Unions were first established because of the improper and abusive treatment of employees by management. An employee decides to join a union based on discontentment, lack of authority, and union accomplishment.
Unions secure certain rights for their members. Employees who do not have unions do not receive these rights. Unions help employers by implementing wage concessions or cooperation in joint workplace efforts. Unions lead to more productive operations by putting pressure on inefficient management. Unions have contributed more to the humane treatment of workers in the United States then the sum total of all quality-of-work life projects and enlightened management.
The labor union in the United States began in the late 1700's when journeymen printers tried to win a wage increase. Around the late 1700's unions of shoemakers, carpenters, and printers were established in other cities throughout the United States.
One clear reason for management opposition to labor unions is power. Unions constrain managerial discretion and managers do not like it. Another contributing factor is the lack of clarity by managers on the role of labor unions in industrialized societies, and the relatively benign role played by U.S. labor unions by comparison to more militant and political unions in other countries.
An employer and employees that come together for purposes of negotiation are utilizing the collective bargaining procedure defined as collective agreement. A process of dispute settlement as an alternative to legal actions would be arbitration. The people involved in the proceedings select a neutral third party to listen to the dispute. A decision is made by the arbiter, which is considered final for both parties.
Public sector and service industry workers, represent a dynamic, important, and growing segment of the United Automobile Workers (UAW) membership. Unionized workers, by comparison to nonunion are more loyal and committed to their current employer. Workers are unwilling to change jobs under any circumstances and would never consider moving to a new job. Even though, unionized workers may express more discontentment with certain conditions, such as job content or adequacy of resources, they are more committed to the employer. Employees feel safe to speak up to criticize conditions just because of the protection provided by their union. Most union-management relationships are a positive evolution.
