Respond and disagree. Try to choose a post that you respectfully disagree with. Respond from the perspective of either a union member or the manager of an organization. If your peer provided a real-world example, respond from the opposing perspective referred to in your peer’s post.
In the twentieth century unions played an important vital part in the labor movement by increasing employees wages, bettering working conditions, and providing employees a voice in the workplace. Unions were pertinent then because organized labor provided a policy by which employees could better broker these matters with employers. In the 21st century unions are more important today than they ever were. It is no secret that in a global economy, the nature of work is changing and some employers may be resisting unions . The one sector where unions remain relevant is the government. Today in the 21st century almost half of all union members now work in the public sector. The typical union member today works for the local, state, and federal governments, and not on the assembly line. Unions fit more comfortably into government workplaces than the private sector (Sherk, 2008). Labor unions represent just 6.4 percent of America’s private-sector workers and 10.5 percent of workers overall (Wertheim and Chakrabarti, 2019). This is the lowest percentage in more than a century, and has decreased from approximately 35 percent in the 1950s. The UAW union has dwindled to 430,000 members from its peak of 1.5 million in 1979.
For unions to remain relevant in the 21st century they need to be able to adapt in today’s economy. In the present day, and in the future, labor unions will continue to play an important role in the United States labor force, and for the standard of life for working families today. Additionally, working families in the United States need the representation, collective bargaining power, satisfaction in their work, and equitable treatment in the workplace that they deserve.
There are some differences between unionized and non-unionized human resources departments in their handling of labor laws. In a nonunion company, labor laws aren’t much of a thought. This is due to human resources managers being more concerned with employment law, rather than the regulations that control unionized labor. In a unionized company, human resources managers need to have knowledge of labor law so that they can handle the relationship between employers, their managers, and the union that represents them. This assists the Human Resource department from overstepping its boundaries in important negotiations, which include everything from employees salaries, and pay raises for employees. This also goes hand in hand with hiring and termination.
