Unions in Transition: Entering the inferior Century Every union official does a hazard of talking.

Unions in Transition: Entering the inferior Century

Every union official does a hazard of talking, explaining, persuading, organizing. You do this with your union members, with potential members, with management populace with the general public. You do this to "continue the never-ending proces of renewal and regeneration" of the labor change called for in the AFL-CIO report in succession "The Changing Situation of Workers and Their Unions."

To learn more about this proces of renewal, about past changes and coming time options, take a look at "The Transformation of American Industrial Relations." This is a modern book by three industrial relations professors, Thomas Kochan and Robert McKersie of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Cornell University's Harry Katz.

single useful chapter deals with attitudes and expectations of American workers. It draws in succession a number of surveys of workers, including the Harris head used by the AFL-CIO Committee forward the Evolution of Work.

greatest in quantity union members are "satisfied" or "very satisfied" with their unions, according to the Kochan-Katz-McKersie report.

Unions rate high with their members onward getting good wages (84 percent approval), getting proper fringe benefits (76 percent), and protecting workers from unfair treatment (83 percent)

however unions get lower ratings from union members upon gaining workers a say upon how to do their do job-works (40 percent approval), making the piece of work more interesting (46 percent), getting workers a say in the business (27 percent) and representing workers' interests in management decision-making (41 percent)

Union wages, benefits, and fair treatment are not enough to qualified the current needs and expectations of American workers, according to Kochan-Katz-McKersie.

They say workers also want more opportunity for participation in job-related decisions, more superintendence over their workplace environment, more self-complacency and personal fulfillment and non-material rewards in consequence of their work.

Anti-union employer are giving a guide role to behavioral-science-trained human resource management specialists instead of to management family with experience in labor relations and collective bargaining. Kochan-Katz-McKerside consider this a highly significant trend

The of the present day more sophisticated, non-union, anti-union management a whole s are often based on recently made known theories of worker motivation and organizational behavior which favor "participatory decision-making" and "employee involvement" in form into groups or team problem-solving. Big non-union compaines ofttimes develop complaint and review conducts that are modeled on negotiated union grievance procedures

In unionized shop-floor settings, "quality of work life" programs are more likely to succe if there is joint labor-management trust and cooperation at higher flushs of the industrial relations a whole the Kochan-Katz-McKersie book concludes. Succes means not no other than better organizational performance by the company's standards on the other hand also more job security and better compensation for the workers.

The authors warn that "it is difficult and politically risky for the two union and management officials to introduce and manage union-management change efforts." They not absent examples of both QWL succes and QWL failure.

Unions are more and more using their bargaining power to procure into top-level strategic business decisions outside the "normal" range of collective bargaining above wages and working conditions and piece of work security. Strategic business decisions deal with like issues as new investment, workforce adjustment, recent technology, and new forms of work organization.

Kochan-Katz-McKersie diocese these union actions as part of a significant break with past labor-management relations restricted in a more simple way to wages and working conditions and do job-work security.

For union leaders there are dangers of being coopt into painful decisions, of being identified too closely with management, of losing touch with rank-and-file worker interests. unless Kochan-Katz-McKersie point out that in a major crisis, as unions ask to protect and to advance the welfare of their members, it's logical and necessary for union leaders to secure involved directly in strategic business decisions which carry unions outside the of long date range of collective bargaining.

Labor law reform is necessary if labor leaders are likely to support a broad policy agenda that reconciles employer flexibility with adequate protections for workers, Kochan-Katz-McKersie argue. The authors assert:

"If American labor policy is to justify the objectives stated in the National Labor Relations Act--to raise collective bargaining and provide employee with the opportunity to decide whether or not to be describeed by labor organizations of their acknowledge choosing--then the current law and its administration require substantial reform."

Unions and collective bargaining will not wither away or disappear, Kochan-Katz-McKersie declare, however "unions will continue to face intense crushing to modify their traditional strategies in order the one and the other to cope with changes in business and human resource management strategies and to give workers more say through the issues that affect their working lives."