Labor Relations (unions in Today's Age)

Labor unions are dissociation of workers that seeks to improve the economic and social well-being of its members through group action. A labor union represents his members in negotiations with the employer over all aspects of an employment contract, including wages and working conditions. These contract negotiations are known as collective-bargaining. By giving workers a united voice a unique and often negotiate higher wages, shorter hours, and better fringe benefits, such as insurance and pension plans, then the individual workers can negotiate on their own. When the employer and you cannot reach an agreement through the collective bargaining process you may conduct a strike, which is an organized work stoppage. Or an employer may prevent work or from entry in the workplace and a lockout.

In many countries, labor union's official affiliations with political parties and seek to bring out social change through legislative and political action and other countries including the United States no formal ties this kind exist. The United States has a tradition of so-called business unionism, and which the main goal of the labor movement is to improve wages and working conditions. Unions in the United States, however often engage in political activities. These activities include lobbying for legislation that furthers the claim of the labor movement and providing financial support to political candidates that are friendly to the causes.

In the early 19th century all aspects of the employment contract, including wages and hours of work, usually resulted from direct negotiation between employers and individual workers. Because of the imbalance of power, such negotiations favored employers. Labor unions began to form in the 19th century to help relieve the damaging effects of industrialization on work groups, especially the long hours and low pay that factory work entailed. The earliest organizations of workers in the United States appeared in New York City and Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, shortly before 1800 these organizations represented the crass of printers and shoemakers. Social and political sentiment against union was widespread in Europe and America at first. Many governments considered unions to be illegal associations or conspiracies in his restraint of trade. However after 1900 unions gain strength in government began to make efforts to prevent industrial strife.

The U.S. Congress began to pass labor relations laws in the 1930s, as part of the social and political reforms constituting the new deal. These laws gave workers in the private sector of the economy the right to bargain collectively through a union. They also established procedures outlining how workers can select a union to represent them in the collective bargaining process, and the outlawed unfair practices by employers. Public-sector workers -- government employees -- began to gain most of the rights in the 1960s many public sectors workers, however, still do not have the right to strike.

Prior to the 1930s fewer than 13% of non-agricultural workers in the United States belong to unions. By the early 1950s about a third were unionized. A steady decline in union membership began in the 1960s and the decline accelerated in the 1980s. By 2003, just under 13% of wage and salary workers, or 15.8 million workers, belong to unions, according to the United States Bureau of Labor statistics BLS. The sharp decline in union membership in the private sector meant that only 8% of private sector workers, about 8.5 million workers were unionized in 2003, according to the BLS, which is part of the Department of Labor. Although the labor movement has grown weaker in the United States it remains strong in many other developed countries.

In the United States, unions have dwindled very rapidly over the past centuries and now there are laws in place which make it much easier for employers and employees to be without union representation. Now, most companies rely on their human resources management to act as a mediator between the employer and employee relations.

In the United States, workers can become members of a union by voting to certify a union as a collective bargaining agent. Voting typically occurs after 30% of the workers petition for a certification election. The union wins the right to represent the workers if it obtains the votes of a simple majority of the workers who make up the bargaining unit. If the union wins a certification election, management has a legal obligation to bargain in good faith with the union chosen by the workers. Workers who become dissatisfied with their year representation can use the same process to petition for a decertification election. Some states give workers the right