Labor Union

Labor Union: group of workers who join together to influence the nature of their employment.

Objectives of Labor Relations:

    - Efficiency: productive use of scarce resources for economic prosperity

    - Equity: standard of fair treatment for employees

    - Voice: the ability of employees to have meaningful input into workplace decisions

* Clashes with each other

    - equitable treatment my reduce flexibility and efficiency

    - employee voice may make decision less efficient

Collective Bargaining: representative of the employer and employees negotiate employment terms and conditions.

    Objective: negotiate terms and conditions of employment

                - mutual aid

                - protection

                - bilateral negotiations

If workers want a union...

    - employer must bargain with union over wages, hours, and terms and conditions

    - workers can't be discriminated against because of the union

Union Contracts: provisions of a bargain that are written down and bound into a legally enforceable collective bargaining agreement.

- pressure for compositeness and quality add pressure to collective bargaining

Management Perspective:

    - adversarial negotiations don't promote trust in company

    - long contracts inhibit flexibility

    - labor laws are outdated

Labor's Perspective:

    - labor law is weak

   - minimal punishment

    - delays

    - secondary boycotts are prohibited

    - workers in a global economy need protection

Underlying labor relations issues:

    - goals of the employment relationship

    - how employee and labor market operate

    - public policy

    - union strategy

Four Schools of Thought:

    1. Mainstream Economics: focuses on economic activity of self-interested agents

        - efficiency, equity, and voice achieved through free-market competition

        - competition results in optimal allocation and pricing of resources

        - unions are seen as...