I need an answer to my professors question on my discussion post My Post 1) Work

Question

I need an answer to my professors question on my discussion post

My Post

1) Workers in many occupations want a stronger voice in the workplace and there is increasing recognition that this is a fundamental human right. Do you believe that voice in the workplace is a fundamental human, right? Why or why not?

Yes, it is true that at workplace, people want to associate with the group who have stronger voice and they raise their hands for it because they do not want to get exploit by the employer. But as according to law, a person has freedom of association and right to collective bargaining at work place. They can associate with any group or union. But employer and worker has equal right to raise their voices for negotiation. It should be fair and equitable.

So as according to me, the person should have the fundamental human rights to raise their voices for fair and equitable things to create harmony at workplace.

2) Do you believe Unions are still relevant today? Why or why not?

For decades, the unions were a major force to be reckoned with when working in any manufacturing plant. But over time, the union`s hold over employees and the changing nature of HR has ensured that the authority and power they possessed has reduced. Though, the unions are very much a part and parcel of the game. Every laborer working in any manufacturing plant would want to be part of one or the other union to ensure his basic needs are highlighted and fulfilled by the higher management.

Unions help in setting standards in terms of skill requirement, wages, working conditions and welfare of families of the employees. It has occurred multiple times across the globe that the higher management tends to take decision without closely observing and compensating the ground staff. In such cases, jobs and lives of many daily laborers can get affected in a significantly bad manner. To reduce such cases, the unions ensure that the needs are escalated and issue highlighted promptly. Studies reveal that union negotiated wages are always higher than non-union wages and this tends to affect a major part of the employee lifestyle. In real terms, Unions exist with the sole purpose of collectively protecting the lives and rights of the members. The unions provide a voice of employer’s feedback and form the channel through which higher management messages are conveyed. While the union role seems to be diminished in the 21st century, the backbone of any labor community is still the union present among them. In such cases, for a common man it is wise and advisable to join a union who will fight for his rights, ensure his working conditions are better than which he previously had and provide him with a way forward to improve his lifestyle and his families’ welfare.

3) Has Union membership increased or decreased since World War II in the U.S.? Why do you think that is?

Union membership has decline due to structural changes in economics, manufacturing employment decreases due to unskilled. Congress passed new laws; provide family and medical leave, healthy workplace which impact on union memberships. Union membership or union becomes less important for many workers.

WC:525

References:

Budd, J. (2017). Labor Relations: Striking a Balance (5th ed). New York, NY: McGraw Hill.

My professors question

Can you say more about the "structural changes in economics"?

Explanation / Answer

You can say that by "structural change in economics" you meant to say that the modern day market is very different and dynamic from the typical WW2 era.

With the advent of technology and rapid digitization, we are seeing the rise of an 'on demand' economy where technology plays an important role for example: Uber for Taxis makes it difficult to unionize since it offers incentive to drivers based on their personal ratings based on their performance. It has App driven surge pricings which lets individual drivers gain benefit from change in demand.

We can also give Airbnb and Amazon as examples which have used technology to give conventional business a run for their money.

A modern manufacturing plant would depend more on the efficiency of the robotics involved on the assembly lines rather than those of workers as compared to the ford model of working in the WW2 era.

The rise of Silicon Valley where tech companies hire based on skill and expertise makes it difficult to unionize since there are a lot of different skillsets involved, much more varied and complex than those needed in the WW2 era. In fact the very people working in the silicon Valley would not like to be a part of a conventional WW2 era union because they want to be compensated extra as per their skill, which are so varied that would be difficult to map to a slab mandated by a union.

Due to all the above factors, We can say that the time of one size fits all might be coming to an end.

Which is the reason why we can say there has been a decrease in union membership.

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