Trade Unions Case Study

Decent Essays
In almost all parts of the western world, trade union membership has been on the decline. The adoption of non-union employee representation (NER) arrangements within organizations remains a key contributing factor to the decline of trade unions. Non-unions are defined as a workplace absent of trade union recognition and collective bargaining (Campling, J.T. and Gollan, P., 1999). Many employers over the years have developed growing concerns with the establishment of trade unions within their workplaces and have opted for alternative strategies to promote employee representation at work. Non-unions are used by employees as a way of avoiding or discontinuing union representation whilst still obtaining an active union presence. Marks and Spencer’s …show more content…
and Kim, H.K., 2004). NER arrangements such as HRM and consultation are preferred by employees rather than alternative employee representation arrangements such as collective bargaining because they do not slow down the work process and are less costly for the business meaning it will be less costly for employees. Becoming a member of a trade union includes a monthly membership fee whereas non-union arrangements are free and thus employees see this as an advantage because employers are willingly promoting employee representation at the kindness of their hearts. The working population continuously search for occupations and often prefer entering non-unionised over unionised work places because NER arrangements do not lead to a reduction in jobs available. Unlike trade unions whom bargain for higher wages, organisations have to supplement higher costs with job cuts making non-unionised workplaces more attractive to the unemployed by increasing job opportunities. This shows the absence of trade unions and existence of non-unions in workplace enables a better quality of work life which has a knock-on effect of improving employee performance (Gollan, P.J., 2007). This is a benefit for both the company and the employees because employees enjoy a better working environment whilst …show more content…
Many concerns may arise such as the fear over job security, affecting their performance. HRM practices are used by employers as an approach to manage the workforce based on engaging and motivating employees which keeps them highly committed to the organization and enhances their performance (Williams, S., 2014). HRM seeks to bind individual employees to the organization in an attempt to reduce the potential for conflict of interest and operates in the absence of trade unions. Employees often fear for their employment security but HRM emphasizes individualism meaning employees are able to contribute positively creating an open and trusting employment relation. This helps psychologically as employees feel a greater sense of job security due to the notion of mutuality (Marchington, M. and Wilkinson, A. 2012). By providing employees with voice, managers are able to take on-board employee concerns which can influence manager’s choices and improve worker productivity (Bryson, 2006). For example, Delta Air Line flight attendants rejected a chance to unionise because Delta had already been treating them well. Delta made over 40 HRM strategic changes to enhance quality of work life for flight attendants ("Delta Anti-Union Video”, 2008). To further support this, Peter Haynes (2005) found in the Hotel, ‘Fivestar’, poor communication between management and staff created underlying

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