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The Future of Unions

In: Business and Management

Submitted By 1122334455
Words 2476
Pages 10
Executive Summary

In this paper, I argue that unions will still survive as an institution and play a significant role in the labor relations development, but for the purpose of better meeting the changing demands of new environment, after analyzing their strengths and weaknesses, I try to prove that unions must change in order to survive and further grow. Then the following part focuses on specific changes need to be made and the difficulties unions face in making such changes. Because the intensity of membership has fallen quickly since the 1980s, labor unions are forced to take measures to deal with this trend, but new changes of the labor force in the United States are barriers for unions’ expectation. Actually, for the purpose of regaining the vital role unions once did in American labor-management relations, they have made changes to create more communication and cooperation opportunities with the management to reach agreements and undoubtedly, this new approach has a positive effect on the total labor and management relations.

Strengths and Weaknesses of Unions
According to the definition of unions, they should be organizations of wage earners and are formed for the purpose of serving the members' interests with respect to wages and working conditions. By analyzing its history, it is obvious that labor unions were born out of necessity, to protect the health and well-being of American workers. Through the years, they have provided a unified voice for workers and obtained fair treatment of them in the workplace.
From employees’ perspective, unions are able to offer them a place to fight for their own rights and demands and increase their power to bargain with the management. When only one or two individual workers go to the managers’ office and ask for higher wages, in fact, workers are not in an advantageous position. The manager

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