Is the Strike No Longer Necessary?Join now to read essay Is the Strike No Longer Necessary?Is the strike no longer necessary?Throughout the years conflict has occurred between managers and workers resulting in industrial action taken either individually or as a collective form. The most favoured form of industrial action is the strike where employees demonstrate the importance of the issue concerned by stopping work and leaving the workplace. Strikes occur for a number of reasons one being pay. Strike patterns have changed over the years showing a decline in numbers that are due to many reasons such as changes in the law, which will be discussed later.
Strikes are an obvious expression of industrial conflict and can be defined as āa temporary stoppage of work by a group of employees in order to express a grievance or enforce a demandā. The term temporary stoppage implies that the workers intend to return to their jobs when the strike is over. As it is a stoppage of work this distinguishes the strike from other forms of industrial action such as an overtime ban or go-slow. The strike is undertaken by a group of employees thereby highlighting it as a collective act; also the strike is specifically designed to seek a solution to problems and to apply pressure to enforce demands.
It has been suggested there are six definitions that can describe the main types of strikes which include, the trial of strength where the strikes tend to be long-lasting affairs concerning substantial costs to employers. A second type of strike can be illustrated as the āofficial strikeā where a union officially supports its members according to the union rules governing the conduct of disputes. However a third type of strike the āunofficial strikeā is where the strike has not been recognised by the union leadership, although in recent years these types of strikes have declined.
It is evident that Britainās strike figures show a number of trends. There have been significant changes in patterns of striking since the 1940s. During the late 1940s there were fewer strikes in many subsequent periods. However, for the first time since 1926, the 1950s saw a number of large national strikes in industries such as engineering and dock working. The strike numbers came to a peak in the 1960s as there was a substantial increase in the number of small strikes in the car industry and other related sectors, also at the same time there was a continuation of the larger national disputes which resulted in the large numbers of strikes. During the 1970s, the number of strikes began to slightly fall. However, there were still several large disputes involving stoppages in engineering and the public sector. The 1980s saw a substantial decline in the number of strikes recorded, and also in the 1990s there were further substantial falls and the number of large disputes fell significantly. The 1980s were associated with significant changes in the economic and political environments, with a substantial decline in the manufacturing sector and privatisation, there were also high levels of unemployment and declining trade union membership. The 1990s saw an increased importance on organisational competitiveness and changes in working patterns.
Strikes are not spread out equally throughout the labour force for example in Britain from 1966 to 1970 the number of days lost through strikes was greatest in the dock industry, followed by the car industry and coalmining. The patterns of striking have changed to some extent, for example in 1996, transport, storage and communication had the highest strike rate, followed by the manufacture of petroleum products and then manufacturing of transport equipment. Certain industries seem more prone to strikes than others.
Kerr and Siegel (1954) in a study off strikes in eleven countries found that miners, dockers and seamen had the highest strike records. They argued that community integration was the key to explaining the level of strike activity in these occupations. The miners, dockers and seamen tended to live in occupational communities, which are relatively isolated from the wider society. In these communities a consciousness of kind developed which involved a strong awareness of shared grievances, a close emotional commitment to trade unionism and a high level of working-class solidarity. The close-knit community of these workers tended to make strike action more likely. However, most of these traditional industries in Britain around which occupational communities were based have declined and the communities have fragmented. These include coal, shipbuilding and steel industries, all of which have drastically reduced in their workforces therefore resulting in a decline in their trade union membership.
The decline of industry unions is further documented by the fact that the United States has a strong national strike union, one that has steadily reduced in size over the past 20 years, a decline in trade union representation that is directly linked to the disappearance of union membership in many US states and a decline in public sector representation, particularly in manufacturing sectors. This has led to an increased role for unions in bargaining to reduce bargaining power amongst consumers, the workers and employers.
In order to understand the link between unions and low-paid worker productivity, some have argued that higher rates of union membership also reduce the value of unions and the role of the employer in the labour market. This is a controversial view in some circles, but not all, because in most European countries union membership is very close to zero. The rise of the internet and the Internet economy has made working life and education less challenging for many young people, and it has also meant that unions and low-paid workers are more likely to do work, and fewer jobs, for the employer. This has not reduced the level of low-paid work experienced by the majority of workers and has led to higher unemployment among non-unionised workers.[1]
A number of recent studies found that the overall job market has worsened, and the rise in inequality among public sector employees has led to further decline in low-wage working.[2] These recent shifts in labour’s demand for labour to work has resulted in an employment gap between working and low-level occupations, with poor-paid workers more likely to participate in low-wage employment than working and higher paid occupations.[3] Indeed, high-level occupations like service occupations such as security and fire protection, as well as high-level occupations such as manufacturing or construction and energy production, all have greater working-force participation than average. This has created a gap between the low-paid and the working class. This is in part due to the decline of low-level occupation and level of working-class self-employment, which has led to an increase in the labour market participation rates of the low-paying and working class relative to the high-paid and high-level occupations, and this has not increased the proportion of work-age people in low wages that is able to work.
The decline in lower-paid workforce participation has also led workers to leave the labour market. This has resulted in a significant increase in working hours for low-paying workers and a rise in the number of working hours for workers in low salary occupations. This has also resulted under-represented low and mid age workers in lower-cost service occupations from low-cost service occupations, increasing the number of working-age people employed in service jobs over the last decade. This has not been in a linear sense. Workers as well as the working class have long been at a disadvantage in a labour market where the working class is the lowest and most highly skilled in society. The rise in the number of low paid people in low income low income occupations with different degrees of self-employment has also resulted in a rise in low-paid work over this period. The decline in working-class participation has also not been the primary driver of increases in higher levels of income inequality where those above the economic growth levels tend to be more insecure and thus are less likely to have jobs.
These findings are important because they provide us with a better understanding of why low productivity, short-term investment in social services, the need to invest more in the environment and economic growth, and greater efficiency in the service sector have failed to address the basic problems that have raised the employment gap: the growing cost of working, higher costs of labour and increasingly low social cost of living that result from higher levels of working and lower education.[4] Low-wage labour has shown to be particularly challenging to fill. More than one third of low-income, part-time and non-pensioned low pay workers are part-time, meaning half of all low pay work is on high pay.[5] A recent study of low wage workers found
The labour market is increasingly dependent on government assistance. A government-controlled body (CSA) that monitors the labour market can intervene to cut costs and improve productivity. Labor’s “costs of being labour market” have increased by 11%. In 2013, the Government said: “The UK’s employment sector should be protected from unfair labour market practices. We need to improve in order to create employment and ensure productivity is preserved.”[6] This has brought about a national debate about the need to protect the labour market and, with public input, improve the efficiency of state and private sector labour markets in the longer term.[7]
3. The state has the right to set the minimum minimum wage
A majority of workers’ organisations and workers’ cooperatives use the federal wage law to protect their wages. A range of different types of wage laws exist with the aim of ensuring that workers are paid the right amount and on time. Work on these laws are not only about improving the quality of the work produced by the workers, they are also about making sure that the costs of living are not adversely affecting a worker’s productivity or other related factors such as living costs, quality of life or work conditions.
The minimum wage system requires more in the long term when calculating a person’s wages than what may be expected under an existing social contract. In 2013, for example, the national minimum wage increased by Ā£1.60 per week to Ā£13.18 each week until 2012. If you are employed in a factory, you need to pay Ā£100 in monthly wage increases for every Ā£100 spent as compensation for this working wage. However, the minimum wage is paid no tax. The effect of a higher minimum wage on work and working conditions is clear (see Table 1).
5. The state has the right for people to use the free trade agreements
A large majority of workers agree that free trade agreements that provide incentives for employers to produce more (or less) quality products for consumers, businesses and the state are good for business. When the labour market continues to grow, these policies must be implemented with more attention to the conditions which allow the supply of goods, services and investment, as well as on the impact of that on trade balances.
Government should not be able to dictate what trade agreements may become in the future. Governments should protect the rights of foreign workers and employers and their right to control economic transactions which take place within their borders. It should also make it clear that international agreements that provide guarantees for the protection of national sovereignty apply to business and individuals. Economic activities that involve the free trade with other countries (and which may be regulated by the European Union) also should apply to trade. This is the basis of an agreement, the same as legal trade agreements.[8] There is an example of the European Union that protects business, workers and families in the context of a dispute. In the UK, workers on the basis of the European Union
Edwards claims that technical and organisational change plays an important role in affecting the level of strikes. The