Labor Relations Process

The labor relations process includes managers and unions representing employees’ best interests. If employees are not represented by an union, the employer has the opportunity to individually bargain with the employee. The three basic assumptions underlying the labor relations process in the United States includes recognition of the legitimate rights and responsibilities of union and management representatives, negotiation of the labor agreement, including appropriate strategies, tactics, and impasse resolution techniques, and last but not least, administration of the negotiated labor agreement - the interpretation and application of labor contract terms on a daily basis. I agree with the first assumption; however, only to an extent. Employees should have rights to decide whether or not they want to join an union or even form one. On the other hand, from a perspective that is against unions, this assumption gives management and union official rights and responsibilities because they are given legal recognition as the exclusive bargaining representative of a group of employees. In some cases, this assumption does not represent the employees’ best interest by managers and unions. As for the next assumption, the contract negotiation involves union and management representatives jointly determining work rules including rights and responsibilities when it comes to wages, hours, etc. This influences a firm’s labor costs, management rights, and employees’ standard of living. I agree that it represents the labor relations process well, and I believe this is one of the bigger issues in the workforce, especially when it comes to the best interest of the employees since it influences their work and income.
Lastly, I agree that once contract terms have been settled between managers/unions/employees as stated in the second assumption, there is a need to apply those terms every day in the duration, since contracts must be followed until the duration is over. This relates to