Free Essay About Modern Day Labor Relations

The mandate of an employer is to provide a Conducive working environment for doing business and workers to feel comfortable while engaging in various activities to make sure the goal of the organization is achieved. Thus, the work environment should be safe and the workers should be provided with safety equipment to prevent them from any harm. Additionally, the employees should get value for their work and effort through adequate salary and other benefits entitle to them. The workers should also be compensated for any damage or harm suffered while still at work. Unfortunately, these conditions are not always available to worker since some employers are not ready or willing to provide them to their employees. In an effort to force the employers to provide these conditions most employees strike or engaged the employer in a collective bargaining process in order to force the employer to provide an ample environment for working. The employees can engage the employer directly or through their union.

Labor relations system-on the corporate side

The United State’s corporate sector is currently facing a lot of pressure from union workers and non union works to provide Conducive environment for working. Most workers are looking for a flexible working environment with work schedule which is accommodating and flexible to be adjusted from time to time. This will prevent overworking of staffs and give them enough time to rest so as to avoid fatigue. Additionally, workers nowadays want to be involved in the affairs of the company. The workers are now demanding to be involved in decision making or to be considered first when it comes to promotion opportunities or other opportunities in the work place. For example, recently, United State corporate world was shaken a little by the considerable delays witness at west coast port occasioned by the go slow on the part of the workers. This cost a massive loss to many business which rely on the services of the west coast port to import or export goods. The go slow was due to the management of the port outsourcing labor instead of giving priority to the existing workers at the port. The outsourcing of staffs for maintenance and repairs was seen as threat to the existing workers at the port. Due to this go slow cost and threat of customers shifting to the east coast port, the management of the port had no option but to get into contract bargaining agreement that will see the port workers get good working conditions (The Economist, 2015). This is one of the examples which show the kind of pressure the corporate management face as they make decision concerning operations of their company. If companies make s drastic changes without involving employees they face e the treat of strikes or go slow since the workers may boycott these companies’ plans for change. Currently workers are demanding to be involved in decisions making in many companies or given first priority to opportunities available at the companies.
The corporate are also facing pressure from workers who demand to use the companies’ facilities to their own advantage or on personal matter. Many companies are facing pressure from workers to provide or allow workers to use parking lot, phone services or company’s name on personal business cards. An example of this scenario is Purple Communication’s workers who were demanding from their employers to be given the opportunity to use the company’s email services for their personal communication. Workers argue that it’s their right to use the company’s email system and blocking the employees using the system is hampering communication within the company’s premises. Additionally companies area also grappling with the use of social media at the work place. Many companies don’t allow their employees to use social media to communicate. However, many feel this is infringement of personal life and right to free speech. The workers feel that it’s their right to expressed themselves freely. This is in line with the First amendment which requires employers to provide an avenue of free speech (ON LABOR, 2015). Furthermore, employers are facing difficulties and threat of strike if they fail to provide better incentives to workers. Workers are demanding for new contract which provide more benefits to workers. These benefits touch on increased salary, better health care insurance or extension of contract term (Cary, 2014).

Current pressures on the labor side

The labor unions are becoming unfavorable to workers who feel the unions are not representing or pushing for the rights of the workers effectively. Statistics are showing the labor influence or preference among the employees is decreasing. According to an article on the Economic Times, in 1950s, 36 percent of the workers in the private sector were unionized, but currently only 6 percent of the workers are unionized. Many workers feel that the unions have lost their tempo in fighting for the employees’ rights (The Economist, 2015). However, there are those who feel that by joining union they are in a better position to bargain for better working conditions, increase their wages, pension services, affordable insurance cover and vacation (Vindu, 2015).
The unions are also facing the threat from the new law, right-to-work, which has the potential of crippling the operations of the unions. The new law prevents and requires unions to deceased from demanding from their members’ representation fees or dues from the collective bargaining process. The unions need contributions from its members to be able to run their operations smoothly. However, the new laws could make many unions bankrupts since they cannot secure funds to run their operations. If the now laws are enacted in all State in United state the labor unions would be disabled completely in the country (The Editorial Board- The New York Times, 2015).

References

The Editorial Board- The New York Times. (2015). Log In - The New York Times. Retrieved from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/27/opinion/wisconsin-workers-and-the-2016-election.html?ref=topics
Vindu Goel. (2015). Log In - The New York Times. Retrieved from http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2015/02/28/silicon-valley-shuttle-drivers-vote-to-join-union/?ref=topics
Cary Burke. (2014). PA Nurses File ULP Charges Against Hospital | Labor Relations Today. Retrieved from http://www.laborrelationstoday.com/2014/12/articles/unions/pa-nurses-file-ulp-charges-against-hospital/
ON LABOR. (2015). The NLRB’s Purple Communications decision guarantees organizing workers access to employer e-mail and recalibrates the balance between employer property rights and employee organizing rights | ON LABOR. Retrieved from http://onlabor.org/2015/01/15/the-nlrbs-purple-communications-decision-guarantees-organizing-workers-access-to-employer-e-mail-and-recalibrates-the-balance-between-employer-property-rights-and-employee-organizing-rights/
The Economist. (2015). Labour relations: Watching fruit rot | The Economist. Retrieved from http://www.economist.com/news/united-states/21641262-if-dockworkers-union-blocks-west-coast-ports-shippers-will-find-others-watching-fruit