Negative Labor Unions

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“Eight hours for work, eight hours for rest, eight hours for what we will” (Martha Bridgeman 2010). This was once a radical slogan for people without much money who claimed two-thirds of each day for themselves. Taking more than a hundred years of campaigns to achieve the eight-hour day and two-day weekend, years of meetings, protests, speeches and strikes. Labor unions did help establish weekends off and eight-hour workdays. According to Merriam Webster’s dictionary, a union is an organization of workers formed for the purpose of advancing its members' interests in respect to wages, benefits, and working conditions. With elected representatives in respected places, union reps negotiate labor contracts and disputes with employers. When …show more content…
There are times in our lives where we have the ability to make a decision on a particular life changing event, we should make this decision only by a developed conclusion from yourself. I was recently involved in voting on becoming a unionize facility at my place of employment. While never have worked for a unionized company before I did not realize the risks I was taking before just jumping on the band wagon for a pay increase. After being on a job for several years without a pay raise, unsafe working conditions, and no incentives, the employees came together and reached out to a union agency and the process began. Once the petition arrived at the plant, we immediately started the campaign with both the company and the union. In addition, it seemed that everyone was being so polite. I was acknowledged by people who worked at the plant who I never saw before. There were dinners served to the employees and their families by both parties. There was apparel provided stating to vote yes or no. Management was telling you the plant would closed down due to the customers being anti-union and cancelling all contracts. On the other hand, there were the union representatives stating that the information given was false and our jobs would be protected through collective bargaining and arbitration. There were house visits and phone calls made convincing you …show more content…
Through this journey of researching I learned numerous of facts about labor unions that were not presented during the campaign meetings. After researching, in my opinion my employer was not ready for this establishment due to being a brand new plant of only three and a half years old. The company is operating off of barrowed money from the banks. According to the production numbers there has been a big progress from the start of production, but the employees have not met the set goal for the demands of the product. Similarly, as a plant we are still growing and striving to be better than our competitors. We are trying to get produce quality products so we are able to receive more contracts, which would lead to a pay raise eventually. Most importantly we are trying to operate at a lower cost. After reviewing all the pros and cons of becoming unionized I voted no because that was the option that best suited me and possibly my future with my
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