Labor Relations

Labor Relations (hereinafter, the Lectio) is the sixth and last lesson part of the Employment Essentials lesson that introduces its participants to employment and related topics.

WorldOpp Pipeline

This lesson belongs to the Introduction to Employment session of EmployableU Concepts.

Content

The predecessor lectio is Employee Remunerations.

Script

Labor relations may be defined as relations between parties of employment agreements. These relations include the attitudes, motivations, and behaviors that two or more actors on the job market assume toward each another.

In the United States, these relations are called employment relations, while labor relations have more specific meaning. They refer to activities between employers and labor organizations concerning the negotiation or implementation of a collective bargaining agreement (CBA).

The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) defines a labor organization as,

Any organization of any kind, or any agency or employee representation committee or plan, in which employees participate and which exists for the purpose, in whole or in part, of dealing with employers concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, hours of employment, or conditions of work.

This Act has granted employees the right to organize into labor unions, to bargain collectively with employers, and to define unfair labor practices by employers. To keep the union up and running, the members pay membership fees known as union dues.

In the United States, the percentage of workers belonging to labor unions is steadily declining over the last years, from about 20% forty years ago down to about 10% today. Regionally, the most of the unions are in the seven states, which are California, Illinois, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Washington. They largely represent workers of the public sector of the economy, probably, because state-run organizations don't fight labor unions as hard as those in the private sector. Many employers perceive the labor unions as threats; some employers organize pseudo-unions under their own control.

Key terms

Labor relations, labor organization, labor union, collective bargaining agreement (CBA)

Closing

Would you be interested in more information about labor unions? --Yes/No/Let's move on for now

What Economy Is is the successor lectio.