1. UNION ACTIONS AND IMPACTS
MGMT 329 LABOR RELATIONS
UNION ACTIONS AND IMPACTS

2. UNION ACTIONS
Unions rely on three primary methods: mutual insurance, collective bargaining, legal enactment
Mutual insurance
Help workers over periods of unemployment
Top-ups for EI payments
Collective bargaining involves a number of items
Unions emphasize laws for everyone

3. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Collective bargaining
Addresses broad range of issues
Continues to be adversarial
Growing proportion more problem-solving or “win-win” or principled
Principled bargaining entails significant shift in attitude

4. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Joint union-management ventures at workplace
Gainsharing
Joint government arrangements
Requires union members and officials to learn new skills
Can be controversial

5. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Joint participation outside workplace
Sectoral councils
Labour-management-government initiatives
Work on a range of issues from training, economic restructuring, trade policy to employment assistance for changes in industrial mix

6. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Political action
Ability to achieve objectives depends on type of legislation and governing party
Most Turkish unions committed to social unionism
Labour movement tends to favor left-wing parties but some tensions beginning to arise

7. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Publicity campaigns and member communications
Unions have to spend more time and energy communicating
Newsletters to members
Special bulletins

8. UNION ACTIONS (continued)
Publicity campaigns and member communications (continued)
Union publicity serves variety of purposes
Informs general public on certain issue
Builds coalitions with other stakeholders
Establishes boycotts of certain goods or services
Use full range of media

9. UNION ACTIONS Education
Union-sponsored courses focus on issues of immediate concern
Offer training in public speaking and leaderhip
Courses on contemporary political and economic issues of special relevance to members

10. UNION IMPACTS Broad range of impacts
Members’ wages and working conditions
Productivity
Overall performance of firms
Turkish economy
Turkish society

11. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Wage impacts
Direct wage impact is premium a worker receives for union membership
Unionized firms tend to attract more highly qualified people
Size of direct wage impact is declining
Direct wage impact not the same for every worker or in every industry

12. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Wage impacts (continued)
Fringe benefits
Portion of total compensation
Union establishments tend to pay greater portion of of total compensation in fringe benefits
Unionized firms tend to favour pensions and other forms of deferred compensation

13. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Wage impacts (continued)
Indirect union wage impacts
Are effects on non-unionized workers
Difficult to determine but seem to be modest
“Crowding” effect typically applies to lower-skilled workers
“Threat” effect applies in situations where non-unionized employers increase their employees’ pay to forestall unionization

14. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
How unions achieve wage goals
Collective bargaining is major method
Some unions seek to restrict entry into trade or profession
Some seek to change environment

15. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Union impact on productivity
Considerable disagreement
Neoclassicists argue that unions reduce productivity
Institutionalists argue that unions have positive effects on productivity
Labour-management relationship may be the most important factor

16. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Impacts on management of organization
Impacts are substantial
Detailed collective agreements regulate many aspects of workplace behaviour
Unionization constitutes significant limitation on management’s freedom
Biggest impact comes through grievance processes, work rules, and joint participation with management on various committees

17. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Impacts on society
Within workplace unions can have both positive and negative effects
Within social and political spheres, impacts are almost entirely positive
Publicly-funded medical care
Unemployment insurance
Public pensions

18. UNION IMPACTS (continued)
Impacts on society (continued)
Raised profile of health and safety issues
Participation in unions have help members in personal development and understanding of society
Union activities have applied skills into other areas such as school boards and hospital boards

19. ARE UNIONS STILL NEEDED?
Free trade unions advance their members’ interests and usually those of the country’s working people
Without unions, Turkish employees would enjoy less protection against arbitrary actions
Trend toward less secure work and more part-time, temporary and contract work would likely accelerate
Working people would lose political representation