MGMT 453 Blog Posts – Ivan Ochoa

Based on this week’s learning materials and from what I researched about labor unions I have developed a list of pros and cons. Some of the pros for labor unions are that they can provide employees with power/protection that they wouldn’t have otherwise, allows for promotion for higher wages and better benefits, and allows for an organization of employees to create policy change within their workplace a lot more efficiently. Though, some negatives to labor unions are that they require fees which are taken from the employees check every pay period, individuality for employees can be discouraged, difficult for employers to promote or terminate employees, and unions can drive up costs for the company. 

In relation to what we learned this week, I believe that I would want to join a union if it was an option for me. I had some union experience from when I was younger, but I only really understood the fees part of it. After reviewing sources online and from the lecture materials, there were some combatting arguments. In the lecture materials, a reason given that employers resist unions is because it creates rules regarding seniority and work schedules. This was something that I hadn’t seen researching online, but also thought it was important to mention because unions reward loyalty. It also seems as though being in a union provides less consequences for the employee, than it does for the employer. There are many reasons given for employers to not want to enter unions, but the majority of the pros are in support of employees so I can see how that makes sense. While paying fees is an added cost that some employees may not like, I think that this fee provides substantial benefits to the employees that makes it worth it. Unions overall help the labor force and are still prevalent to this day! 

References:

Bivens, R. • B. J. (n.d.). How today’s unions help working people: Giving workers the power to improve their jobs and unrig the economy. Economic Policy Institute. Retrieved June 3, 2022, from https://www.epi.org/publication/how-todays-unions-help-working-people-giving-workers-the-power-to-improve-their-jobs-and-unrig-the-economy/

Tavernise, S., Nguyen, D., Novetsky, R., Zadie, M., Chaturvedi, A., Szypko, R., Chow, L., Ketchum, J., Ittoop, E., Powell, D., Lozano, M., & Niemisto, R. (2022, May 2). Are unions making a comeback? The New York Times. Retrieved June 3, 2022, from https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/02/podcasts/the-daily/unions-amazon-starbucks.html

Week 10 – Learning Materials: Outline – Labor Relations