Class notes
Trade Unions-Employment Relations
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Explores Trade unions and how they affect the employees and employers. Explores the types of trade unions
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Trade unionsA trade union is regarded as a continuing permanent organisation created by workers to
protect themselves at their work, to improve the conditions of their work through collective
bargaining, to seek to better the conditions of their lives, and to provide a means of
expression for the workers’ view on matters of society.
Trade unions are membership organizations.
They exist because of their members; they serve their members’ interests, and they are governed by
the members themselves.
Trade unions serve and protect the interests of their members through:
–Bargaining with employer representatives
–Challenging unfair managerial decisions by means of various processes
–Generally representing workers in interactive processes about er and broader sociopolitical,
economic, and other matters
Trends that may impact the union movement negatively:
–Globalisation: intense competitive pressure in product markets
–More insecure employment: subcontracting, outsourcing, and hiring of temporary workers are
becoming more common
–Small business: smaller companies are undertaking more of production through new forms of
industrial organisation
–Geographic dispersion of production: production is geographical dispersed outside the urban
labour market
–Skills composition: the changing skills composition of the workforce may reduce union solidarity
–Women workers: the entry of women workers changes the priorities and agendas of unions
–Increased unemployment: unemployed may undermine union solidarity
, A fourth identifiable type of trade union:
• Enterprise or company trade unions
–Membership based around a particular employer party’s organisation
–Also referred to as ‘in-house’ trade unions
–Also be categorised as in-house white-collar trade unions
Craft unions (type of occupational union)
• Thrust or focus on specific skill.
• Appropriate skills can only be obtained by completing an apprenticeship.
• Among traditional craft unions are carpenters, plumbers, painters, and bricklayers.
• Membership is gained by specific craft irrespective of industry.
Promotion unions (type of occupational union)
• An apprenticeship is not required.
• Specific skill is still required, however skills are achieved by on-the-job training and promotn
• Similar to industrial unions.
• Strength lies in the strategic importance and skill of the workers they represent.
Unions for unskilled and semi-skilled workers (type of occupational union)
• To fill the void left by craft and promotion unions.
• Do not have the strategic power of craft and promotion unions.
• Power lies in numbers.
White-collar workers (type of occupational union)
• These will organise only workers in a particular industry, such as the Professional Educators
Union (PEU).
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