INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS

INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS Introduction
Trade Union according to Wikipedia online dictionary (2010) is “an organization of workers that have bonded together to achieve common goals such as better working conditions. The trade union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members (rank and file members) and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The agreements negotiated by the union leaders are binding on the rank and file members and the employer and in some cases on other non-member workers.” A union represents employee- interests in companies and organizations by supporting the employee- right in getting fair wages and fair work conditions.  Union based jobs look at the union as their chance to voice their needs, their rights, and job advancements. Employees and organizations both benefit from the union. An organization can be affected either negatively or positively by changes made to employee relations strategies, the policies and the practices. The organizations success rate depends on how these strategies, practices, and policies are presented to the employees.  This brings us to the effectiveness of communication between the employers and their employees and how employees should be aware of any upcoming change and they do fully understand it.  
Unions and Labor Relations
Before talking about unions and labor relations, one should understand the history of unionization. “Originating in Europe, trade unions became popular in many countries during the Industrial Revolution, when the lack of skill necessary to perform most jobs shifted employment bargaining power almost completely to the employers' side, causing many workers to be mistreated and underpaid” according to Wikipedia online dictionary (2010). Now days the work environment and employees rights have changed and are protected by different labor laws. Employers these days know that employees have the right to fair wages and fair work conditions in order to succeed and maintain effective workforce. “Unions are organizations formed for the purpose of representing their member- interests in dealing with employers (Hollenbeck, Gerhart, Noe, & Wright, 2007).” Unions were found to protect employees’ rights and assure their fair treatment. They exist to protect hard workers accurate pay and safe work environment. Constant employee manager clash justifies the need for the union existence and role. Employees can always seek the union- help if they feel they are not getting enough management attention or are having work issues with their managers.  
Unionization was wide spread among workers in the early days. To streamline the process, universities developed training programs which were known as labor relations trainings. “Labor relations emphasize the skills managers and union leaders can use to minimize the costly forms of conflict and seek the best solution for both parties involved in the disagreement (Noe, et al., 2007).”Labor relations have three parts to the decision process:
1.	Labor relations strategy that requires managers to decide whether to use the union or nonunion operations. 
2.	Negotiations of contract which affects the employer and the employee- discussion and agreement on fair stipulation that should be honored for the term of the contract. This contract should include the pay structure, job security, work policies and rules, and work environment safety. 
3.	Finally administering the contract “this includes the conflicts between union members and organization- management on a daily basis (Noe et al 2007).”
Effects on Organizations
Some companies and organizations are concerned about having unionized operations. These organizations fear decreased stock performance, decreased financial earnings, and decreased productivity when dealing with unionized job.  These fears led these profit managers to effectively understand how to change the influence of unionization with the help of manageable labor relations plan.  For organizations, productivity have decreased because of strikes, limited worked hours a day, and limited workloads because of unionizations. As for employees, the story is different, productivity has increased by improving the moods of the employees which in turn reduced turnover rate and all this is because of unionization. Some organizations believe that happy employees are more productive than unhappier ones. “Union workers can both negatively and positively affect an organization. However, research has shown that union workers are more productive than nonunion workers (Noe, et al, 2007).”
Change in Employee Relations
Organizations need to have well implemented and well effective competitive labor relations strategy. An organization must pay close attention to their labor relations strategy because closely monitoring this strategy will help the organization overcome the loss that the union may put on the organization by increasing productivity and at the same time increasing the cost of wages and benefits to more than the productivity gains. Usually, nonunion get lower wages and fewer benefits than what union employees get. Organizations with union employees perform collective bargaining- to discuss employee contracts with the union members on regular basis. “The human resources department is responsible for maintaining communication with the union representatives to ensure issues are resolved as soon as they become apparent (Noe, et al., 2007).” 
It is important to implement the employee relations effectively in the organization since employee relations covers a lot of important factors like communication, collective bargaining, employee participation in management decision, and conflict and grievance.  One of the most important steps to the employee relations strategy is to make sure all employees are aware of the new strategy and understand completely how to get about getting the needed information out of it. Every organization is different and has different needs, which is why the employee relations strategy should be a good fit to this specific organization. 
Change in Policies and Practices
Unions work with the Human Resource department alongside ensuring employees well being. The Human resource departments are used for hiring and to work on making policies and procedures related to hiring, offer making, the use of effective discipline techniques, and benefits. The Human Resource department communicates these policies and procedures with the organization- entire work force. “The implementation of policies eliminates any bias as well as promotes fair decision making. Another function of the human resources department is to ensure employee safety and security. That is keeping all employee information private and confidential (Noe, et al., 2007).” The policies and procedures will be useless if they are not communicated with employees and are put to use by these people.   
Are Unions Still Needed? 
Many companies and organization enhanced working conditions with the implementation of labor laws and regulations that gave employees more rules to follow which obsolete the need for unions.  Good companies and organizations are using the labor laws effectively to make their employees happy and took over what unions are supposed to be doing. These days’ employees know how to use the labor laws to keep employee trainings and employee costs in the organizations financial long term plans. Labor Laws made it easy for employees to negotiate with their organization for themselves not needing the union to do so. Employees can negotiate with their employers about safety, schedule, salary, and benefits. Using the labor laws, employees got huge confidence in their rights which made employers aware of this employee confidence and forced the employer to do certain things for employees to have successful productive work force. For the company to have good profit, they need to motivate employees o be willing to put their efforts into work.  Unions always work for the interest of employees, but these services are not free, it may be costly for employers and employees at the same time. However, labor laws are free and provide safe work environment for employees. 
Conclusion
Unfair employee treatments gave birth to labor unions which were created to protect employees and make sure they get fair treatments at work by their employers. The union was found by employees who felt they were mistreated and needs to sound their voice to their employer. These days with the existence of labor laws, employee awareness, and human resource departments, people argue that unions are not needed any more. The human resource department took the place of the union in an organization which should provide confidentiality, security, and fair wage to employees working their job. Companies and organization that have integrity and have an effective human resource management should follow the labor laws and regulations to satisfy all their customers and employees at the same time. 


References
Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia. (2010). Wikipedia Online. Retrieved on 12/02/2010 from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_union
Noe, R.A, Hollenbeck, J.R, Gerhart, B. Wright (2007). Fundamentals of Human
Resource Management (2nd ed) McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2007 New York, NY. Retrieved on 12/02/2010 from https://portal.phoenix.edu/classroom/coursematerials/mgt_431/20101102/