Complaints of Service Workers and the Role of Unions in Addressing Them

In any industry or company service workers do raise some complaints due to the way their employers treat them or due to the condition of working place.  These are some of the complaints most of workers do raise.  Service workers at times complain about low pay, no benefits and lack of effective communication from their employers.  Other issues such as workers being treated like slave laborers with no breaks and sexual harassment by he employers.  Problems such as political, height and weight discrimination are also faced by workers.  Some workers are mocked either because they are too short, tall or overweight.  Last problem is failure by employer to provide safety gadgets to its employees.

In order to solve the above issues raised by workers, unions have been found to be of help.  Unions always try to analyze workers problems and try to protect them against threats from their employers.   In a case where safety gadgets are to be provided, unions do assist them in obtaining these safety measures.  Just like in oil mining fields gumboots and helmets are necessary because of accidents. Most workers tend to run away from jobs because there is no safety at the work place (Gus, 1995).

Some of the reasons why new collar workers would not want the same benefits and clout that Blue collar workers were able to get by unionization are:  New collar workers get more benefits while blue collar workers get less benefits.  This makes collective bargaining become very hard because of the difference.  The more benefits you receive the stronger the bargaining power.  Blue collar workers are paid less and retirement age is always a bit early. Since blue collar workers are influenced by their employers they are always afraid especially in presenting their grievances. They fear threats of being sacked by their employers, which may make them loose their jobs (Gani, 1996).

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New collar workers may be hesitant to join a union especially when they realize that there are no benefits in what the union has to offer.  Normally workers need benefits that collective bargaining can bring but if the union is found to have no teeth to protect their interest then unionization is seen as useless.  Another reason why new collar workers may be reluctant to join unions does come from the influence of employers.

Some employers use divide and rule tactics where they hold meetings with individual employee.  In this case they send messages of threats in the workforce cautioning workers that they risk suspension.  New collar workers also become reluctant to join unions because of lack of patience.  Most of them lack that time to wait long when it comes to fighting to achieve what they want (Michael, 2003).

The future prospects of union in service industry according to my feeling are that it may end up fading with time.  This is because most of these unions do not commit to their core objectives why they were formed.  Workers are withdrawing from the unions because they feel they are cheated where by the system that is suppose to help them protect there is doing no job.

References

1. Gani, A   (1996). International Journal Manpower: Who Joins the Unions and Why (pp54 – 55) Mc B. up Ltd.
2. Gus, T. (1995).  Look for the Union Label. Me Sharpe Publishers. New York
3. Michael, D. (2003).  Why Unions Makers.  Amazon.com Books Publishers. New York.

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