One discussion and 2 replies

 

Union Article

Share with the class a news article from somewhere in the world (the article needs to be in English though please) that is about a union. Explain the issues being faced and how they can be resolved.

Submission Instructions:

• Your initial post should be at least 200 words, and should include the citation for your article formatted and cited in current APA style. Your initial post is worth 8 points.
• You should respond to at least two of your peers by extending, refuting/correcting, or adding additional nuance to their posts. Your reply posts are worth 2 points (1 point per response.) 
• All replies must be constructive and use literature where possible.

Post by classmate 1

 

The article I am referencing was published in July of this year. As the world continues to face a pandemic, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) has assisted nurses in South Florida in making concerns regarding a lack of personal protective equipment, patient-nurse ratio during the pandemic and stress nurses are facing regularly. SEIU funds commercials, using money collected from union dues, that focuses on the personal accounts of their members on the healthcare frontline. The article focuses, specifically, on hospitals owned by Hospital Corporation of America (HCA) who owns 15 hospitals in South Florida. Resolving issues presented in this article and television commercials referenced in the article can be challenging in these unusual times. A resolution or attempting to resolve will be difficult for all parties.

The nurses in this article believe that protesting and pleading to the community will assist in convincing HCA to change practices related to the issues presented. The article also reviews HCA's financial gains and claims the company received government bail-outs and has not met the needs of the nurses caring for patients. The sentiment of each nurse that contributed to this article if one of desperation. They want to be heard, safe, and compensated fairly while caring for patients that present at their hospital for care. 

As COVID-19 moves through-out our communities, healthcare workers face the scary reality that the possibility of contracting this horrible virus is amplified. Although the Center of Disease Control guides healthcare companies related to the issues presented in this article, the SEIU union is attempting to assist in getting nurses' concerns addressed, how these concerns are addressed can damage the reputation of organizations if a resolution is not determined quickly.

Reference:

Pacenti, J. (2020, July 23). Coronavirus: Nurses union to launch television ad blasting Florida HCA hospitals. Retrieved August 06, 2020, from https://www.palmbeachpost.com/news/20200723/coronavirus-nurses-union-to-launch-television-ad-blasting-florida-hca-hospitals (Links t

Post by classmate 2

 

In 2017, Brazil passed a bill for what is known as the employer-friendly labor reform act which sent Brazil’s labor union in a controversial and death-to-the-union frenzy. Without a shadow of a doubt, this bill empowered employers but seemingly reduced and undermined the value of labor unions and elected membership participation dues optional. The intent behind this enactment was to provide modifications to an economic crisis dating back to 2014 however, it is believed to be the first major overhaul since 1943 (Neeser & Camargo, 2019).

Therefore, it was proposed that this adoption will potentially trigger an unfavorable chain of events for unions across Brazil and onward to Latin America. With this:

• Legislations were implemented to reduce cost for businesses and allows firms to negotiate free standing contractual agreements with employees
• Unions fear that it will be a detriment to job security which led to strikes & protest
• Its derivative was to make Collective Bargaining Agreement the focal point and reduce the scope for legal action in labor dispute
• Sparked Brazil’s first strike in two decades
• Union dues that were once mandatory will become voluntary under this bill which provides more flexibility for part-time and temporary contracts
• Unions took a stance in raising the argument that this will eventually lead to massive security in job reduction

 (BBC News, 2017).

Fast forward to 2019, where the bill has been adopted and seemingly causing havoc on the mere existence of labor unions. As a result of the elimination of mandatory union dues, a unions main source of income, union earnings decreased by more than 85 percent taking it from reeling in 3.6 billion reals (approximately $908 million USD) in 2017 to a plummeted 500 million reals which is approximately $126 million USD (Neeser & Camargo, 2019).  

In fear of mergers and potential extinction, unions elect to seek creative ways to harvest the funds that are lost with the flexibility of dues. They created a three-step approach to do so:

• Challenged the constitution behind the laws that eliminated the mandatory union dues
• Created new types of union dues i.e. negotiation contributions, agency fee and social dues
• Attempting to convince more workers to unionize

The union’s three-step approach did not blow over well as an overwhelming number of employers and employees expressed that they did not feel that the newly implemented dues truly represented all union workers.

Furthermore, I believe that these issues can be resolved by implementing newly adopted service dues, much like the union’s initial approach, however, convincing employers & employees of how much value it would be to them to so that they buy into it organically rather than making it feel forced upon them by making it mandatory. You find that people are more susceptible to new ideas when it feels organic and they feel like it was their idea or done on their own free will.

References

BBC News. (2017). Brazil Senate passes controversial labour reform

Retrieved from https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-40577868 (Links to an ext