There are so many issues entailed in labor law, particularly because there are inevitable times when the employer and his employees would not see things eye to eye. When this happens, a lot of problems just might occur, bearing negative results for both sides of the fence. This is precisely why the existence of unions is very important for companies all over the world.

At its simplest form, a union is actually an organization of employees that does collective bargaining with the employer. If a certain employee has grievances against a particular policy of the company, it would be very hard for him to express such to his employer al by himself. Chances are, the employee would not be as honest as he wants to be with his employer if he is alone in this endeavor. And this is where the importance of unions sets in.

Let us face it: the employer will always have more power than the employees. For starters, the employer has the power to make decisions that can very well influence the lives of his employees in a major way. Sure, there are labor laws that provide employees the protection they very much need. Unfortunately, there are some employers out there who do abuse their employees in some ways. Some rights would be abused, for starters. This does happen, in spite of the existence of labor laws. But with unions, the collective existence of the employees would create much impact, especially when the need for negotiations would arise. Plus, there is always power in numbers, so any employer would definitely be motivated to listen to his employees if they negotiate with him collectively.

Personally, I am all for unions. Working for so many years now, I have been exposed to different scenarios employees go through from time to time. And I have seen how unions can actually help the ordinary employee carry out peaceful negotiations. Still, there is always that risk of union strikes occurring. But what is the reason why union strikes happen?

With the existence of unions in companies, employers have to be wary when it comes to negotiations. A compromise has to be sorted out as peacefully as possible, to avoid the occurrence of union strikes. If both parties refuse to reach an agreement, then a union strike just might happen. This is something I would not want for anyone in any company to go through, particularly the employee.

True, both parties would indeed suffer when a union strike occurs. Operations would have to shut down because the workers are not reporting for their daily duties. During this dormant period of time, the company would be suffering significant losses in terms of profit. Worse, just because operations are stalled does not mean that payment for rent, taxes, electricity, and maintenance are being placed on hold as well. Thus, on top of the money lost due to stalled operations, the company would still have to deal with fixed costs.

Still, the employer finds himself in a better place than his employees. When a union strike occurs, the employee is not paid his daily wages at all. The longer the duration of the strike, the more money all employees would lose. Of course, unions typically have what are known as “war chests”, or funds that have been collected over time, to pay striking employees when the need for union strikes arises. Still, these funds would be exhausted over time, and are rarely enough to support lengthened strikes. Thus, employees would still be at the losing end of the equation.

Of course, union strikes do not really have to happen every single time employees wish to have grievances. I believe any problem can actually be talked out, as long as both parties are responsible enough to respect the opinions that the other party has. And as long as there is an avenue for compromise, then union strikes do not really have to take place.