Unions

Unions
Name
Institution
Date
What did you find in your research about the recent record for unions attempting to organize large bargaining units? What does this mean for the future of unions?
Organizational unions are critical bargaining units for workers. However, coming up with an effective union requires many considerations such as the size. That is why the bigger the union, the more effective it is. Small unions often get struck down by the management quite easily. For instance, OUR Walmart union has faced numerous hurdles from the Walmart management which is hell-bent not actualizing a good pension plan for the Walmart workers. This is despite the support that it received from the UFCW trade union. In addition to the employers’ opposition, starting and running an effective small trade union is quite costly considering that it takes approximately the same amount of resources to come up with a bigger union. In short, while unions are embroiled in endless fights with respective managements, the future looks bright thanks to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding the Specialty Healthcare ruling which gives the employer the responsibility of arguing that a union is too small to bargain for a larger group and removes NLRB’s discretion to ban small bargaining unions (Fisher, 2014). This means that in the future employees will be able to come up with bargaining unions without much regard to their size and pressure from NLRB and management groups.
Is the increasing resistance of employers to unionization a new phenomenon or a return to a historic relationship between management and unions?
Any threat to an organization’s proximal returns or profits has always ruffled many companies in the wrong way.

That is why the continuous resistance of the workers’ unionization by the employers is not a new phenomenon but a return of the historic relationship between organizations and bargaining units.
 Is there an increase in management leverage against unions?
As the employers, they have more than enough leverage against unions. For instance, the case of UFCW and OUR Walmart pushing NLRB to punish Walmart for threatening workers that had engaged in picketing only for Walmart to fire back and accuse the two unions of unlawfully picketing the organization (Fisher, 2014). This prompted the OUR Walmart union to stop picketing activities for 60 days and UFCW to disengage from any bargaining activities with Walmart. This is an example of how strong the management is when it comes to fighting off union activities. Also, they have the political backing, whereby legislations always favor companies such as Walmart.
References
Fisher, D. (2014). Did The NLRB Just Make It Easier For Unions To Organize Walmart? Retrieved from https://www.forbes.com/sites/danielfisher/2014/07/26/did-the-nlrb-just-make-it-easier-for-unions-to-organize-walmart/#620960945214