Generally, ‘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, ie welfare rules for their own welfare. When the workers are the affiliates, it is called the Union of Employees or Workers. If business owners come together, it becomes a ‘Trade Association’. Here we are going to analyze the utility of the Employees Union in three points.
1. honesty matters. Both employees and employers/management stand to gain if union leaders are honest and sincere in their approach. In modern times, many of the leaders side with management and make secret deals to further their own interests, but they pretend to have curried favors by compromising the welfare of employees. For example, leaders claim success by agreeing to a 10% salary increase versus the original demand of 15%. Conversely, sincere leaders run into all kinds of trouble if they incur management’s wrath by not acceding to management’s wishes.
2. morality suffers. The work culture deteriorates and production suffers, affecting the entire economy and the standard of living. Leaders are generally a liability as they hardly contribute to the 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 morale suffer when a clique develops around leaders. For example, the workloads of the leaders are transferred to the already hard working staff, which morally looks at the latter.
3. Wasted public money. When the government formulates schemes like privatization, consolidation, mergers and divestment, many leaders resist as a union issue and not in the best interest of society. Consider the case of a proposed merger of commercial banks in one country. Union leaders oppose this type of initiative to retain office and power. Because when the entities merge, there will be a single union with one set of leaders while the leaders of the dissolved institutions have no choice but the compulsion to work under the new union. When a merger is missed, executives, departments and union leaders become redundant in each 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.
4. Politicization spoilers. The moment a union affiliates with any political party, the focus of the union is lost. Because he has to tow the lines of the outsider, disregarding 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 the unions.
Unless union leaders remain loyal and sincere in their assignments, no appreciable benefits will accrue to union constituents. In fact, the spirit of 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.