of people are of the view that these labor unions are of no use. In the twenty-first century, labor unions face variety of problems at all levels. Due to huge criticism, their motivation has declined greatly. Besides this, these unions face problems in gathering devoted members because most of the people in the twenty-first century do not seek to join these unions.

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According to Pressman (1995), labor unions have played a vital role in several sectors all over the globe. The formation of unions indicates a weak system that fails to receive approval from the large minority living and working at a place in the twenty-first century. Unions were formed when the rights were disregarded of the poor and the weak. They played a significant role in improving the conditions of the minorities by establishing their rights. Unions in 21st century are now beginning to impose serious problems for states. Joseph B. And Steven Pressman explain the insight of the union formation. The future holds immense collaborations and working however they are now beginning to get stronger in negative terms of imposing their opinions forcible through strikes and shut downs. Pressman (1995) brings in concerns for major union planning to overcome the loss of integrity in the union systems. In 21st century, unions are now turning into chaotic systematic units having no control of the goals and objectives for their purposes. They are now becoming weak with less employment and less involvement in the social work for people. According to Pressman (1995), these forces were once powerful enough to bring changes in the state altogether but now they are as feeble as a useless figure that continues to take up the space without giving back any benefit to the globe. Changes in regional and industrial mix of job could be one reason of altering roles of unions formed in different regions. In addition, Pressman (1995) said that a number of strategies can be adopted which can keep the unions going on, establish their core values, and recognize their roles (Pressman, 1995).

The major concern for many organizations in today's world is the management of their labor and the rights that these workers impose on every organization. According to Hodges (2006), sexual harassment is the problem that almost every fifth employee has to suffer. If a comparison is made, female workers are more prone to these circumstances. Labor unions though tried to provide a safe and secure environment female labor workers but despite of this, female workers suffered from this misfortune. It is one of the main reason that why females in the twenty first century do not support labor unions. This proves that some of the labor unions in the past were not efficient enough in providing the secured freedom for female workers. A number of surveys have been conducted which showed that 12,000 people from 24 countries have been reported to suffer from sexual harassment in India to the extent of a rate of 24%. Other countries such as China impose 18%, KSA 16%, Mexico 13%, SA 10% and Italy with 9% sexual harassment cases. Hodges (2006) also provides strategies and methods through which governments and labor unions can develop a strong system to avoid these events occurring at workplace. If full support is provided then labor unions can be very helpful in establishing a complete system to protect the labor rights of the country and alter the measures government and organizations adopt in complaining and reporting of sexual harassments (Hodges, 2006).

Polack (2004) said that since all the social workers are facing barriers in this century due to globalization, the labor unions are also affected with this. The global linkages have grown over the past century and developed into an intricate mesh of networking between the neighboring countries and countries located poles apart. According to Polack (2004), the trade systems have increased and so the businesses have taken new turn in their establishment and strategic implementation. The globalization has developed an economic system worldwide, which connects the countries on a greater level (Fitch, 2006).This also develops in the back issues with the social problems of justice, exploitation and equity of wealth. The critical antecedents have changed the structure of the resource allocation and exploitation out of which comes the colonialism foremost. Colonialism and Debts of the Global south have seriously affected and changed the global economic systems (Polack, 2004). Colonialism and global south issues have raised questions to the next social problems appearing as upraise with serious concerns. According to Baldwin (2002), the poor condition of global south has resulted in exploitation of debts and labor, mainly the child labor (Baldwin, 2002). The corporate and financial institutions have taken in charge for decision making, not officially but indirectly and are using that power to promote their own self-interest. Polack (2004) explains how the corporate world has taken charge of the economy with its fierce control of the consumer and business sector making it difficult for other small sectors attached to it, proceed to better operations and solutions. Polack (2004) said that an effective analysis can be useful in estimating the demand for increased social work and the planning of an effective system to prevent exploitation from large sectors. Besides this, Polack (2004) also reported that the social workers are at an alarming stage in the twenty-first century and if appropriate measures are not taken, their decline will keep on increasing.

According to Compa (1993), many companies looking to cut down costs of their production look for areas like Mexico to acquire labors on lower rates and lower incentives. This movement is causing harm to the International Trade. The demand for labor and international trade have a relationship that show adversely increasing demand of foreign labor can jolt the economy of a country and the trade balance. Foreign labor demand decreases the demand for local labor and in return increases the competition for local organizations (Compa, 1993). There are certain rules and regulations imposed by the higher governmental authorities that propose a treaty for the exploitation of local labors. Rights of association, organizing and bargaining, child labor, forced labor, discrimination, minimum wage, hours of work and occupational health and safety are all those issues, which are related to labor. International trade system also describes the relationship between labor rights and labor standards. Further, many business practices cannot be conducted in order to boost the working of local labors (Turner, Katz, & Hurd, 2001). These activities have been stated to violate the code of conduct because they enforce severe labor rules to increase the working processes and develop better results. The rights of labor cannot be fully established unless there is a fulfillment of their economic and social needs.

According to So (2010), human rights were active in establishing labor rights in china with the post-socialist and transnational corporations. However, in the twenty-first century, in many parts of the country, human rights are revoked and people are forced to follow the government. In such case, the establishment of labor unions for free labor rights seems to be a problem. The reversed roles of post-socialist states and transnational corporations have contributed to change the ways of China government in altering the contract law by China regarding labor rights (So, 2010). The reversed roles have enabled the Chinese post-socialists to fight the battle for labor rights enforcement with promoting expansion of labor rights. China was developed on the communist's principle but it is failing to show any concern for its labor brothers and sisters. This is the reason why the present need of time has caused people and organizations in China to focus on the development of their labor sector to boost their economy in a way that organizations will be able to attract efficient labors to expand their manufacturing and productions. According to So (2010), the products and services will be better known with these labors contributing to their development. The labor unions of China are involved in vulnerable issues and due to this fact; they are unable to fulfill the requirements of their fellow labors.

According to Hill (2007), labor unions also face some problems due to the immigrants. Although the idea of labor union seems to be valid with establishing rights of immigrant labors to those of domestic labor but there are many concerns of the unions failing to implement a proper system due to many reasons. Foremost are being the immigrants temporarily looking for jobs before they can settle for highly paid jobs (Hill, 2007). The union establishments themselves do not regard working for immigrant labors for the same reason. The procedures, rules and regulations for creating the unions are varying in different parts of the world. Moreover, those labors are not accustomed to the working conditions, rules and regulations and provide less desirable attributes for labor works. Hill (2007) also explained with extensive research statistics for the establishment of union programs in different regions such as Mexico.Despite rules and regulations, the labors are forced to work as salves. They are not given the complete incentives that their job description offers. With this in mind, the labor unions continue to present an idea on its rapid growth so that labors can be given their rights with freedoms. According to Hill (2007), labor unions though provide some solutions for immigrant labors however; effective programs and measures are working towards the change that is needed by these unions (Hill, 2007). The formation of labor unions can be useful to control the illegal immigrations and to address the problem of short supply of workers in many areas such as hospitals, restaurants, hotels etc. However, on the other hand it is also essential that the problems of labor unions in this regard should be addressed seriously.

It is commonly considered that the youth of a nation is its asset and it take steps for the betterment of a nation. Good labor unions can be formed with the youth of a nation but unfortunately, the employment rate of youth is quite low. This is one of the problems faced by the labor unions in the present age. For this reason, a statistical analysis has been taken from Organization for Economic Cooperation & Development and other sources. This unemployment rate for the youth has been increasing in countries like Spain, Germany, France, Canada and USA. Moreover, the long-term trends that keep the rate constant are evident from the statistical analysis. The unemployment rates was compared for adults and youth and it was estimated that the youth unemployment is vast in comparison to adults (Martin, 2009). There are number of reasons that describe this trend. First, youth workers have least seniority in their jobs and while downsizing due to economic conditions they are terminated more often than people with senior posts in an organization are. The lack of experience is also another major factor, which accounts for unemployment. They may work for lower incentives but less experience and knowledge of their field will drive them nowhere. According to Martin (2009), youth is inclined towards the financial support from families. They show resistance in working on their own by moving to other places. With the financial support on their side, they tend to show less concern for their jobs, which increases the chances of their likelihood unemployment. The increased ratio of schooling has also contributed in the way that young people remain involved with education for a longer period of time hence they are unable to work professionally. Economy in particular is greatly receiving adverse effect due to this condition. The unemployment rate remains to be 8% for USA in the current year. It is affecting its economic conditions in this era of recession by creating more jobs and less experienced individuals to perform those jobs (Martin, 2009).