HRM as Intermediaries Between Management and Unions
Unions & HRM
HRM as Intermediary between Management and Unions
Centuries ago employees had little or no power when it came to negotiating wages, hours, and work conditions with their employers and often suffered great hardship as a result (Brown and Warren, 2011, p. 97). Eventually employees formed labor unions to take advantage of their collective power, thus forcing employers to improve compensation and work conditions, a practice that continues to play an important role in many economies globally.
The Role of Unions in the United States
The United States has experienced a greater than 50% decline in the prevalence of labor unions since the 1960s (Brown and Warren, 2011, p. 96) and on a global scale is one of the least unionized economies today (Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development [OECD], 2011). Yet, the U.S. ranks as one of the most productive countries in the world terms of gross domestic product per hour worked (OECD, 2011). Based on this data alone it seems reasonable to assume that organized labor is bad for the economy, but Luxembourg and Norway are one of the most unionized countries in the world and these workers are about 16-19% more productive than American workers. The reason for this discrepancy has been attributed to differences in access to affordable higher education (Leonhardt, 2011b), but regardless of the actual cause(s) it seems safe to conclude that unions per se cannot be blamed for poor productivity.
The increasing irrelevance of unions in the U.S. may be a sign that organized labor no longer has a place in the American economy, since worker productivity appears to be independent of whether or not the workforce is unionized, but David Leonhardt argues that the need for unions may be just as important now as in the past (2011a). For example, U.S. corporations raked in record profits in 2010 (Salazar, 2011) and rose close to 12% between late 2007 and 2010 (Leonhardt, 2011a), yet the unemployment rate skyrocketed during this period and remains persistently high. This...
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