Workers usually create unions when they face a certain struggle within their industry. They tend to organize themselves by sector of employment and may join a general union to represent employees in all sectors. Different unions may vary in how much emphasis is placed on participation, union leadership, aims, and techniques, depending on the impact of their action.[3][4]
Modern trade unions form due to many different reasons, mainly due to changes in a country's economy or decreasing demand for labour in a specific industry.[6] Workers usually form unions when they feel that the fact that they do not have a say in the workplace threatens their job security, which in turn affects their economical position.
Different workers may have different goals, which may include either promotions or a higher pay. Unions attracted disadvantaged workers to enable collective bargaining power between them with employers to negotiate better wages, benefits, and employment terms.[8]
There have been some studies suggesting workers join unions due to social pressures, however there have also been studies that suggest the opposite. As such, the likelihood of social pressures effecting workers joining a union likely varies from environment to environment.[9]
Opposition
Company management usually disprove of unions due to collective action by workers cutting into a company's profit shares.[10] Although, in the United States, it is illegal for an employer to interfere with workers' right to unionize,[11] workers may sometimes feel agitated about joining a union if disapproval is expected from employers, as there may be an underlying belief that an employee's social standing with an employer may be tarnished.[12]
Employers who take part in actively combating the process of unionization or the efforts of the union are engaging in union busting.
Forms of organization
Union membership tend to be organized by either their industry, ultimate goal, or employer.[13]
In craft unionism, workers are organized by their job or profession. Unions that belong to this group tend to focus on improving the conditions of a particular industry,[14] for example when the Writers Guild of America striked on behalf of its writers.
In industrial unionism, workers are organized together regardless of their job or profession, where a higher membership count gives a union more influence across many different industries.
The organizing model is a model developed in the United States that re thinks union organizers as being teachers and mentors that encourage and instruct union members in carrying out their own activism. This is in contrast to the Service Model of Organizing, where the union is charged with settling disputes and solving problems. The goal with the organizing model is to encourage union members to be more active and engaged in their union.[16]
Effects of unionization
In relation to gender
According to a study conducted in 1992, conventional unionization organization strategies were most applicable towards men working in the manufacturing sector, forcing those who were not affiliated with such to initiate contact with a union. Women were more likely than men to desire a form of unionization, however they were recorded as least likely to join a union.[17]
In relation to productivity
Early industrial relations researchers believed unionization might safeguard employment by fighting technological and mechanical advances. Recent researchers developed dynamic union-firm bargaining approaches. Monopoly unions can boost salaries and appropriate quasi-rents from employers' capital, but others predict that firms would decrease capital investment to prevent appropriation, lowering productivity.[18]
Unionization has been demonstrated to be associated with greater employee retention, even when unionized employees experience greater amounts of dissatisfaction in the workplace.[11] This is associated with the fact that employees experiencing dissatisfaction will be able to voice their concerns more effectively through the use of the union.
Labor union membership by countryHours Worked Compared to Earnings Per Week (OECD)
The rate of unionization in a country is measured through both the amount of workers represented by a union as well as the share of workers represented by unions in a country. This is due to that although more workers may be joining unions, industries represented by unions are increasing at a faster rate.[19]
Canada
The rate of members represented by unions in Canada has fallen significantly in the past four decades, dropping from 37.6% in 1981 to slightly less than 29% by 2014.[20] The union movement in Canada has become increasingly concentrated in the public sector. Most workers in Canada have the right to unionize their workplace, but certain categories of workers are ineligible to unionize, such as independent contractors.[21]
India
The Indian National Trade Union Congress was formed in 1947 after Indian independence in the same year, and is the oldest trade union federation in India.[22] Unions are known to have political connections, and are sometimes used to project political influence on both workers and political parties.[23]
The earliest recorded workers' strike through a newly-formed solidarity union was recorded in 1768 when New Yorkjourneymen tailors protested against a wage reduction. Local craft unions formed and demanded shorter workdays and job-conscious orientation. Trade unionism emerged in the 19th century, primarily involving skilled workers.[citation needed]
Although the annual rate of unionization in the United States is increasing, it has one of the lowest unionization rates in the developed world. The effects of unionization are not heavily researched, drastically reducing the known effects of unionization and therefore reducing the amount of workers that know about unionization.[26]
Abraham, Steven E.; Friedman, Barry A.; Thomas, Randall K. (2008). "The Relationship Among Union Membership, Facets of Satisfaction and Intent to Leave: Further Evidence on the Voice Face of Unions". Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal. 20 (1): 1–11. doi:10.1007/s10672-007-9061-z. ISSN0892-7545.
Ji, Lei (2016). "Unionization, Market Structure, and Economic Growth". Southern Economic Journal. 82 (3): 935–951. doi:10.1002/soej.12111.
Pelz, William A (2016). The Rise of the Working Classes: Trade Unions and Socialism, 1871–1914. Pluto Press.
Cooper, Rae; Patmore, Greg (2002). "Trade Union Organising and Labour History". Labour History. 83.
Carter, Bob; Cooper, Rae (2002). "The Organizing Model and the Management of Change: A Comparative Study of Unions in Australia and Britain". Relations Industrielles / Industrial Relations. 57 (4).
Bernstein, Irving (1959). "Trade Union Characteristics, Membership, and Influence". Monthly Labor Review. 82 (5).
Fones-Wolf, Kenneth (1982). "Revivalism and Craft Unionism in the Progressive Era: The Syracuse and Auburn Labor Forward Movements of 1913". New York History. 63 (4).
