DEFINITIONS CH 19- Trade Unions Flashcards
Trade Unions
Trade Unions: an association that represents the interests of a group of workers
Craft Unions
Craft Unions: Represent workers with particular skills (E.g., Plumbers and weavers)
General Unions
General Unions: Represent workers with a range of skills and industries
Industrial Unions
Industrial Unions: represent all workers in a particular industry (E.g., all workers in rail industry)
White Collar Unions
White Collar Unions: represent particular professions (E.g., pilots, teachers)
Collective Bargaining
Collective Bargaining: representatives of workers negotiating with employers’ associations
Real Income
Real Income: income adjusted for inflation
Industrial Action
Industrial Action: when workers disrupt production to put pressure on employers to agree to their demands
Strike
Strike: a group of workers stopping work to put pressure on an employer to agree to their demands
Role of Trade Unions
They negotiate on behalf of their members on wages, job security, working hours and working conditions. These can include basic pay, overtime payments, holidays, health and safety, promotion prospects, maternity and paternity rights and job security. They also provide their members information on various issues, help with education and training schemes, aid in increasing demand for the product produced and some even provide strike pay, legal advidce and sickness pay
The basis of Wage Claims
There is increased productivity
Industries can afford to pay workers more as profits have risen (workers have contributed to this higehr profit)
Comparability Arguement (pay should be comparative to other similar jobs, also maintenance of wage differential)
Rise in pay is required to keep up with increased cost of ilving
Factors affecting the Strength of Trade Unions
Level of economic Activity (more the better)
High number of members (higher number is higher bargaining power)
High level of skill (more skilled workers the better as they are difficult to replace)
Consistent demand for product produced
Favourable Government Legislation
Industrial Action
These are actions unions may take to support their claims. These include overtime bans, work to rule (workers only do what is mentioned in their contracts) and strikes. A strike is a method of withdrawing labor and can be official (approved by a union) or unofficial (not approved by a union). Strikes can be measured by:
The number of strikes
The number of workers involved
The number of working days lost
The last indicator is the clearest. To attempt to prevent strikes from occuring, governments try and convince unions to come to an agreement with by going to arbitration. Arbitration is the involvement of a third party seeking to reach an arrangement.
Influence on the Supply of labor
Trade unions seek to raise the wages of their members by restricting the entry of new workers in the industry. They may do this by operating a closed shop or insisting that new recruits have high qualifictaions.
Advantages and Disadvantages of a Trade Union Membership
Disadvantages:
Firms can be harmed by industrial action taken by unions. The amount of damage done and revenue lost due to strikes wil aid the rival firms. Overtime bans and work to rule would also adversely affect a firms costs and flexibility.
Advantages:
Unions make it cheaper and easier to negotiate with workers. They also serve as a channel of communication between workers and employers. They increase quality of labor by encouraging education and training a well as improved health and safety. They provide a place to channel the workers greivances, hence reducing conflict. They can also benefit non-unionised labor as an improvement in working conditions and pay applies to everyone.
