Health Insurance and Collective Bargaining

Table of Contents

Introduction4

Discussion4

1) History of labor unions and collective bargaining4

2) Changes to health care/fringe benefits6

4) The impact of recession on health care7

5) Current political trends that may affect collective bargaining8

6) Future of union and management into the 21 century8

Conclusion10

References11

Abstract

The focus of this paper is addressing the importance of the collective bargaining units or labor unions in an organization or industry. This paper also highlights the issues especially healthcare issues in detail faced by the employees of an organization of the world. The changes that came under the healthcare insurance of employees during the period of recession are also addressed in this paper based on USA's labor market.

Health Insurance and Collective Bargaining

Introduction

This paper focuses on the issues and strategies used by the labor unions and collective bargaining agents while managing the health care plan of their members in any registered organization. The main responsibilities of the collective bargaining agent are to facilitate the members of the labor union by fulfilling their needs through proper collective bargaining process with the employers. Union's main role is to address the collective interests of the employees in particular occupations and industries. It is found that workers get great support from having union membership as they are not capable of facing the challenges and issues, which can be effectively managed by the labor unions. The issues related to compensation, employee health care, employee work laws etc. are all well addressed by the collective bargaining units all over the world (Wright, 1951).

Discussion

1) History of labor unions and collective bargaining

A process of that helps in negotiation among employees and employers to form a mutual consent that helps in regulating the working conditions directly refers to collective bargaining. The issues of employees are universally presented by trade union's representatives to whom the employees are attached (LeBlanc et al., 1999). Wage scales, training, health and safety measures, grievance handling systems, working hours, rights to participate and overtime issues are some of the collective agreements, which are effectively handled by the trade unions of any organization.

The union may negotiate with a group of businesses or a single employer on the basis of country in order to achieve the industry wide agreement. A collective agreement works as a labor contract among one or more unions and an employer. The process of collective bargaining includes negotiation patterns between employers and union mostly represented by organization's management in some countries (Waldo Ralph, 1921).

The labor unions are legally known as representatives of workers in most of the industries of the United States of America. Labor union activities are based on collective bargaining over benefits, wages, working conditions of their members and representation of their members in concerns related to management about the violation of contract provisions. Most of the labor unions in America are linked with one of two larger umbrella organizations. The Change to Win Federation and the AFL-CIO are the two labor unions, which advocate legislation and policies on behalf of employees in the United States and ...