This week you are reading about the NLRB election process (right...?) Professor Budd describes three major factors that predict whether employees will vote in favor of a union in an election (see pages 220-222). These are instrumentality (do I think the union will improve my work conditions), attitudes toward unions generally and social pressure to join unions (or in the alternative social connection among coworkers - there is some interesting research that suggests that workers who have a lot of friends outside of work do not support unions as much as those whose friends are mainly coworkers).
Professor Budd suggests (I think rightly so) that instrumentality is the most important aspect of an individual's support for a union. He notes two schools of thought - the dissatisfaction model (i.e. job dissatisfaction is a pre-requisite to union support) and utility maximization (i.e. workers might support a union even if they like their current job, so long as they think they will get more with the union).
For an additional view, this week George's Employment Law Blog posted a comment about why workers support unions here (mainly discussing things companies do to cause employees to support unions).
What do you think? Is there one school of thought that you think gets it "right" or "wrong" and how much control do you think companies (and unions) have over whether individual workers support unions?
Tuesday, January 25, 2005
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3 comments:
What do you think? Is there one school of thought that you think gets it "right" or "wrong" and how much control do you think companies (and unions) have over whether individual workers support unions?
I believe that there is no school of thought that can accurately represent the thoughts and feeling of an individual at any one point in time. There are to many outside variables that may or may not influence a person depending on the relationships with coworkers, family, friends, age, and other ideals. One moment a indivual may hate unions then at work some fellow employees could influence that person to change their opinion. When it comes down to it the final opinion falls on the indivual and his or her history with the unions and the company. In short a person has to ask themselfs one simple question which will better there lifes the most, the company or the union.
It is obvious that coworkers will influence the way an employee's decision and thoughts on unions. The friends and family are not the ones who are spending fifty percent of their time on the job. I don't completely agree with unions because I don't believe they are sincerely helping the worker all the time. They are being convenient just as the employer is being convenient when feeding the employee with false dreams and hopes. It is difficult to believe unions because of the proof that we have seen of their promises being broken. At times workers are hopeful because as professor bud describes the factors that sway the worker toward the union are quite influential.
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