In general, ‘Union’ means the formal association of workers or employees in an organization, a group of trades or professions formed to claim legitimate rights and promote their common interest, that is, welfare rules for their own welfare. When the workers are the affiliates, it is called the Union of Employees or Workers. If business owners join together, it becomes a ‘Trade Association’. Here we are going to analyze the usefulness of the Employees Union in three points.
1. honesty matters. Both employees and employers/management stand to gain if union leaders are honest and candid in their approach. In modern times, many of the leaders side with management and make secret deals to further their own interests, but claim to have cut favors by compromising the well-being of employees. For example, leaders claim success for agreeing to a 10% salary increase versus the original 15% demand. By contrast, sincere leaders face all sorts of problems if they incur the wrath of the administration for not acquiescing to the latter’s wishes.
two. morality suffers. The culture of work deteriorates and production suffers, affecting the entire economy and the standard of living. Leaders are generally a drag as they hardly contribute to business revenue. These officers incur costs during the course of union activities, and these costs are borne by the employees through a monthly subscription. Not only that, productivity and morality suffer when a clique develops around leaders. For example, leaders’ workloads are transferred to already hard-working staff, which takes a moral toll on the latter.
3. Wasted public money. When the government formulates schemes such as privatization, consolidation, mergers and divestment, many leaders resist as a union issue and not in the best interest of society. Consider the case of the proposed merger of commercial banks in a country. The union leaders oppose this type of initiative in order to retain their positions and power. Because when the entities merge, there will be a single union with a set of leaders while the leaders of the dissolved institutions have no choice but to be forced to work under the new union. When a merger is skipped, executives, departments, and union leaders become redundant in every organization, creating a huge loss to the public purse. In addition, the situation of many banks leads to harsh and unfair competition among them, resulting in the misuse and abuse of powers and resources, which again adversely affects the economy and social welfare.
Four. Politicization spoilers. The moment a union joins any political party, the focus of the union is lost. Because he has to tow the lines of the outsider, overlooking the well-being of the employees. There are cases where owners are forced to liquidate businesses due to unfavorable working conditions created by political teams through unions.
Unless union leaders remain loyal and sincere in their assignments, no appreciable benefit will accrue to union constituents. In fact, the spirit of trade unionism can only be saved if the people at the front behave to foster faith and strength in the minds of the workers. The collective interest must prevail over the individual.