Relationship between unionized employees and management

 INSTRUCTIONS: There is not a question. However, you may respond to this post by taking a viewpoint on what the poster stated below and expounding on this by adding value and or a different perspective.”I currently work in a labor-management union situation that is currently in negotiation of a contract so this question, and the information regarding unions, is something that I have been hearing about a lot.” The pro’s to this environment is that the NLRB governs the relationship between unionized employees and management and work to bring the two to common ground in regards to wages and environment as well as benefits both short and long-term (Pozgar, 2016). In my situation, this relationship is something that is important and consistently present. Our management team works very closely with union representation in order to ensure that company policy honors the union contract and that decisions surrounding employee performance are represented. The biggest con for me is that the union works very hard to protect every employee, even the ones that should not be protected. Union sometimes makes it very difficult to terminate employees that should be. It is often difficult to include immediate termination items in agreements and different classifications of violations accumulate separately instead of together. This means that an individual may be on their final warning for attendance, but has also accumulated warnings regarding behavior that may only total to a moderate level. Management can’t consider both of these items in termination. It is one or the other. So even though the quality of the specific employee is poor overall, they are protected under the union agreement. To me this really damages the business views of the company. They are impacting productivity of the other employees as the load has to be carried, and they are impacting the experience of the patients, but management often has their hands tied. In regards to the collective bargaining and providing quality care, union represented employees have a voice to communicate working conditions and to work with the employer to improve and/or change the situation for the benefit of the patients. It’s not only important to keep the employees happy, it is important to listen to the represented individuals as they often can identify issues with the business process very early and reduce the impact to the business and the patient. Considering union representation for new employees is also important. The hiring process for the business can be extensive in order to ensure that quality individuals are being accepted into the union so the benefits are greater. This can include a verification of past employment and extensive interviews of the individual references. Reference Pozgar, G. D. (2016). Legal Aspects of Health Care Administration (12th ed.). Burlington, MA: Jones & Ba