Preview

Should Workers Be Allowed to Strike? - Argumentative Essay

Satisfactory Essays
Open Document
Open Document
561 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Should Workers Be Allowed to Strike? - Argumentative Essay
It is difficult to see how anyone could deny that all workers should have the rights to strike. This is because striking gives workers freedom of speech. This is justifiable, because Britain is a democratic nation.
<br>
<br>My first reason supporting the motion that workers should be allowed to strike is in order to bring to the fore poor safety conditions. For instance, in the nuclear power industry, any breaches of safety can have tragic consequences. If the employees are exposed to nuclear material, this could lead to serious illnesses such as cancer, leukaemia and radiation sickness. Radioactive material could also affect residents of the surrounding area, as in the case of the Chernobyl disaster. In the light of poor safety conditions, workers striking can be justified by the fact that the government and public would be informed.
<br>
<br>Similarly, another justification for employees striking is that production and confidence would perhaps increase after industrial action. This could be because, when workers strike for higher pay or better conditions and their employers meet their demands, the employees return to their place of work with higher morale than before the walk-out. As a consequence, the higher productivity would be beneficial to the owners.
<br>
<br>Likewise, industrial action gives the worker a line of protest against unfair hours or miserly wages. Theoretically, if taking industrial action was outlawed, the management could impose any terms and contract changes that they wished on their personnel. On the contrary, in reality the only effective option that skilled labourers have when their firm underpay them is down tools and walk out. This would ensure that the proprietors would have to negotiate with the unions, as skilled workers are difficult to locate.
<br>
<br>Furthermore, if the workers belonging to one trade union walk out, the situation may be intensified by the fact that one trade union's leaders can call on an allied union's members to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Beginning in the 1860’s, labor unions began to sprout in hopes of making reforms by unifying workers to fight for higher wages, and 8 hour work day, and various other social benefits. The National Labor Union (1866) was the first assembly established to take part in this fight. Strikes would have to be effective in order to initiate any major changes but at a time like this, more harm was being done than good. In 1877, many workers participated in the first great American strike which resulted in mass violence and little reforms. Afterwards, an editorial in the New York Times stated that “the strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests…” (Document B) This editorial, which clearly favored labor unions, was acknowledging that…

    • 797 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    APUSH DBQ1 Labor Unions

    • 1111 Words
    • 3 Pages

    In the mid-1800s, the National Labor Union was formed to unify workers in fighting for higher wages, lowered work hours, and various other social causes. However, this sets the stage for many failing unions to come. One of the first major strikes in this period would include the Great Railroad Strike. In the late 1800s, railroad workers from across the country participated in an enormous strike that resulted not only in mass violence, but also very few reforms. An editorial in The New York Times stated: "[T]he strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests…" (Document B). This editorial, which was clearly in favor of labor reforms, was acknowledging that this method of reform was unsuccessful for the laborers at this time. A failure of this magnitude so early on in the movement should have been enough cease its continuation; however, year after year, strikes were breaking and little was being done in the workers’ favor. Another major strike would be the Homestead Strike and Lockout. In the late 1800s,…

    • 1111 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Labor Unions Dbq

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages

    The damage caused by the labor unions was far less violent than anticipated. Even though labor unions wanted safer working areas and good pay, it still reduced job opportunities and cost millions of dollars worth of property damage. Strikes were a popular way to get your word out while still being peaceful. Although most strikes ended in violence like the general strike in Baltimore (Doc E), they were intended to get the…

    • 600 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    From the years 1875 through 1900 many organized labor unions and strikes occurred. The point of these strikes and labor unions was to eliminate such long hours and low wages that many laborers of that time had to endure. The labor unions demanded eight hour workdays. The labor unions and strikes also worked to eliminate many other hardships that laborers had. The labor unions and strikes were not successful. The only thing they really achieved was in bringing attention to the plight of the worker as well as bringing attention to child labor. However, in their demands for better wages and an eight hour workday, they were unsuccessful. Furthermore, during this time period, the companies and employers enjoyed an improvement in the methods of production in machinery, while at the same time hardly losing anything to these strikes; at most having to agree to pay a little more wages to their workers. However, the eight hour workday was not an effect of the labor unions and strikes of 1875-1900.…

    • 1070 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Firstly the failure of the strike was due to the conservatives because Baldwin and his government holding emergency powers under the ‘Emergency Powers Act’, which enabled them to set up the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies. This organised 100,000 volunteers to be drafted in to help troops by moving essential supplies such as coal from place to place in Britain. Transport services were also kept going by the volunteers meaning that for most people, life was as it was before the strike started. As a result of this, the impact of the strike was not felt with the devastating effect to Britain that it could well have had but more importantly it kept people happy, which ensured that the government always had the sense of being in control. Baldwin and his government were able to appease the miners by offering them a subsidy in their wages for nine months. These nine months gave the government time to set up the Organisation for the Maintenance of Supplies and prepare for the strike which Baldwin was anticipating. The subsidy also created time for situation on wages to slightly calm down…

    • 1230 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    I personally believe after reading the allegations the workers had written, they in every way had the right to strike. Such conditions were not meant to be able to live off of. Events like these are why we have our modern day government and economy, to prevent similar situations. In every way, I would side with the workers. This is just another example of big monopolies trying to get wealthier, while disregarding any workers’ well…

    • 421 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Since there was no groundwork to rationalize and show examples of the success of organized labor, it was nearly impossible to make it work at this time. If unions were going to work, striking would have to be effective and clearly, they weren't. In the 1860's, the National Labor Union was formed to unify workers in fighting for higher wages, an 8 hour work day and various social causes and it set the stage for many failing unions to come. In 1877, railroad workers in this union from across the country took part in an enormous strike that resulted in mass violence and very few reforms. Afterwards, a editorial in The New York Times stated: "the strike is apparently hopeless, and must be regarded as nothing more than a rash and spiteful demonstration of resentment by men too ignorant or too reckless to understand their own interests" (Document B). This editorial, which was clearly in favor of labor reforms, was acknowledging that this method of fighting was not going to work for the laborers at this time. A failure of this magnitude so early on in the movement should have been enough to put it to halt, however, year after year, strikes were breaking and little was being done in the workers favors. In 1892, workers at the Homestead Steel Plant near Pittsburg walked…

    • 989 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The right of employees to strike in support of their bargaining demands is protected by…

    • 401 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    If strike will last more than 2 weeks, some families would be forced to move to another city in search of employment.…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The United Mine Workers went on strike in hope of receiving better wages and a shorter workday. Attorney General Palmer got a court order that told the strikers to return to work. Lewis formally declared the strike over, but it continued for another month until Wilson appointed an arbitrator to decide the remaining issues. The Mine Workers received a 27 percent pay increase, but the same hours.…

    • 382 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Best Essays

    Nursing Labor Movement

    • 2256 Words
    • 10 Pages

    Labor unions have had a long history of using their most powerful weapon, strikes, to fight their battles. Even today, with the diminishing numbers of union members, strikes appear in the news sporadically. The most common reason for organized labor to walk off the job and strike are wage-related issues. (Labor, 2007)…

    • 2256 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Best Essays
  • Good Essays

    Public Service Workers Should Not Have the Right to Strike Firefighters, police, teachers, and even trash collectors all play important roles in our world. Without these public service workers, our communities would not be the same as they are now. For the benefit of our communities, public service workers should not have the right to strike. When workers go on strike they don’t go to work for as long as it takes for them to get what they want. For certain jobs, if they go on strike they can affect people that they would usually help in their job.…

    • 482 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Leeb’s lecture note, it says “can only limit capitalist exploitation, which means the workers want to increase wages and reduction of labor time” (Political Science 333 Dr. Leeb’s lecture note). If the trade union struggles on fighting back against to bourgeoisie, then it would be very difficult to handle the situation. There are two situations of workers could win the fighting; using conjuncture of the market and make up for losses suffered on the world market (Waters, p.36). If no workers are producing products for the market, then the market would be closed, which means the bourgeoisie does not have power to control the workers, otherwise both the trade union and the owner consent on increasing wage and less reduce of labor…

    • 453 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The workers' rights seemed to be more than an important issue to the strike situation. Among many things at hand here, a factor that comes into play is the working conditions. The machines being used in the mills were far from safe as one could easily become injured by the fast moving cranks and pullys. The amount of work they had to do and the time in which they did it is more than impressive to me. It is easy to see how the workers were pushed to the limits of strike. On top of all of that they were getting paid minimum wage for this invigorating work. It was clear that a change had to be made and it took these workers to unite to get it done. The workers rights maintained the strike as it was these rights that were in question in settling the strike. After all, this…

    • 883 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays