Unions and Collective Bargaining/Discrimination in the Workplace

I. ESSAY ONE - Collective Bargaining is essential component in any industrial democracy. "Labor market" can be defined as the mechanism in which workers compete for jobs and employers compete for workers. In a labor market, wages, benefits and responsibilities of workers are bought and sold. Unlike traditional markets however, labor is not a good that can be differentiated by conventional rules of supply and demand. While workers are the suppliers and employers are the buyers, overall supply cannot be manufactured as people only have a limited amount of time in a day. Additionally, companies are strong and can often directly manipulate the market by setting strict labor rules, triggering potential reductions in any supply side scarcity. A single employee is defenseless within this complicated environment. To balance the employment relationship, the National Labor Relations Act allows workers to unite. Through the formation of a union, workers can create resources and seek out benefits with much more success and efficiency than if they sought these advantages individually. From a management standpoint, desires for/against union formation remains a controversial issue. These principles are discussed in the materials that follow. Employees must recognize the importance of uniting and its effects on managerial oversight. Early labor movements of the 1880's began when working conditions were unbearable or even inhumane towards the working class. Workers felt that management paid miniscule wages, worked them too hard and subjected them to unsafe conditions. During that time, employers were extremely wealthy and extremely powerful, and could get away with almost anything. It is these analogies that the modern working class, must never forget. Over the past 80 years, a united working class has attempted to balance out large scale inequalities through collective bargaining and grievance arbitration procedures. Oversight should not be the only