Labour & Employee Relations Positive & Negative Consequences

Question: Discuss the positive and negative consequences of the unions following this practice along with its implications for union-employee relations. Should unions be allowed to drop an employees grievance if the employee desires arbitration? Justify your response. Answer: Labor unions first emerged in the 19th century as a result of significant movement in the political front. During that time the wages were at a rock bottom, working hours were very lengthy and there were nearly no safety mechanisms for the employees of an organization. At that point if time in a situation like this the employees gathered together to solve these issues. In other words labor union helped the workers to gain access to the decision making activities which once used to be the soul right of the management of the organization (Ross, 2014). There are a number of advantages for the employees who are unionized. The unionized employees always enjoy a better job security than that of any nonunionized employee. Moreover these employees can also file their grievances regarding their problems with the union representative who can take these grievances to the higher management level (Lichtenstein, 2013). On the contrary there are disadvantages of union as well. On the other side of the job security the members of the union are belonging to a particular group. The members of the group are bounded by the union even if they disagree with the unions decisions they have nothing to do. Moreover, sometimes the grievances do not reach to the management because of the negligence of the representative (Lichtenstein, 2013). There should be a well-organized grievance cell with the unions as this will help the employees to file their grievances. However, the person responsible for handling those grievances should be responsible as well as honest with those grievances. Reference List: Lichtenstein, N. (2013).State of the union: A century of American labor. Princeton University Press. Ross, W. G. (2014).A muted fury: populists, progressives, and labor unions confront the courts, 1890-1937. Princeton University Press.