The Unions in a Global Environment Paper
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The Unions in a Global Environment Paper
Unions have long been an indispensable part of all organizations to defend the rights of workers. Workers have rights that must be respected by their employers. However, individual workers do not have a strong influence to bargain their working conditions with employers. But with unions, in which workers come together with one voice to lodge a collective bargain for their rights and grievances to be met, the influence becomes stronger (Sarah, 2022). As such, workers should form or join appropriate unions to ensure that their interests are secured. This study uses a case study of a company that is planning to organize a union to elaborate on the process of creating a union, the best union to select, among other aspects such as the rights of workers, unions, and how globalization impacts unions for a better understanding.
The Union Organizing Process
There are about six major steps that are involved in the organization of a union. First, workers should identify the problem, bring together workers with the same concerns, and form a committee (Sarah, 2022). The committee should then develop a list of concerns they want to address and solicit more employees to back it up. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) requires the committee to collect authorization signatures thereafter from at least 30% of the employees it seeks to represent (Lit, 2019). At his point, the committee can petition the NLRB for an election of the union and subsequent certification, if the union wins a majority of the votes cast. After the certification, the union can now negotiate or organize a collective bargain with the employer in a bid to address the concerns raised (Sarah, 2022).
The Union to Choose
I will choose the UNI Global Union in this scenario. UNI is a global union federation for the skills and services sectors that brings together other national and regional trade unions. It aims to develop and safeguard labor rights in the international space and build corporate social responsibility through global agreements with multinationals (UNI global union, 2022). Currently, UNI has affiliations in 150 countries and serves over 20 million workers from more than 900 trade unions in the fastest-growing sectors (AFL-CIO, 2022). As such, it is best suited for the company I currently work for because it is fast-growing and a multinational company based in the United States and plants in China and France.
Responsibilities of the Workers During the Unionization Process
During the unionization process, workers have the vital role of identifying concerns to be addressed by the union (Lit, 2019). The workers select the committee that spearheads the development process and also give the authorization signatures required to meet the union certification threshold (Sarah, 2022). During the election of the union, workers should cast their votes in favor of the union for certification. Workers also have the right to select and elect union leaders. They can run for an office, nominate a candidate for an office, and protest the conduct of an election.
How Unions Help Workers
Unions help workers in various ways. For starters, unions safeguard workers against all forms of exploitation by employers and pollical parties (Sarah, 2022). They conduct a collective bargain with employers for better employment conditions. They push for fair wages and workers’ welfare, including social security, recreation housing, and health facilities to improve their living standards (Lit, 2019). They also present workers’ grievances to the management, advised on personnel practices and policies, and also represent workers’ interests at the organization, national, and international levels (Lit, 2019). Unions also organize strikes and demonstrations to press for workers’ demands.
Management Legal Response to an Organization Movement is in Progress
The management should not oppose the formation of the union but seek to understand the reason for forming the union and address them before they escalate. The management should embrace cooperation, reasoning, and understating to mitigate possible legal issues and strikes that lowers workers’ morale and productivity (Contributor, 2019). It can also maintain a good relationship and rapport with the union initiators and dispel and clarify rumors and conflicts (Contributor, 2019). The matter should be approached with calmness and professionalism. It must listen to workers’ grievances and can as well use the divide and conquer approach by giving the complainants a neutral audience (Contributor, 2019).
Impacts of the Global Nature of a Business on the Bargaining Process
The global nature of businesses influences the bargaining power by giving companies a leeway to outsource production in countries with less regulated labor markets and cheaper labor (Hessami & Baskaran, 2015). This allows the elasticity of labor and reduces the market power of unions. Policymakers are also forced to design the labor market to attract investors because globalization gives them a wide range of choices and limits a union’s bargaining power. Globalization induces a decentralization of wage bargaining and promotes wage inequality (Hessami & Baskaran, 2015).
Conclusion
Unions are very vital for all workers. Workers as individuals have minimal influence on demanding their rights from their employers. This is why they need unions for an impactful collective bargain. However, workers must understand the process of forming a union to make all due considerations. They must also understand their rights and the functions of unions to facilitate their informed participation. Additionally, workers must be keen to choose the union that is most appropriate for them as identified in this paper.
References
AFL-CIO. (2022). Global Labor Unions and Federations. https://aflcio.org/about-us/our-unions-and-allies/global-unions
Contributor. (2019). How to Deal with Union Problems. Career Trend. https://careertrend.com/how-2081531-deal-union-problems.html
Hessami, Z., & Baskaran, T. (2015). Has globalisation affected collective bargaining? An empirical test, 1980–2009. The World Economy, 38(12), 1880-1911.
Lit, C. (2019). Labor Unions: 4 Transformation Triggers and How to Ease Them. Kotter
UNI global union. (2022). Building Worker Power worldwide. https://uniglobalunion.org/