Union security provisions in negotiated labor agreements

Union Security Provisions Should Be Negotiated in Labor Agreements

Union security provisions are an important issue of collective bargaining and have become a crucial point of controversy between employers and unions. As such, it must be incorporated in the vast majority of collective bargaining contracts. This can be achieved by employers encouraging monthly deductions from the employees' monthly salaries. Obviously, fines and special security provisions will have an added advantage to the union (Carrell & Heavrin, 2011). Safety and security to the unions has an added advantage of the labor organizations in terms of time and money savings to strengthen its institutional status. For this reason, most companies are not happy about the union security provisions even though most people have acknowledged it a method of collecting dues for their organizations. Once willing to grant union security provisions, employers are likely to make it a major issue of bargaining per se. The development of this mechanism will be remarkably in line with the union security measure. Studies indicate that today, ninety-five percent of the labor agreement provided for union security systems of dues collection. This figure is not expected to decline any time soon.

Union security provisions would regulate union security. Provisions such as the union shop, closed shop and the maintenance of membership arrangement must be legal on the formal authorization of individual employers. In this way, membership of workers in the union must be a prerequisite for employment (Carrell & Heavrin, 2011). The written authorization of employees will only be irrevocable after the contract duration. Under the closed and union shops, at least employees will be mandated to engage in union activities, though at different time frames. However, members who join unions should maintain their membership in the union throughout the contract period or else leave the job. Frequently, these arrangement handle safety issues that management agrees to deduct. Such arrangements will specify the maximum amount of deduction that will be invested in ensuring employees' safety. Employees will be required to sign new authorization forms in the event that security is not provided (Sloane & Witney, 2010). This is directed at indemnifying the company against any liability for the action depending on any legal deductions. This will ensure that the union shares all the expenses of union security activities through union security provisions. Not all these elements will appear in the union security provisions arrangement; most labor negotiations contain more or fewer items.