Union revitalisation in Europe and North America Essay

Union revitalisation in Europe and North America - Essay Example Due to increased integration in EU and development of favorable legal infrastructure coupled with favorable governments allowed trade unions to grow and gain the influence within the region. In US, too, due to local as well as international factors, trade unions are gaining momentum again.Gradually as the shift occurred towards more service oriented industries supported by technological improvements, unions lost their traditional advantage because organizations were less reliant on the human force as the main source of producing goods and services. Unions are often considered as the source of low employee turnover which effectively helps organizations to concentrate on core issues rather than emphasizing on non-productive activities. Besides that, collective bargaining powers of unions provide them necessary influence and power to impact the performance of different productivity variables within organizations.There has been counter argument to this also which suggests that the produc tivity and presence of unions are negatively related with each other and as such unions do not contribute towards the productivity of the organizations. This argument developed so strong that unions started to loose their traditional position as collective bargaining agents and as such the movements, generally, lost its significance and influence within the organizations and as agents of productivity and industrial relations.... Before analyzing the question of revitalization of the union activities within EU and North America, it is critical that a critical look at the relationship between the unions and economy and how both interact and influence each other. One of the most critical tasks performed by Unions is the compression of wage differentials in the economy. The collective bargaining power of the unions gives them an advantage to negotiate the wages with the employers, and empirically it has been evaluated that wages of those employees who is part of the unions enjoy higher wage rates than those who is not part of the union activities. It is within this context that it has been argued that unions tend to reduce the shareholder value because higher wages result into lower profits. As such union activities are therefore viewed within the perspective of agents which have negative influence over the wealth which shareholders may drive from organizations in an absence of union. This argument is further consolidated by the fact that unions often wield their power in a way which can halt the production activities due to their conflict with the management of the organizations on any issue. Such behavior and attitude tend to result in lost productivity due to stoppage of production activities. Unions also often tend to monopolize the power structures within the organizations and as such give unions power to regulate and modify the labor market therefore changing the basics of competition within economy. This monopolization of power gives unions power to influence the wage rates therefore effectively can increase the total costs for the firm which may result into lost competitiveness. As such the role of unions within the