Capitalism is a system of economics where by the overall goal for production is to maximize on the profit. In capitalism production is own by private members of the community and not the government. These private individuals have only the interest to make more profit. For the individuals to make more profit, they have to employ more worker and at a lower wage since the cost of production is maintained at manageable rates. Available cheap labor can be due to migration or emigration of people into towns looking for better work. They end up accepting odd jobs offering their services for a very cheap cost. This is where the labor unions come in. They are meant to help employees fight for their deserved rights so that the employers respect every right of their employees. Therefore labor unions are very important and beneficial to workers who have a membership in them.
It is still very hard for every laborer to be under labor union because in the third world, there are a huge number of laborers who are unskilled (Sloane, 2010). They offer a huge substitute for the skilled laborers at any particular time. This is the point where capitalistic individuals take full advantage of the situation by employing labor at a very cheap cost with the sole interest of making a lot of profit. Trade union may only be able to protect the interest of a few laborers whom most of them are skilled and experienced laborers. Most unions in many countries only cover workers from the public sector and the government since the laws governing unions has little to do with private sector. To some extent, this also makes them unable to negotiate for higher pay rise since the higher the pay gets, the tax is cut from individual salaries.
Unions require that every member has to surrender his or her individual rights and comfort for the sake of the entire group. The union is supposed to fight for the right of every member and not just an individual or few individuals (Sloane, 2010). There are several requirements for running a union and these requirements are clearly stipulated in the law. In the unions the rules of a democracy apply. They hold elections in a free and fair manner to pick a leader for the union after a stipulated period of time within the constitutions of the union. For the unions to be able to run properly they have to be funded and this is the sole responsibility of the union’s member. They contribute some little money after every month for the operations of their union (Sloane, 2010). This money may at times be used as emergency fund for the workers during cases of strike.
It is the responsibility of the union representative to bargain for the union members for pay increases, and other working conditions with the employer (Sloane, 2010). However it may not be a must that the employers may give in to their negotiations but it is important that he or she listens and argue with reasoning. Whenever an agreement is reached among the representatives of the union and the employers, a document known as a collective bargaining agreement is signed. This is a legal document that has to be there for the sake of any agreement (Sloane, 2010). Without this document a court may overrule a case where a management of a company is sued for issues regarding labor laws.
Reference
Sloane, White. (2010). Labor Relations (13 ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Prentice Hall.