Explain how unions, human resources management personnel, and government interventions (such as laws and regulations) serve to address worker rights and worker safety.
Labor unions, human resources management personnel, and government interventions serve to address worker rights and worker safety in a variety of different ways. The confluence of all of these entities helps to create an environment for workers which is conducive to health and, ideally, to long term propagation of the ability of the laborer to continue to work. However, each of the aforementioned mechanisms is able to facilitate these ends from multiple perspectives. In most ways, labor unions were the initial catalyst for the rights which workers gained and which are today enforced by human resources management personnel and government interventions.
Labor unions are directly responsible for some of the most foundational rights for laborers throughout Occidental society, and in the United States, in particular. After the advent of the Industrial Revolution, virtually anyone (including women, children, etc.) was capable of working for as long as humanly possible in conditions which were oftentimes noxious. Labor unions are credited with advocacy measures for eight hour work days, time off for eating and resting, and even basic minimums in terms of compensation. The formation of these unions and their activity in this regard helped to stipulate the specific needs of workers in these regards.
By extension, many of the demands of labor union were eventually canonized into laws and regulations through government intervention. Today, eight hour work days are normative (Bradberry, 2016). There are laws—typically reinforced at the state level—dictating how long laborers can work prior to attaining a rest period. These legal mandates specify the minimum...
References
Bensinger, G. (2015). Amazon faces lawsuit over whether delivery workers are employees. www.wsj.com Retrieved from https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-faces-lawsuit-over-whether-delivery-workers-are-employees-1445989623
Block, Walter. (2011). Labor relations, unions and collective bargaining: a political economic analysis. www.walterblock.com http://www.walterblock.com/wp-content/uploads/publications/labor_relations_unions.pdf
Bradberry, B. (2016). Why the 8-hour workday doesn't work. https://www.forbes.com/ Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/travisbradberry/2016/06/07/why-the-8-hour-workday-doesnt-work/#2510591136cc
Korff, J., Biemann, T., Voelpel, S. C. (2017). Human resource management systems and work attitudes: The mediating role of future time perspective. Journal of Organizational Behavior, 38(1) 45-67.
To intimidate striking workers or escort strike breakers, workers who would replace the individuals striking, across picket lines some employers contracted private companies like the Pinkerton Detective Agency. The United States Department of Labor reports that the Coal Strike of 1902 proved to be a turning point in U.S. policy. On October 3, 1902, to address the strike in the Pennsylvania anthracite coal fields that he perceived to threaten a
(Labor Law: Decline of union membership and power has led to rise in lawsuits) What happened at the same time was that employers were able to finally step up their opposition to unions, which was something that they had probably wanted to do for a long time, and this was achieved through the methods of legal proceedings as well as political pressurizing and lobbying. Today, unions can no longer protest
The union thus acts as an advocate for worker's legal rights, including their right not to be subject to drug tests as well (although this issue is far more contentious, given that Xanitos also argues that testing is required from the point-of-view of patient safety. A more controversial drug testing issue is prohibiting all workers from using tobacco, a controversial practice that has become increasingly common amongst healthcare establishments. "More
Various suggestions have been made as to how to correct for these losses, such as job retraining for more technical jobs. As more and more union jobs are outsourced to foreign workers, more union workers in the United States are unemployed, with little recourse except to retrain and to target another type of work. When they do so, they may not be as eager to join a union given that
Unions in America today The document outlines the pros and cons of unions in America. It takes into consideration how unions improve the working environments for workers. The paper considers the power of unions on law makers, collective bargaining and other advantages. The cons include decline in competitive advantage for American companies, low productivity and motivation and many others. In any organization, unions act as binding agreements between employees and management.
This new generation of activists on college campuses nationwide has inspirited students to talk about their concerns about workers rights. This effort was also conducted largely through e-mail campaigns over the Internet. Some graduate students have already formed their own unions. Appealing to Right-To-Work States Arizona, famously known as a right-to-work state, is emerging as a new stomping ground for labor unions. Organized labor is making one of its largest efforts
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