Unions and Labor Rights
The United States has a fairly strong history of unions and labor rights. Workers in the United States enjoy more freedoms than in many other countries, including the right to form and become members in unions. However, over the past 40 years, union membership has declined. There are certainly both good and bad components to unions and unionization of organizational workforces. On the positive side, unions are tasked with providing their members with jobs in which they are provided fair wages and good benefits, as well as protection from arbitrary disciplinary or other actions by employers. On the negative side, unions frequently drive up employer costs, protect subpar employees, and may disrupt organizational work through strikes and other work stoppages. Let's take a look at unions and their impact on organizations. People join unions for a variety of reasons including increasing pay and benefits, especially good health care coverage and retirement plans. Unfair management practices that lead to poor labor relations often lead to unionization. A more recent reason for unionizing is job security.