Compare Unions in Public versus Private Organizations

Unions play a role in both private and public organizations in the
United States. During the country’s height in manufacturing, unions
were predominant in many organizations such as steel mills, auto
manufacturers, etc. The 1960s began to show a rise in union activity and
membership in public organizations. It was noted that there were
dissimilarities in collective bargaining between public-sector and
private sector organizations. Distinctions existed both in the issues
that were placed on the table for collective bargaining but also the
processes that were used.

In Microsoft PowerPoint or Word create a Poster presentation that
compares and contrasts labor relations and union activity in private
versus public organizations. Electronic posters can be a series of
PowerPoint slides or linked Word documents that cover the required
sections. On your poster, depict the changes that have occurred in union
organizing in both private and public sector organizations and the
impact this has had on each type of organization as well as the role of
human resources.

Include a title for your poster. Incorporate graphics such as
illustrations, photographs, and drawings that support your presentation
and make it interesting and understandable. Include your “speaker
notes.” The speaker notes may be comprised of brief paragraphs or
bulleted lists.
The poster should be neat and presentable and free of
errors in capitalization, usage, punctuation, or spelling. All sources
for background information and for all borrowed graphics are cited on
the front of the poster.

Support your poster presentation with at least five (5) scholarly resources. In addition to these specified resources, other appropriate scholarly resources may be included.

Length: May vary
Be sure to include citations for quotations and paraphrases with references in APA format and style where appropriate.

Brody,
H. M., & Schultz, R. H. (2016). Supreme Court affirms Friedrichs v.
California Teachers Association- A challenge to long-standing union
‘agency
Davis,
R. (2013). Unionization and work attitudes: How union commitment
influences public sector job satisfaction. Public Administration
Review, 73.
DeWinnie,
S., Delmotte, J., Gilbert, C., & Sels, L. (Jun. 2013). Comparing
and explaining HR department effectiveness assessments: evidence from
…
Frandsen,
B. (2016). The effects of collective bargaining rights on public
employee compensation. ILR Review, 69(1), 84-112.
doi:10.1177/001979391560

Kenison,
A. M. (2015). Has the country learned anything from the decline and
resurgance of the American automobile industry?. Proceedings …..
Mirola,
W. A. (2016). The origins of right to work: Antilabor democracy in
nineteenth century Chicago. American Journal of Sociology, 121(5),
1616-161
Murray, G., Levesque, C., Dufour, C., & Hege, A. (Jul. 2013). Workplace representative: strategic actors of union renewal?
Robertson,
S. (2017). Tracking recent initiatives in right-to-work legislation.
Employment Relations Today (Wiley), 44(2), 55-66. doi:10.1002/ert.2162
Tuckman,
A. & Snook, J. (Jan. 2014). Between consultation and collective
bargaining? The changing role of non-union employee representatives: a
…

Variations in Unions and Labor Organizations
One of the greatest differences between private and public unions
relates to their rate of membership. During the period of
industrialization, membership in private unions increased, peaking
around 1940 when about one third of all private sector employees were
union members. During that time public union membership remained
relatively low. Today, however, the situation is almost reversed with
about one third of public service employees being members of a union and
less than 10 percent of private sector employees being union members.
This week, you will explore the differences in how private sector and
public sector organizations are regulated. Private unions are regulated
by the Wagner Act, which protects the rights of private workers to form
trade unions and bargain collectively. Excluded from the Wagner Act,
public unions are regulated through a combination of state and federal
law.
The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) is an independent federal
agency that oversees the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which
regulates private sector unions and their members. The NLRA allows a
union and an employer to enter into a contract called a union security
agreement. Union shop agreements allow an employer to hire non-union
members, but the employee is required to join the union within a
specified period of time, generally 30 days. Provided an employee
continues to pay dues and fees to the union, an employer is generally
not able to fire employees who refuse to join the union.
Agency shop agreements require employees who do not join the union to
still pay dues and fees. In a closed shop agreement, the employer
agrees to only hire union employees and if the employee leaves the
union, the employer must fire the employee. Closed shop agreements are
prohibited by the Taft-Hartley Act in the United States. Some states
have enacted “right-to-work” laws, which prohibit both union shop and
agency shop agreements. Workers who decide not to join the union cannot
be forced to pay any fees to the union, nor can they be fired or
otherwise penalized for failing to do so. These statutes are called
“right to work” laws and basically require that every unionized
workplace be an “open shop,” in which workers are free to choose whether
or not to join or support the union.
Public sector unions and their negotiations are regulated by state
and federal laws, while wages and working conditions are negotiated with
respective elected local and state officials. Public sector worker
unions are also governed by state labor laws and labor boards.
References:
Fowles, J., & Cowen, J. (2015). In the union now: Understanding
public sector union membership. Administration & Society, 47(5),
574-595. doi:10.1177/0095399714548269
Mirer, J. (2013). Right-to-work laws: History and fightback. National Lawyers Guild Review, 70(1), 30-40.
Nagele-Piazza, L. (2017). The Right-to-Work Resurgence: Not to be
confused with at-will employment, right-to-work laws are spreading
again, so make sure you understand them. HR Magazine, 62(6), 63-64.
Be sure to review this week’s resources carefully.

Assignment Rubric
The following shows the criteria used to grade this Assignment:
Grading Rubric
Criteria

Content (6 points)
Points
1
Depicts the difference in structure and governance of public versus private unions.
3
2
Discusses the differences, if any, in how human resources works with unions in pubic versus private organizations.
2
3
Explores how the public sector differs from the private sector in terms of collective bargaining.
2

Organization (4 points)

1
Content
is organized and presented in a clear manner. Include five scholarly references, with appropriate APA
formatting applied to citations and paraphrasing.
4
Total
10

Last Completed Projects