Operations come to a halt during union strikes. If the strike lasts more than three days, it may cause serious social or financial damage to the involved parties.
Below, we've shared details of what this social and financial damage could look like and how unions can avoid it–read on to learn more about what happens when a union strikes.
A union refers to an organized group of workers in a workplace or an industry. These individuals come together to advocate for their rights in their respective workplaces, often conducting online union elections through tools like ElectionBuddy. The idea is to unite under one umbrella and use their unity to negotiate with those in power.
These negotiations generally revolve around employee welfare. They can be relevant to wages, time engagement, schedules, benefits, hiring criteria, etc. Interestingly, the size of a union can be as small as two members, but it can also be large enough to cause serious financial damage to the involved parties.
Once a union authorizes a strike through a strike authorization vote, it means members of the union do not work for the employing company and keep others from joining the company, too. They can do so in three ways:
In today's world, union strikes also occur digitally. In these strikes, workers may protest by not responding to the employers or voicing their concerns on social media platforms.
No–union strikes are completely lawful. Section 7 and Section 13 of the National Relations Labor Act gives unions the right to strike.
However, it is essential to note that the law also defines the boundaries and qualifications of exercising this law. Make sure you read through the act before forming a union or taking extreme measures.
Workers may engage in union strikes due to the prevalence of unethical practices. Some of these are as follows:
As mentioned earlier, union strikes can cause serious financial and social damage to both the union and its employer.
In the last decade, worker strikes have lasted an average of 41.1 days; the longest strike lasted 1029 days. During these lengthy strikes, concerned businesses suffered huge losses even as they hired a replacement workforce. On the workers’ end, they lost wages and experienced a gap in their workflow, damaging both productivity and financial stability.
Union strikes are usually covered by the media. This damages the concerned business's reputation in the market and keeps top talent out of its reach. On the workers’ end, strike participation may make them low-priority candidates for future work opportunities.
Nonetheless, successful strikes bring long-term benefits to employees. Their complaints get resolved, and they get what they deserve.
Ideally, employers should make an effort to avoid the formation of a union in the first place. The employees shouldn't feel the need to join an external body or form an organization to advocate for their rights.
Companies can eliminate the formation of such unions by promoting a democratic work culture. This means giving employees an equal say in what's happening to and with the business. Whether you're hiring a new leader or implementing a new strategy, make sure you include their vision in the plan, too. You can do so by conducting online surveys and online elections when need be.
It’s also important to prioritize transparency in communication, ensuring you’re considerate of employees' needs and are offering incentives when possible. You can create an employee management body within your organization that keeps a close check on how the workforce is doing; this body can bridge the gap between employees and the leadership.
If employees have already formed a union or joined an external one, the best strategy would be to stay in touch with the union representative. The goal here would be to know what they want and address the issue before the employees resort to strike.
Looking for information on how an abstain vote is counted? Take a look at our latest post.
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