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Conflicting Roles of Union, Government, and Management

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Explain the conflicting roles of unions, management, and government. Do you think that unions will continue to have a strong role in the employment environment over the next 20 years?

The Conflicting Roles of Unions, Management, and Government
Overview
The roles of unions, management, and government often have conflicting roles and goals concerning unionization and the workplace. Unions are champions of employee rights; they fight and negotiate for increased wages, ‘fair’ hours, and a safe working environment (among other things). The roles of an employer, however, include ensuring efficiency and productivity within their organization. Since the goals of unions and management differ, an inherent ambiguity exists regarding a ‘fair’ compromise between efficiency and terms of employment. Generally speaking, unions often request higher wages, more hours, or a safer workplace than the employer feels is necessary. The role of government in the unionized workplace is a complex one. On one hand, the government is a large employer and must strive to be both efficient and productive. On the other hand, a government represents its constituents and must protect their interests; the majority of constituents are also employees. Because of these two competing interests, our government must strive to act as fairly as possible when dealing with unions in the workplace.
Unions
Unions exist in a wide variety of industries across Newfoundland; these industries include airlines, medicine, fishing, and everything in between. These unions support employees by negotiating terms of employment, educating members, and providing strike support; by threatening a union-wide strike, unions can often negotiate more favorable terms of employment than any individual member. These terms may include higher wages, better hours, more benefits, etc. In this case, terms of employment

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