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Sunday, February 3, 2013

UNITE TRADE UNION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM







UNITE TRADE UNION IN THE UNITED KINGDOM 
            Over the period, the corporate world has witnessed the emergence of significant developments that are attributed to technological development, globalization and increase in the knowledge scope. With the advancement in the knowledge scope, the necessity to observe human rights has been on the increase prompting the formation and the establishment of human rights movements. According to data collected from various economies, various agencies have emerged with the aim of enhancing the observation and realization of human rights. One significant aspect of human rights observation is the establishment of labor unions that is responsible for handling cases on behalf of the employees. The emergence of labor unions has been prompted by the increase in the number of adversities that occur in the work place. Certainly, the employees in various organizations realized that they will have a collective bargaining power if they unite together under the umbrella of trade union. For this purpose, trade unions were first formed in the Great Britain during the period of 1971. Trade unions are the organizations that represent the goals and attributes of the workers. The workers in the trade union have a common goal which may be to protect their integrity, demand for higher pay, increase the number of employees in an organization. Therefore, trade unions are the organizations that are established to resent the affairs of the workers in an organization. The forms of trade union representation may be depicted when the union negotiates with the employer on behalf of the employee.
            The establishment of trade union in the United Kingdom owes its origin to the periods of 1867 when there was the decriminalization of the trade unions. During this period, the legislation recommended that the introduction of trade union was equally beneficial to the employers and the employees. The motive for this recommendation was that the activities of the trade unions were extremely beneficial in reforming the socio-economic conditions for the working employees in the British industries. In a bid to establish better working conditions across the territory of Britain, labour representation was formed and the committee of this labour representation have significantly strived to establish ideal working environment for the mass. The activities of the trade unions in the UK date back to the era of Margaret Thatcher and the periods of Tony Blair. In fact, the trade unions have criticized the observations and measures taken by Blair administration because they have not implemented the agreements highlighted by trade unions. Trade unions have the task of ensuring that the members are adequately protected. The modes of protection offered by trade unions include ensuring that the work place is safe and the prevailing conditions are not potentially risky to the workers. In addition, legal protection is a critical aspect undertaken trade union because they have representatives that conduct organizational survey to ensure that the companies treat their workers according to the requirements of the law. The trade unions were introduced in the United Kingdom because of the increasing disparities in the labour markets. The development of trade unions has taken effects in the United Kingdom and the leaders of the union have taken the initiative of attributing the liberties of protecting the workers.
            The activities of trade unions in the United Kingdom has grown ad developed to be extremely significant thereby enhancing development of both the public and the private sector. UNITE TRADE UNION has been extremely vibrant in its quest to ensure observation of human rights and establishment of safe working environment. UNITE UNION which is the British largest trade union has continued to be on the fore front in the need to establish formidable working environment (Bernan, 2008). In the wake of rising disparities in the public sector, the union has emerged to protect the welfare of its members in the public sector. It is stated that there is massive spending by the public sector and the taxpayers’ money is not being used accordingly. Therefore, the union has risen to threaten the state against deep expenditure that is affecting the performance of the nation. With a population of 1.6 million members, UNITE UNION has gathered enough mandates to avert the government measures of violating the rights and establishment of the workforce. The actual demonstration of Unite union power was witnessed in 2010 when the government has the strategy of laying off workers in the public sector to incur significant budget cuts. However, the union members knew extremely well that the enactment of this strategy will result in the establishment of disability amongst the workers. This follows that the union has more than 200,000 workers in the public sector (Bernan, 2008). Certainly, the Union has warned that with the actualization of the eviction notice by the government, the workers under the union will declare strike. In view of the pending budget cuts, Unite has stepped back from the strikes that were planned to occur because of the introduction of the emergency budget that was introduced by the government. In reality, Unite union of workers has continued to be a significant partner for the workers because it has helped the workers to achieve significant development in their working areas.
            The challenges facing the governments are vital and the development of Unite union has significantly helped the government in conducting reforms and developments. This has been enhanced by the fact that Unite Union shows more preference to the aspect of negotiation rather than confrontation. This approach has ensured that there are ample opportunities for the rectification of the disparities facing the workers in the in both public and private sectors.


            Over the period, analysis of the historical records has shown that the role of the trade unions has continued to change because of the changing diversities of the work place. The global regime is on the verge of experiencing significant changes because of the introduction of new ideas and also because of technological advancement. These changes are changing the diversities, roles and functionality of the trade union thereby leading to decline in the establishment of their membership. Previously, trade unions had their origin in the European Union where industrial revolution took place. The emergence of trade unions during the industrial revolution period was attributed to the decrease in the employee bargaining power. The period of industrial revolution was characterized by immense rise in the demand for jobs because significant number of business organizations was established. Because of the massive number of establishment of companies, the organizations were in dire demand of employees and lack of skills was eminent amongst employees. Therefore, the employers adopted the aspect of mistreating employees because they did not have the necessary skills to perform the tasks. During this reign, trade unions were established to cater for the protection of the rights of the workers who were being oppressed by the employers. Given the mode of establishment, the changing aspects of employment have resulted in the enhancement of changing roles of the trade unions. Trade unions have significantly changed to adopt the aspect of employee protection and establishment.
            In consideration of the changing dimensions of the employment scope, the period of industrial revolution has significantly ended and the workers have realized that the existence of the disparities and advents in the work place has significantly declined. In this aspect, analysis of the activities of the trade unions has demonstrated that the functionality is declining because their roles have significantly changed. Despite the historical decline in membership levels and registrations, trade and labour unions continue to play a significant role in the establishment of powerful workforce. Because of the changes that have been witnessed, the trade unions must change and adopt new tactics so as to accomplish their needs and roles to the society. According to the observation conducted by independent researchers, the membership of the trade unions is significantly declining because the young generations have not resorted to adopt the activities of the trade unions. Therefore, the establishment of the trade unions will have to ensure that there is significant change in their tracts to accommodate the requirements of generation Y. over the period, the management of the trade unions have come to the realization that trade unions must adapt to the changing dimensions of the workplace and have since ensured that they devise a significant approach to the employees. the suggested approaches enacted by the trade unions includes the aspect of conducting employee training, organization and learning of the work place, adopting supply chain and procurement strategies. Another critical aspect adopted by the trade unions is the adoption of the civil society organization. In the wake of the above realizations, the trade unions in the United Kingdom have established the above critical methods to enable them continue providing the services to the workforce. The advents of the changes established have ensured the general workforce adopts the policies of insurance other human rights activities prompting the establishment of vigorous observation of the details available at the work place. The courts and justice system has also been on the fore front towards protection of all the citizens that includes both employers and their employees. Over the period, the issue of trade unions has received immense political influence that the role shave significantly changed from observing the rights and welfare of the workers to the establishment of the political goals. Recent survey conducted by researchers has denoted that the trade unions grew immensely in the number that they have significant contribution in the passage of political policies. in this aspect, political policies enactment has been enacted by considering manipulation of the labour union members. Ideally speaking, politicians in the United Kingdom have resorted to the manipulation of the labour union members so as to achieve their own political motives. This realization has led to the decline in the number of members enrolling as members of the union. In fact, the period of 1979, the membership of the trade union was at 13 million and it was conventional that the government could not implement any crucial policies without the consent of the labour unions. Another political concern that has resulted in the changes in the roles of the labour unions is that the past era was characterized labour union manipulation and the employees were promised of higher pay rise upon observation of the ideal policies. However, the expiry of the political era has ensured that the advantages and privileges enjoyed by the employees are scraped off. According the personalities proposing this incentive, the state workers enjoy more privileges than their counterparts in the private sectors. Therefore, majority of the members of the unions have decided to forfeit their membership because. In this regard, the future of labour unions in the United Kingdom is bleak as more of the members continue to opt out of the labour unions.
            Analysis of the theories of organizational performance has denoted that employee motivation is extremely paramount to the performance of the organization. In order to enhance employee motivation, the organizations have ensured that critical measures are observed by both the staffs and the employees. In this regard, it is evident that employee motivation is a collective responsibility of all the stakeholders of the organization. The managers should undertake the role of ensuring that employees are motivated to work efficiently and deliver favorable results. In spite of leading research works that have conducted on the topic of employee motivation, the subject of employee motivation has not been significantly reflected on the performance managerial practice. The understanding of employee motivation is critical to the understanding of complexity of the human nature. Employee motivation does not only arise from the increment in salary and remunerations but the managers must understand that effective management and leadership is critical for the establishment of employee motivation. The aspect of employee motivation is crucial because the performance of the organization depends on the establishment of maximum cooperation from the employees. Therefore, employee motivation must be enacted by the human resource manager of the organization because the performance of the organization largely depends on the initiation of employee motivation. Based on the analysis conducted, satisfied employees are extremely beneficial for the organization because they are efficient and execute the requirements of the managers. The ability to turn in depends on the educational background, experience and training capacities of the worker. The improvement on the establishment of the task is generally slow and it takes a longer duration of time to be enacted. On the same note, the establishment of employee motivation also based on seven ideal strategies that are listed below as;
  1. Positive reinforcement
  2. Effective punishment and employee discipline
  3. Fair treatment of people
  4. The aspect of setting goals
  5. Restructuring jobs
  6. Enhancement of rewards
Essentially, employee motivation results in the induction of other employees towards the aspect of establishing the goals and policies of the organization. The employees are motivated when they are proud of the companies they are working for and are also enjoying the kind of work they do because it provides modes of advancement. The observations of the above factors are critical because they enhance employee motivation thereby leading to the increase in the performance of the organization. The aspect of employee motivation has been the subject of many discussion and the results provided by these reports has stated that money or employee payment is not amongst the leading aspects of employee motivation.
Finally, significant amount of results has denoted that significant number of employees derive their motivation by joining labour and trade unions that are designed to cater for the observation of the rights and establishment of the employees. The studies have suggested that employees join these labour unions to enhance their security because the provision of the organization does not cover their security. In view of this, the establishment of labour unions has been beneficial because it has assisted the employees to undertake the prospects of ensuring that they are not victimized by the managers and the stakeholders of the organization. Therefore, development of labour unions has been critical because it has helped in motivating the employees by ensuring that the jobs they do does not interfere with their health and the prevailing work environment is adequate for their enhancement. The changing role of the labour unions has enhanced complete changes in the job market because the rights of the employees may be subjected to victimization. The recent past has witnessed the emergence of political and technological wave that has rendered the actions of trade unions inactive. With the advancement in the political and globalization aspects, various members of the labour-force have realized that it is crucial to embark on the establishment of rights awareness where all the employers will automatically regard and motivate employees to work harder and establish the goals of the organization.
In the wake of the development and disparities characterizing the operations of trade unions, critical evidence has been established stating that the activities of trade unions are significantly declining because of the development that have been received. The trade unions have witnessed significant change in the roles and duties they used to do and in turn they have taken under new initiative and roles.
In the wake of the development that follows the changing roles of trade unions in the United Kingdom; various measures have taken by Unite Union in a bid to ensure that the interests of the members are observed. Over the period, Unite Union has enhanced the observation of the interests of its members and the changing roles of the unions have been foreseen to adversely affect the provisions of the unions in the United Kingdom. Therefore, unite union has taken to the implementation of ideal strategies to enable it execute its mandate to the stakeholders in the future period.
            The recommendations to be adopted by unite union includes proposal to join with the other leading workers unions globally. With the establishment of globalization, the global nations have witnessed ideal development in organization and the need to enhance ideal working conditions has been renewed. In this regard, the union is crucial because it will lead to the challenging the power of global capital. The developments experienced in the recent past have ensured that the developed nations have power to exploit the mineral deposits in developing nations. This policy is detrimental to the exploitation of labour force and there is the need for the workers to join into global union and campaign against poor working conditions. Global solidarity of workers will result in the global exploitation of workers across the globe and this is the future role of unite union.
            The establishment of the interests of the workers is the core interest of the workers Unite union. However, the changing dimensions experienced globally have the effect of changing the role of the trade unions. Therefore, recommendations must be initiated to ensure that the interests of the members are observed. In the future period of say 10 years to come, unite union will largely benefit by joining the global pool of union where it will help in offering services to millions of workers across the globe. the recommendation that unite union attach itself to the global team  with the other unions like the united steelworkers and other renowned unions will the organization increase its duty of serving the interests of the members and also offers satisfaction to the employees (Bernan, 2008). Upon establishment of these recommendations, the activities of unite union will be revamp and it will continue its goal of ensuring adequate protection of the rights and enhancement of workforce environment. This development will ensure that Unite union captures the aspect of globalization because the aspects of globalization will enable the union to increase its customer base. Following this realization, the changing roles of Unite union will be the increase in the number of individuals covered by the union scheme. The establishment of globalization will ensure that unions are more established to monitor the operations of the employers and employees. Finally, in the future, labour unions will work collectively to ensure safeguarding of the interests of their members.

























Reference
Bernan. (2008). Bill of Rights for the UK? Twenty-Ninth Report of Session 2007-08: Vol. 2.
            United Kingdom: The Stationery Office. .




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