Union Workers In The Workplace Essay

Unions were necessary in the early 1900s due to bad working conditions and management being in full control over its workers. The tension between both the employees and management were high and union establishment would help protect employees. The Homestead strike of 1892 is a great example how union workers stuck together against the big company trying to take advantage of them. This actually touches home to me a little more than most because this is where I am from. I grew up in Homestead, PA and my great grandfather was part of the 1892 strike that affected the Homestead steel mills. Andrew Carnegie was determined to break the union and put Henry Frick the plant manager in charge of stepping up and demanded his workers production go to 12 hour days and 6 days weeks. When the union refused Frick tried to lock the union workers …show more content…
I do feel that factory, medical and building industries need to have unions due to the working conditions and most being a 24 hour a day industry. Workers tend to work best and have a better safety rating when they are protected and not over worked. These workers need more protection than most industries so they are not taken advantage of.
Walmart’s approach to how they feel about unions and how their managers treated employees with threats and disciple action during the California workers protests in order to try and form a union was way out of line. The National Labor Relations Act prohibits employers for doing exactly what Walmart did in this situation by punishing employees for supporting and backing a union. Walmart has to respect its employee’s voices by law. The decline of unions and the role of unions in today’s society has changed. The US workforce has shifted and the creation of many technology jobs and less hazardous working conditions has been part of the