Introduction
Employees form a very important part of an organization since they provide labor to a business. In addition, they coordinate other factors of production to ensure they perform their duties to achieve the objectives of their organizations. Workers are guided by the professional ethics and policies of their companies to ensure they work and follow the procedures stipulated by their seniors. Occasionally, the rights of workers may be violated, and this requires urgent measures to ensure their safety and privileges are protected. Therefore, they form or join unions that will help them to fight for their rights. This essay explores the relationships among employers, unions and employees
Unfair Tactical Advantage
Nations have given workers the privilege to form unions that will enable them to demand respect, accountability, and responsibility from their employers. It is necessary to state that this provision allows workers to join unions that represent their professions; therefore, a worker cannot belong to a union that is not related to his profession. These unions give workers excess power to harass employers and demand that they must increase the salaries of employees without considering their financial situations. In addition, the government listens to these unions more than it does to employers. This explains why most unions win cases against employers and become popular vehicles for advancing the needs of their members. The management of a union is usually formed by members from various professions that will enable them to form a formidable force that will fight for the rights of their members.
Resistance of Employers to Unionization
Nations have witnessed strikes from workers who demand good pay and favorable working conditions. However, managers have always resisted this move since this will affect their investments. They claim that if employees are allowed to form and join unions, they will become very vocal in advocating for their needs without considering the financial constraints facing their employers. Therefore, they continue to resist these moves to protect their companies from extortion. For instance, confrontations and enmity between managers and unions in the United States of America are not new occurrences since this country has experienced these challenges since the beginning of the industrial revolution. When employees are allowed to form unions, this will be a serious threat to investment since they will have a lot of powers to manipulate the policies regarding work and salaries. Therefore, employers must ensure that these unions are not allowed to expand to unmanageable levels.
Technological Changes
Modernization is an inevitable phenomenon and every employer must adopt it to stand high chances of winning when competing with others. The introduction of new technology affects the quality of work done, and this also affects the salaries and allowances of employees. Managers assume that technology reduces the number of workers required in a company; therefore, they retrench some employees since they do not need them in the company. On the other hand, these unions consider this to be a breach of contract since employees cannot be sacked without being given notices. Employers can reduce the salaries given to employees because they think that the new technology reduces their work. This is against the provisions of workers’ unions that prohibit the reduction of salaries for workers.
Trade-Offs between Increased Wages for Unions Productivity and Profitability
When employees earn huge salaries, they contribute a lot of money to their unions. These funds enable their unions to conduct their activities without financial constraints, and this will ensure they become responsible for the rights of their members. However, the business will suffer since the increase in salaries of employees may not be proportional to the profits generated. Investors sacrifice their money and invest it in businesses to generate profits that will help them in different ways. They pay their workers’ good salaries to ensure they are motivated to perform well and achieve the objectives of the business. However, this is usually done very carefully to avoid paying workers more salaries than what the company can afford. On the other hand, unions demand that workers should be paid handsomely to ensure their contributions increase. This promotes their productivity since they will have enough money to hire lawyers in case, they have legal battles with employers.
Lower Turnover Rates
Employers may be justified to sack employees and recruit others to promote the efficiency of their companies. However, this is not usually an advantage since it has other financial constraints that may affect the business. Therefore, a low employee turnover rate is advantageous to the company since it will not pay benefits as stipulated by unions. Employees must be compensated whenever they are sacked before their contracts expire so that they can pay bills and manage their lives before they get other jobs. These costs are huge and may subject a company to legal tussles with the unions. Unions demand that there must be very low employee turnover rates since workers should be given chances to work until when their contracts expire. However, when an employee is sacked before the contract term ends the employer must pay the victim all benefits for the remaining time. Even though, unions cannot openly advocate, for high employee turnover rates, they are usually happy when managers sack employees since they will benefit from the compensations paid to the victims.
Union Oppositions to Work Schedules
Unions have always demanded that workers should not be subjected to innovative work schedules since this will reduce their salaries. Most employers pay their workers depending on the time they have been working, and this means that a reduction in this time will reduce their allowances. Therefore, unions will always oppose these moves since they know that when workers get low salaries their contributions to these unions will also reduce. Most unions demand that workers must work on either a full or part-time basis, and this should be made known to them during the signing of the employment agreement form.
Bargaining
This refers to the process of negotiating that takes place among employers, workers and unions. They must bargain their terms of service to establish their contracts and terms that will bind their relationships. In addition, bargaining helps these parties to solve conflicts associated with salaries, termination of service, promotion and benefits through healthy discussions. Employers must not allow these unions to take central roles in these negotiations since this may impact negatively on the finances of their companies
Conclusion
Employees have rights that must be respected by employers. However, when this fails they seek the assistance of their unions that are powerful in terms of financial and logistic issues involved in negotiations. Employers must not allow unions to direct their budgets and policies since this will lead to unhealthy relations among workers, employers and unions.