Unionization Prevention
This document serves as a proposal to the CEO on why and how to keep the Unionization of employees in a Manufacturing facility.
A union is an organization formed by workers of a firm who have joined forces to come together to achieve common goals that are related to their work such as better pay and better working conditions. The leaders of unions are in a place to bargain with the employers on behalf of the members. These employees that are members of a union are bound by the final agreement of the leaders of the unions. In addition to the bargaining activities that union offer to their member they organize and take part in political related activities. The density of labor unions has declined over the decades in the private sector as a result of their negative impacts. Employees form and join unions because they are dissatisfied with their employees. The manufacturing and assembling firms are highly unionized and this has not done the industry any good thus the new assembly plant in India should avoid unionization of its employees at all cost.
With unionization comes economic disadvantages, unions are responsible for introducing monopoly of voices in firms and facilities. This kind of monopoly power in the hands of union contributes to a decrease in the profitability of the business. Unionization is responsible for changing the rules, policies and practices that employers use to promote, transfer and fire employees, as the union progresses and continues to have a grip on operations they come up with various rules and production procedure that have the potential to influence productivity negatively and reduce the ability the employer has to use merits in making decisions regarding the employees (Lee, et al., 2012). With union comes changes and it is not always easy to adopt to changes therefore, the business might be affected by reduced work rules.
Over the years it has already been established that unionized firms are less profitable that nonunion firms, this is fine for businesses that are not aiming to make profits but our firm is a profit making organization and allowing unionization will decrease the profits incurred by the business. This decrease in profits occur as a result of employers being forced to negotiate wages and benefits increase to even the workers that are not represented by the union in order to avoid formation of other unions (Lee, et al., 2012). Unionized workers increase productivity but this does not carry over to the non-unionized employees. Union represents employees who seek to sign labor contracts with employers bargaining for high wages, it is always impossible to ascertain that these employees will increase their efforts after the employer has signed the labor contract (Flynn, 2005).
Unionizations also reduces the returns given to the shareholders of the business, following research carried out following passage of the Wagner Act in the 1930s found out that unionized firms experienced about 20% lower rate to returns given to shareholders compared to nonunionized firms, if unionization caused a reduction in the returns of shareholders other things being equal, managers and CEO who are agents representing shareholders are expected to prevent unionization in their firms and facilities (Lee, et al., 2012). On the other hand, if low shareholders’ returns result to low risk in the security prices the shares become less volatile, the employees will have to share in this risk and this might result into a layoff.
Unions are labor cartels since they have the ability to control the number of workers in a in the company and in this case the manufacturing facility that has been relocated to India. Unionization impacts the global market by slowing down the process of economic growth by making the economy’s recovery from recession slow, as time passes by unionization reduces job opportunities in companies that allow unionization. Unions only benefits their members and end up hurting the general economy by hurting consumer who fail to find employment opportunities. Unions greatly minimize job opportunities, most of manufacturing jobs that have been lost by workers in the previous decades have been of manufacturing workers (Sherk, 2009). Before a manufacturing firm chooses to put in place policies that can allow formation of unions they should consider that unionization is one of the causes of economic retardation in the global economy.
Unionization comes with its own disadvantages, the firm has just began expanding to other parts and the management should show a great resistance to unionization. Formation of unions brings about a step back for organized labor the more the reason strategies to prevent workers from forming unions should be put in place. These include planning preventive tactics and using supervisors to convince workers that forming unions is not the best solution. Unions weaken companies that are concerned about competing with increased rivals that are unionless. First and foremost, it is important to establish a work place that completely discourages unionization. The firm should take strategic measures to ensure there are no loop holes that can bring about unionization. This is because the facility changes the rules, regulations and practices of a firm when union campaigns begin they are likely to accused of being of putting in place unfair labor practices and policies and that can be hard to defend against (Sherk, 2009).
With the manufacturing assembly moving to India the business will be hiring a new workforce and will have an opportunity to orchestrate new policies and procedures that will discourage formation of unions, it is important that from the very beginning of forging a new relationship with workers, employers begin with letting the employees know what the facility’s stand on unionization is and give a clear detailed reason why the administration views unionization of the firm as a bad idea (Sherk, 2009). It is also important to put the facility’s stand on unionization down for future references and for any new employee to read through before signing to work with the company to avoid arguments and incidences in the future.
Another strategy the business can use is making sure the business is not anti-union but one that values the opinion of their employees, this will let the employees know that they have a voice to work and they will be unlikely to look to unions to help them voice their concerns, it is important that the supervisors of the new assembly plant put in place polies that protect and assure employees they can launch their complains without fear of retaliation (Bruce, 2012). The firm should consider that all employees want their efforts valued and appreciated, union campaign for better pay therefore it is important that the facility puts in place a pay strategy that rewards their efforts.
Running a facility where the safety and security of employees and fair workplace is another strategy that can be put in place. The supervisors should embrace the responsibility of surveying the employees to know how the already establish policies are affecting their performance. Supervisors should be in a place to respond to the concerns of the employees (Bruce, 2012). Communication is a key strategy that businesses should have in place, the firm should strive to have a structural system that supports and facilitates effective communication to ensure that employees are part of the decision making process.
Educate the employees on the disadvantages of unionization and why it is unpopular, the operations manager and supervisors of the facility should be in apposition to discuss with the employees the reasons why a decision like forming or joining a union will hurt a firm and how unionization can bring about laying off employees thus leading to a potential job loss (Bruce, 2012). It is also important for the senior management in the facility to be responsible for their decisions either good or bad.
Having an effective grievance procedure in place is an important procedure the facility should put in place, the management should ensure every employee is familiar with the procedure followed when filing a complaint and knows how to raise a concern in a business appropriate manner, this way employees will not turn to unions to help them raise their concerns (Bruce, 2012). Listening and acting on employees’ grievances will give them satisfaction and the chances of them turning to unionization will be minimized.
In conclusion, all the above serves as evidence why the assembly plant should avoid unionization of its employees at all cost and the strategies it should put in place to ensure that it has achieved its goal of ensuring the employees of the facility do not opt for any third party intervention.
References
Bruce, S., (2012). 8 Steps to Keep Your Workplace Union-Free. Retrieved from; https://hrdailyadvisor.blr.com/2012/08/29/8-steps-to-keep-your-workplace-union-free/
Flynn, S. (2005). Why only some industries unionize: insights from reciprocity theory. Journal of Institutional Economics, 1(1), 99-120.
Lee, D. S., & Mas, A. (2012). Long-run impacts of unions on firms: New evidence from financial markets, 1961–1999. The Quarterly Journal of Economics, 127(1), 333-378.
Sherk, J. (2009). What unions do: How labor unions affect jobs and the economy. The Heritage Foundation.
