Unions At Work Case Study

Major Paper
Contracts spell out the rights and obligations

Unions exist to counter actor employer power in the workplace. They exert their control over the company’s labor supply. In order to be represented by a Union, otherwise known as an agency, there are fees that must be paid. Dues are required for union representation which entitle employees to benefits such as having increased wages, as wells as the negotiation of hours and terms of employment. Employees become Union members either because they are required by collective bargaining agreements, they decide to join an already existing agreement or nonunionized employees form an agreement. Those employees who are unionized, normally have a higher paid salary than those who are
This helps me remember and understand the concept as a whole. As we were learning about unions I realized I may actually currently work for a job that’s represented by a union. Although I wasn’t positive because I never paid much attention to see if I paid union dues . We spoke about how high risk jobs like Firefighters as well as Police Departments have all their employees unionized because they are constantly putting themselves at risk. That’s what really triggered my thoughts because as a Lifeguard I have a pretty high risk job, I have the duty to act on any incident and I know over the summer a family tried to take us to court after a man had a heart attack. But our incident reports were well written out, stating times, exactly what happened and what was done. The man survived the initial heart attack at the pool he passed away from a different heart attack about a week later. So from that specific incident, I was speculating if we were unionized or not so I asked. I found out that as City employees we are unionized but only full time workers have to pay dues. Part time employees like myself don’t have to pay any fees but we are completely covered by all the same benefits. This concept to me was extremely interesting because that means I’m a free rider. I get to reap all the rewards at no cost, and it’s not just a few of us lifeguards like this, its the majority of us. Normally when employees are less attached to their jobs they are more willing to free ride. But in my current situation, I free ride because I never got asked to pay dues, I’ve just always been covered. At the pool we only have four full time employees and we have about 20 lifeguards/water safety instructors who are part time. I’m not sure what the dues the full time members pay but I don’t think it’s high enough to “cover” dues for all part