SECTION 1: THE LABOR MOVEMENT “THE
BEGINNING OF THE END”
• Macroeconomics is a branch of economics that deals with the economy as a whole, including
employment, gross domestic product, inflation, economic growth, and the distribution of
income.
• By mid-2001, less than half (140 million) of the population belonged to a civilian labor force.
•
•
Civilian class excludes members of armed forces, prison population, and other institutionalized persons.
Unions play an important role because 1) they help in promoting legislation that affects pay levels and working
conditions today. 2) Unions are a force in the economy, with membership of nearly 16.3 million people.
Employment and Union Affiliation
Workers Represented by Unions
1%
Unionized Workers
14%
Nonunionized Workers
85%
TYPES
OF
UNIONS
&
ACTIVITIES
•
Independent Unions- unions that do not belong to the AFL-CIO ( The American Federation of Labor)
• Unions try their best to help negotiate with employers for better pay, hours, and working conditions.
• Works could strike or refuse to work until demands are met.
• Sometimes workers will picket, or parade in front of the employers business carrying signs about the
•
dispute
Lastly, they will try boycotting, which is a mass refusal to buy products from targeted employers or
companies
• Industrial Union- an association of all workers in the same industry, regardless of the job each worker
performs
Development of basic mass-production industries such as steel and textiles established a way to
organize this kind of union.
•
• Craft union/trade union- an association of skilled workers who perform the same kind of work.
• For example: printers unions, electricians union, machinists union, carpenters union, plumbers
union.
EMPLOYER RESISTANCE
• Employers created a company union, organized, supported, or run by employers-to
head off efforts by others to organize workers.
• Business would sometimes hire all new workers when there was a threat of a strike
• Employers had there own way of resisting workers demands, sometimes calling
lockouts where they refused to let employees work until management demands were
met.
• Violence was a major problem during these resistances; troops were called in to keep peace.
ANTIUNION LEGISLATION
• The more hate for unions grew and led to the Labor Management Relations
Acts, Taft-Hartley Act, of 1947.
• Puts limits on what unions can do in labor-management disputes
• Gives employers the right to sue unions for breaking contracts, prohibits unions from
making union membership a condition for hiring.
• Two provisions:
• 80 day cooling off period that federal courts could use to delay a strike in the case of a national
emergency
• Section 14b, an antiunion provision, which allowed individual states to pass right-to-work laws,
state law making it illegal to force workers to join a union as a condition of employment, even
though a union may already exist at the company.
SECTION 2: RESOLVING UNION AND
MANAGEMENT DIFFERENCES “THE DUEL KICKS
OFF”
• Injunction: it’s a court order but there are no actions done the union can not
strike
• Seizure: the government can negotiate with the union
• Kinds of union arrangements
• Closed shop: it’s the most restrictive it only hires union members and helps
determine who gets hired.
• Union shop: workers don’t have to belong to a union to be hired but must
join one after getting the job and remain one as long as they work there
KINDS OF UNION ARRANGEMENTS
(CONT.)
• Modified union shops: workers don’t belong to a union and cant be
forced to join one to keep their jobs
• Agency shop: workers don’t have to join a union but they do have
to pay the union dues to help pay collective bargaining costs
COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
• Grievance procedure: they contract someone to help them with
problems that can pop up in the future
• Mediation: bring in a third person to settle a dispute. main goal is to find
a solution both people with accept
• Arbitration: both people but differences aside in front of the third
person but the third person says the final say
• Fact-facing: third party makes recommendations on how to solve the
problem with the information he gets from both union and management
SECTION 3: LABOR AND WAGES “GRAND
QUEST FOR THE TREASURE CHEST”
• Wages differ for a variety of reasons, including skills, type of job,
and location
• Noncompeting labor grades
• Unskilled labor/workers
• Semiskilled labor/workers
• Skilled labor/workers
• Professional labor/workers
WAGE DETERMINATION
• Wage rate – a standard amount of pay given for work performed.
• Wage rate is determined by:
• Traditional tools of supply and demand
• The influence of unions in the bargaining process
• “Signaling theory”
SECTION 4: EMPLOYMENT TRENDS AND
ISSUES “ THE END OF THE BEGINNING”
•Decline of union influence
• Reasons for decline include:
• Many employers made efforts to keep unions out
• The addition of more people such as women and teens.
• Unions raise wages, union made products prices raise. People cheap,
want cheaper stuff, go to nonunion producers for cheaper stuff. Unions
sad, lay off people.
LOWER PAY FOR WOMEN
• Female income has been only a fraction of male income over 40 years a 28%
gap
• It was reported that 1/3 of this gap was from differences in skill and
experience that women have, which are that women have lower education
than their male counterparts
• Slightly less then 1/3 of that is due to an uneven distribution of men and
women in the different occupations
• Also women tend to drop out of the labor force to raise families
LOWER PAY FOR WOMEN (CONT.)
• The report also found that more than a 1/3 of this gap can be counted from
discrimination in which they have difficulty getting raises and/or promotions
which is like reaching a glass ceiling
VOCABULARY
• Glass ceiling- an invisible barrier that obstructs their advancement up the
corporate ladder.
• Comparable worth- the principle stating that people should receive equal pay
for work that is different from, but just as demanding as, other types of work.
• Set-aside contract- a guaranteed contract reserved exclusively for a targeted
group