Necessity of Labor Unions

This research develops a position on the necessity of labor unions. The argument developed in this essay is that labor unions are necessary.

In the United States, labor law is, essentially, a federal matter, and the government arbiter between management and labor is the National labor Relations Board, generally referred to as the NLRB (Calvert 19). One result of this approach is a uniform application across the country of rules governing labor-management relations. The states are able to exercise little original jurisdiction in labor-management relations (the most notable example of state jurisdiction are the so-called right to work laws, which effectively outlaw the closed shop in some states).

Labor unions gain the right to represent workers employed by specific firms through the process of certification. Certification is the formal declaration by a government labor relations board that a specific labor union is the recognized bargaining agent for a specific group of workers at a specific employing firm. This formal certification is typically made following the conduct of a certification election, which is supervised by the appropriate labor relations board.

Labor union membership in the United States has been on the decline for the better part of three decades, with unionized workers accounting for only approximately 12.4 percent of the private sector workforce and 16.5 perc

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ocess of bargaining collectively with the employers of their members (Walters and Langdon 585). When the collective bargaining process does not result in a mutually agreed upon contract, workers may (collectively) strike in order to enforce their demands. Collective bargaining by labor unions is concerned with factors other than wages. It is also concerned with issues of union security, and working conditions. Through the collective bargaining process, labor unions have played major roles in the United States in the pursuit of economically related social goals, such as the elimination of racial discrimination in employment hiring, firing, and promotion, and pay equity between the sexes and between ethnic and racial groups. To be sure, some unions have been guilty of similar discriminatory practices, although the organized labor movement has actively promoted such social goals. Supporters of labor unions claim that it is only through the actions of the labor unions that the workers of the country· union and non-union·are able to obtain their just share of the economic benefits of society. The labor unions claim that they alter the shares of national income between the workers (the owners of labor) and the companies (the owne
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Some common words found in the essay are:
Labor Unions, Walters Langdon, NLRB Calvert, United Organizational, Taft-Hartley Act, Republicans Congress, Western European, World War, Bargaining Forum, Roosevelt Administration, labor unions, labor union, collective bargaining, workers' control, union membership, labor union membership, labor law, collective bargaining process, motivation labor, motivation labor union, bargaining process, income distribution, organized labor, concept workers' control, week total days,
Approximate Word count = 3750
Approximate Pages = 15 (250 words per page)

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