The value of unions

A review of the usefulness of unions in

todays world
Crystal Baptiste; Barry Phillip

In any organization, the relationship between employer and employees is one of the most
vital aspects of achieving company strategic goals. This relationship dictates employee
motivation, attitude to work and thus productivity. Historically unions have been the interface
between employer and employee with the responsibility of ensuring that employees are
adequately satisfied on the job. The business dictionary defines a labour union as a group of
workers and union leaders united to protect and promote their common interest. From their onset
to present day, the work of unions have progressively changed providing greater challenges to
management. As such, the need for unions have increasingly come into question.

On the onset, coming out of the American revolution, groups were formed from
mostly craft organizations with common skills. Their objective was occupational protection
through various means such as entrance requirements and training. Union hiring halls were also
formulated. Later, industrial unions were formed whose members were not highly skilled and so
were unwelcomed by the then union body, American Federation of Labor (AFL). However,
industrial unions gained their strength in numbers.
After their formulation, national labour acts were formulated and unions became
responsible for negotiating collective-bargaining agreements. This legality stemmed from the
chaos created when agreements between unions and employers could not be reached. This gave
unions a legal structure for negotiations and was considered required by workers especially in
instances where employers were taking advantage of employees. Unions thus posed a challenge
to employers as employee relationship became more formal and contractual. Unions gained a
legal right to bargain with employers for varied terms and conditions of employment.
Unions gained a great deal of support from employees due to the perceived political,
social and economical benefits. The economical benefits included negotiations for wage
increases and benefits as well as job security. Social benefits come from the sense of comradery
and brotherhood gained by the employees. Employees had a unified front to discus work issues
affecting them. Political strength came from the unified force that they had going into
bargaining. They therefore had a sense of power in numbers when approaching management,
which increased their likelihood of successful negotiations. Much legislation protecting
employees were also formulated from lobbying and union support. Unions also added in training
and development of employees.
From a management perspective, protecting company interest is key. As such,
management has generally resisted unions and seen unionization as a great hindrance to their
power. Employers have used union suppression and union substitution strategies to limit union
resistance. Suppressive action includes the use of various legal or illegal opposition tactics while
substitution entails HR policies designed for reducing the desire to join unions. Substitution
tactics include high wages, profit sharing plans and complaint resolution systems. Managers who
practice suppressive actions thus discourage employee involvement in unions by giving

employees poorer working conditions or threatening their job security. Employees who are
unaware of their legal rights will fall for the tactics and back away from unions.
In addition to management tactics, employees started loosing confidence in unions after
union corruption allegations and union misuse of funds. Unions also became too demanding on
employers asking for some ridiculous terms, which made employers less likely to want to have
cooperative relationships with the unions. The cost of union membership therefore started to
outweigh the benefits thus significantly reducing membership.
Unions today have questionably been considered to be outdated and useless. It is now
seen in most industries as a tax on the employees income and is perceived to provide no real
benefits for the employees. Unions were seen as needed vehicle more than a century ago when
devious businesses were using child labour to cut expenses. However, that problem was
corrected and their job is no longer to truly help the company, but to force the company to do
things in the way that they see fit. J. Leland Gourley, editor of Oklahoma City FRIDAY
expresses that this is why unions have lost efficacy in the private sector, where businesses have
competitors. Thus, businesses now vie to make that profit they need to pay employees and hire
more.
Today, as compared to previous years, there is surely greater legislation designed to
protect employees needs. As such, there may be no need for unions to provide representation
and this can be considered to have outlived their usefulness. According to a paper written by the
Industrial Relation at Queens University, it can be said that union memberships have increased
over the past 25 years. Furthermore, based on statistical data coming out of Canada, there are
claims that union membership has increased by 18.8% between the years 1997 to 2007.
However, this can be deemed as controversial as statistics have also shown that union density has
decreased from around 38% in the 1980s to less than 30% in 2007. In addition, the paper also
states that the overall union density within the Canadian labour market has become diluted due to
the influx of non-union employees into the workforce.
Moreover, post - World War II, there were acts that restored the balance between labour
and management such as the Labour-Management Relations (Taft-Hartley) Act. This particular

act gave employees the right to refrain from participating in union activities. In addition, it
established certain Executive powers in order to maintain order in certain emergency situations
such as a strike or lockout.
On the other side of the coin, while new advancements such as legislation and the
growing mutual respect between employers and their workers account for why unions are losing
usefulness, there are still quite solid reasons for their existence in society today. To some
workers, unions represent a beacon of hope; today's unions have been at the forefront of the
struggle for the rights of women, immigrants, the LGBT community and minorities. In 2012,
Lesmore Frederick, head lecturer of Labour Studies at the Cipriani College of Labour and Cooperative Studies of Trinidad and Tobago, responding to remarks that trade unions have been
dying out, stated, I will not say that trade unions are not relevant; they continue to be relevant,
but they need to be current in the way they carry out their activities. The market is not static.
Businesses have created ways of surviving and so must trade unions, in a Guardian newspaper
interview, published in a story on April 11th of that year. Unions, if effectively managed can also
aid to reduce the number of individual negotiations, enable specification of work rules,
procedures for disagreements and grievances as well as ease of communications.
In retrospect, the confusion as to whether or not trade unions are still effective is
plausible and can be summed up by the statement - they are slowly fading, yet still notably
existing. However, if they are to continue to exist, more should be done to educate the leaders
and improve the strategies of these unions so that as corporations grow, so too would the need for
actual human and also united representation.

Works Cited
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Business dictionary. Trade Union. 2014.
http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/trade-union.html (accessed November
8, 2014).

Byron, William. Getting Organised. February 21, 2011.

http://americamagazine.org/issue/culture/getting-organized (accessed November 5,
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Faggioni, M, and R Coles. "Have Labour Unions outlived their usefullness?" Integrity
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John-Lall, Raphael. Guardian. April 11, 2012.
http://www.guardian.co.tt/business/2012-04-10/labour-expert-unions-need-newstrategies (accessed November 5, 2014).
Mello, Jeffery. Strategic Huan Resource Management. 2nd Edition. Cengage
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