Labor Unions

Video Transcription

Hi, I'm Jeff. And in this lesson, we'll learn about the history and the role of unions. We'll discuss how unions interact with management and the tactics they use in negotiations. And we'll talk about their future.

So let's get started. First of all, what is a union? A labor union is an organization that formally organizes and represents workers. Unions were created due to the Industrial Revolution when the increase in factory-based production created many new dangers for employees of businesses.

There were long hours, unsafe conditions, a lack of job security, and both very young and very old workers were expected to work under the same conditions as everyone else. Unions arose to protect workers from these conditions. Here are two specific examples.

The 72-hour workweek was common for workers then compared to the current 40-hour workweek. And the wages offered by the companies would not provide enough money to feed families. In 1786, the first minimum wage in the United States was $1 per day. Unions helped eliminate these issues.

Unions did this by giving workers a collective voice, which means that all companies were negotiating with a large organized group, instead of individuals. It also gave the workers the ability to communicate clearly and consistently with management. The two primary areas where unions communicate with management are during collective bargaining.

And to settle management disputes, collective bargaining is a process of employees negotiating with employers to establish the terms and conditions of employment. These communications occur for grievances. This is a formal complaint about a violation of a collective bargaining agreement. The grievance might be about an individual or an entire group.

Mediation, this is a voluntary process that relies on a third party outside the union and management to resolve a dispute. The third parties role is to facilitate communication between the other two. Arbitration, if mediation doesn't work, then the two groups go to arbitration, which is when the third party is a judge who will make a legally binding ruling about the dispute. This may be voluntary or mandatory based on previous agreements.

Sometimes when agreements cannot be made between workers and management, a union will make use of various tactics to make their demands known and move the decision-making process forward. Some of these tactics are a strike. This is when workers temporarily stop working until demands are met. This is generally the most effective since there are costs to the company for each day a strike continues.

Pickets. Union members and their supporters staged public protest often by surrounding the business with people holding signs stating the grievance. Many union members will not cross a picket line to attend work. So it also functions like a strike.

A boycott. Union members and their supporters organize to keep the public from purchasing the product or using the service provided by the company in the disagreement. Again, this has a cost to the company, until the dispute is resolved on the other side. One tactic management may employ in response to a dispute is a lockout, which is when the company temporarily stops employees from working until demands are met.

Companies may also hire strike breakers to take over the employee's jobs or disrupt strikes. This occurred when there was a 20-month lockout of Crystal Sugar employees, for example. Now that you know about the history and tactics of unions, what about their future?

No one can accurately predict the future, but union membership has been in decline lately. This is due to a number of factors. There has been an increase in safety practices at the government and organizational level, which eliminates one of the needs for unions.

There has been some cases of union leaders misusing their power for personal gain. And there has been an increase in the amount of production that occurs outside the United States, leading to smaller opportunities for unions within the United States. All of this has led to the public view that unions are not as effective as they used to be. It's unlikely, though, that unions will disappear completely, but may need to evolve in order to benefit workers in the same manner as they have in the past.

OK, good job. In this lesson, we learned about the history of unions. We talked about the role they play in the workplace. We discussed tactics used by unions during disputes. And we guessed that the future of unions. Thanks for your time, and have a great day.