The rights of workers have been suppressed and disregarded since time immemorial. The ideas of fair pay, worker’s rights and the right to organize are all fairly new concepts.
A Little Bit of History
Contemporary labor relations in the United States begin with the a stockmarket crash, Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his "New Deal". Backed by loyal democratic majority in both the House and the Senate, FDR ushered in a series of sweeping social and labor reforms from 1933-1938 to combat the misery brought on from the great depression. In the beginning, the New Deal was constructed to regulate the banking industry and stock market, create a now defunct Civil Works Administration, and introduce the country's social security system. National Labor Relations Act, also known as The Wagner Act, was signed into law in 1935 as part of what's come to be known as the "Second New Deal". The Wagner Act granted American workers the right to free association and with it fully realized the rights of workers to organize and utilize collective bargaining to respond to employee grievances.
In 1936, a sitdown strike in Flint, Michigan against General Motors gave birth to the acceptance of modern unions by corporate interests. A minority group of workers in a GM factory turned off the machinery and began an occupation of the plant. This was a dangerous play in during the Great Depression, when it would not be unusual for a striker to be prosecuted, hurt, or even killed. Holding the factory hostage, the members of the fledgling United Automobile Workers had a sole demand, recognize the union as an official entity for negotiation. With the assistance of a new sympathetic governor and a labor friendly government, the national guard was sent in to keep the peace, rather than remove the workers and eventually forced GM’s hand to recognize the UAW. This single act of defiance brought forth the age of unprecedented growth of labor unions as a major player in the US economy.
Over the years new pieces of legislation have been passed to limit (Taft-Hartley Act) and expand (Landrum-Griffith Act) the power of labor unions. US labor law views the relationship between employer and employee to be intrinsically antagonistic; understanding that the goals and aspirations of each party will always be pushing in opposite directions. These companies have developed different strategies have been implemented to engage with labor unions. Which brings us to….
Strategies for Engaging with Labor Unions
Companies utilize several approaches to managing their relationships with labor interests. Next we’ll detail some of the approaches.
Union Acceptance
Characterized by treating labor unions as a “good faith” representative for employee interests and ensuring a strict adherence to established company policies regarding disciplinary actions and incentives, while treating worker grievances fairly and without prejudice.
Union Avoidance
This strategy can be broken into two very different approaches.
Union Substitution
A strategy designed to attempt to respond to employee grievances internally in order to satiate worker needs without the need for a third party, while instituting policies and initiatives to promote employee retention and growth.
Union Suppression
An odious practice of dissuading labor from union membership and actively repressing efforts to organize. Although laws exist to combat union busting, it is still a relatively common practice. Although it may soon get harder.
Bargaining
The accepted categories for bargaining topics are hours, pay, and working conditions. Hours may include, sick leave, vacation, holidays, etc. Topics from the pay category can be overtime pay, base pay, pay equity, etc. Working conditions could entail ergonomic concerns, work safety, promotions, etc.
A few strategies found at the bargaining table:
Distributive Bargaining
A method of convincing union leaders that the company can withstand the financial stress of a labor strike. This strategy is designed to tilt the odds in favour of one party, while forcing the other party to relinquish some ground.
Integrative Bargaining
This tactic is devised to attempt to convince the other party that there is a tangible benefit for both parties to be found in the offered terms.
Labor Around the World
While unions occupied a very specific place in the American market, the world is much larger than the US. Although organized labor typically represents a large liberal voting block in the US, they are nonetheless apolitical on paper. On the other hand, England has its own established and powerful political party aptly name the Labour Party. In Germany, strong collective rights and employee involvement are implemented on a legislative level. Last September, a coalition of sympathetic unions in India participated in the largest joint strike in history, with 150 million people not showing up to work (Prashad 2016). Labor Laws and unions will continue to play a large role in the international community for years to come.
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