LABOR RELATIONS

Labor Relations

Labor Relations

Introduction

Labor unions, as representatives of the employer's workers, are key institutional players in the labor-relations process. They are a unique type of organization formed out of the collective discontent of workers who find themselves in a dependency position with little voice or influence over important aspects of their work life (Kochan, 2007). Traditionally, unions are protest organizations, sometimes referred to as “managers of discontent” that focus and direct worker concerns regarding their work situation.

American unions, as contrasted to many European labor organizations, are nonideological and are not broad-based working-class movements. They are not formed as part of a political movement nor are they monolithic entities trying to represent all workers (Kaufman, 2007). They have been characterized as being pragmatic, opportunistic, and relatively narrow in focus. Indeed, Hoxie, an important early scholar of unionism, used the term “business unionism” to describe this type of American unionism. The emphasis is on the use of collective bargaining by unions to achieve tangible and pragmatic goals to benefit their specific memberships in a particular craft or industry. In conjunction with this pragmatism, unions have traditionally been oriented to the current situation with little done in terms of long-range planning. They have typically focused on the here-and-now issues that affect their membership—and they generally have been reactive to management decision making (Gordon, 2008).

Significant shifts in employment from manufacturing to services, a meaningful effort on the part of many employers to implement better human resources practices, the increased willingness of employers to take an aggressive (even militant) stance in avoiding unions, the growth in government legislation that dealt with issues of interest to workers (e.g., health and safety, equal employment opportunity, pensions, etc.), and the unions' own lack of investment in organizing, among other things, led to an entirely new labor-relations situation ...