Labor Unions

When there are labor disputes, the government might assign a “fact-finding board”. lishment whose employees are required to be union members or to agree to join the union within a specified time after being hired. This board investigates the problem and suggests a solution. There are peaceful ways decisions can be solved without strikes or lockouts. If there is a boycott on a store because they sell a certain brand name this is called a “secondary boycott”. Strike is labor’s most powerful weapon because of the financial loss imposed upon the employer. The first on is secondary boycott, which has been discussed previously. In the arbitration method of settling labor problems a third party is brought in and the management and Union must abide by the solution as set by the third party. A slowdown is when workers, on purpose, decrease their output in order to force concessions from their employer. Lockout happens when management shuts down a workplace in hope of bringing the workers to the companies’ terms. Some important management tactics are lockouts, injunctions, and strikebreakers. Unions also try to get the general public involved and support their cause. Management sometime will put pressure on unions when there is a breakdown in labor-management negotiations. The second is strong-arm methods were unions hire thugs to force management into accepting the union demands. The downfall to a strike is that is that it also costs participating workers a loss in income.