20. Discussion 1:
Question:
Suppose a coworker just brought you a union leaflet urging
employees to sign an authorization card. What questions would
you ask of the union supporter? What may happen from this
point on?
In the United States, the unions follow the goals of increasing
compensation, improving working conditions and influencing
the workplace rules. An union determines the working
conditions, pay and work rules through a collective bargaining
and designated formal contracts. The questions that can be
asked to the union supporter are: the process in which a union
becomes my exclusive representative; How does the
authorization card work; what does it mean if I sign the
authorization card; the next steps after signing an authorization
card; do I automatically become a member of the union; the
difference between being a union member and just being
represented; voting rules if an election place; the process if I
need to revoke after signing the authorization card; the choices
that will be present on the ballot; minimum number of
employees that need to vote in an election and so on (Fulmer,
2012) . Therefore, the decision is totally on us, whether we
want to sign an authorization card or if choose to decline the
authorization card if I am not n=in favor of it. Thus,
considering all the factors, whether the union might be in the
favor or not in favor, an employee must carefully decide
whether to sign an authorization card.
Discussion 2:
Question:
Suppose a coworker just brought you a union leaflet urging
21. employees to sign an authorization card. What questions would
you ask of the union supporter? What may happen from this
point on?
When employees of a company form a union, they are entering
into an agreement with each other. The agreement here is that
“we” are more important that “me”. Thus, collective well-being
is more important than an employee’s personal ambition. This
includes benefits for the employees, but this also involves
trade-offs (Pierce, 2019). An employees’ union takes care of the
issues of the middle 80% of the employees in the bell curve.
This means it usually deals with issues like salary increment,
hiring process and employee lay-offs. Often union becomes an
institution within an institution. For this institution to perform
sustainably, it must have rules (Rose, Kumar & Ramasamy,
2011). For example, a certain amount of salary should go to the
union from every paycheck whether employees like it or not. On
the contrary, if an employee is fired, the same union pays for
the employee’s expenses for a few months.
In the specific case where the employee union asks for an
employee to sign an authorization card, the employee must
make sure who is going to use this card and what kind of
authorization is being provided to the card holder. If the
employee feels that it is illegal to provide authorization to
anyone then the employee must alert the security personnel.
Even when the authorization is minimal it is important to know
who is going to use the card. There should be checks and
balances and shared responsibilities. When the employee feels
everything is in order, he or she can sign the card and have a
co-signee to sign the authorization card.
Chapter 26
Substance Abuse