Essay on Labor Unions

A labor union is a group of individuals working together to achieve shared job-related goals, such as higher pay, shorter working hours, more job security, greater benefits, or better working conditions. Labor unions have changed over the years. In the following paragraphs, I hope to be able to explain what I have learned from my textbook and from research of the Websites listed for the course.

Labor unions began during the Revolutionary War because of the desire of workers to have better working conditions, better pay, better working hours, better treatment, and to do away with child labor. These unions appeared because of the craft workers they supported. Courts did not side with unions during this time and unions found it difficult to improve pay and working conditions. The Knights of Labor used lobbying instead of collective bargaining to achieve their goals. This was the first union to organize whether the group was a craft or not. They also were the first to have women and blacks as members. The depression of 1873 did nothing to help the union. If anything it created the perfect conditions for the union to fail. The Knights of Labor, having reached a membership of approximately 700,000 by the mid-1800’s, was weakened by inside disagreements and outside charges of violence. The union disbanded around the turn of the century.

Craft workers still needed representation and sought that representation with unions that would have their best interests at heart. The American Federation of Labor (AFL) founded by Samuel Gompers was formed in 1886. The AFL used collective bargaining and a pragmatic approach to union-management relations.
Membership grew to more than five million by the end of World War I. The 1920’s were difficult years for the AFL and membership began to decline. The Great Depression of the 1930’s caused an even greater decline in membership. Then President Franklin D. Roosevelt announced the New Deal. This was to jump-start the economy and bring it out of depression. The New Deal came with laws that made organizing easier for the unions. During the 1930’s, the AFL continued with craft workers being the main membership. The Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) was formed from thirty-two unions kicked out of the AFL in 1938. The CIO was concerned with the steel, mining, auto, meatpacking, paper, textiles, and electrical industries. The CIO had approximately half of the membership of all unions at that time. Growing conflicts within the union and Congress putting the brakes on the power of the unions caused the AFL-CIO to merge in 1955. The membership was at fifteen million with the merger.

There were major labor laws that came about to govern the rules, regulations and judicial decisions of unions. The Norris-LaGuardia Act of 1932 limited the ability of the courts to issue injunctions prohibiting certain union activities. National Labor Relations (Wagner) Act of 1935 was a federal law to protect the workers rights to form unions. This act also established the National Labor Relations Board. This board oversees all labor relations still today. The Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 dealt with the work hours and wages. The Taft-Hartley Act of 1947 dealt with unfair and illegal union practices. This law allowed states to pass right-to-work laws and did away with closed shops. The Landrum-Griffin Act of 1959 imposed regulations on internal union procedures. These included elections of national leaders and filing of financial disclosure statements.

From the mid 1950’s, union membership has been on a decline. There are still many unions and many union members, but the incentives of becoming a union member are not attractive enough to get many new members. The tradition of union affiliation is changing with the changing of the workforce. The workforce has gone from predominantly male to more women and ethnic minorities and they are less likely to join unions. Another reason union membership has declined is because of the employers. Employers have tried to eliminate the feel of need for a union. The workplace has been made more employee friendly and the employees are treated with respect and dignity. Another way employers have avoided unions is by letting the employees be involved in the management of the business, paying higher wages, and giving job security. The third reason unions have declined is because they are victims of their own success. Unions raised their wages above the wages paid to nonunion workers. Therefore, union products have become so expensive that sales were lost to less expensive foreign competitors and nonunion producers.

Although union membership has declined over the years, unions are and will remain a major role player in the business world. Unions have changed over the years, going from demanding benefits for employees to working with management to find suitable contracts. Ensuring job security, maintaining the benefits employees have, and becoming partners with the businesses are a few of the ways unions have changed. Survival is the key today for unions and businesses. By becoming partners, employees and the business share the same goals. The graph below shows what percentage the union membership was from 1995 until 2002 and what the decline has been from 1955 to 2002.

A union is the bargaining agent for workers of a given business. The union bargains with the business for a contract for employees. The contract covers such things as benefits, vacation time, wages, working hours, cost of benefits to employees, job security, and management rights. When the bargaining gains approval by the union and the business, a contract for a specified agreed upon length of time is signed. Both parties agree to abide by the terms of the contract and to be able to negotiate another contract at the end of the present one. When the bargaining fails, the union and the business have not come to satisfactory terms to be able to sign a contract. The union then decides what steps to take. This is usually in the form of a strike. There are other tactics that a union can choose. They include boycotts, picketing, and a work slowdown. Management tactics include lockouts and the hiring of temporary or permanent workers to replace the striking workers. The final way of settling a failed bargaining is to have a third party serve as a mediator. This mediator can advise in the mediation phase or can dictate the settlement in a voluntary arbitration.
The administration of a labor agreement is a collective effort by union representatives and management. Labor agreement details are written in the form of a contract. Disagreements arise out of the things that are not written down, the way things are handled from one situation to another, interpretation from one individual to another, and the list could go on. To solve these situations, a shop steward investigates to see if and where there is a violation of contract. If there is indeed a violation, the shop steward files a written grievance form signed by the individual who has the claim. There are a number of steps that a grievance could go through. Hopefully for both sides, grievances are settled early in the procedure. If not, the grievance can go to arbitration. At this step the union and the business face costs. This is not the desired avenue on either side to settle a dispute.

In closing, as wages stagnate, as companies cut back on health insurance and pensions, and as work hours grow longer, more and more workers want a voice on the job with a union. Community and religious allies of these areas along with elected officials in the state and local levels strive to help these workers have a voice and build a majority in Congress for labor law reform. Unions aren’t strong in all areas of the United States. There are still areas that need union intervention along with help from Congress to make the working conditions, wages, and etc. better. It looks as though unions will continue to be strong, but will take on much different roles and responsibilities. To be able to survive, unions and businesses will need to form partnerships and make those partnerships work for profitability, growth, and effectiveness. By doing this, the rewards for both should be equitable.

Water Pollution Essay

It has been widely accepted that agriculture is the unique largest user of surface and groundwater supplies, which consumes a global average of 70% of water resources. However, agriculture can definitely causes water pollution through inappropriate use and dispose of pesticide, livestock pollution and poor water resource management.

It cannot be denied that pesticide that has been diffusely applied in agriculture contributes a lot to the advancement of georgic output and development of the quantity of agricultural produce. However, it is said that some of improper activities in using and stocking pesticide, which are probably caused by lack of training of users in pesticide handling and application, such as using pesticide for killing trash fish, using old pesticide drums for drinking water and dumping surplus pesticide mixtures into water courses following application, had lead to some environmental and public health hazards such as ecosystem dysfunction, loss of biodiversity, contamination of groundwater resources and so called “water-borne diseases”.

Queen Elizabeth Essay

Elizabeth I was the queen of England and Ireland from 1553-1603. She had many talents, which enabled her to be a strong, capable leader. Elizabeth I was one of the most notable personalities of Tudor for many reasons, one being that she kept steadiness in a nation troubled by political and religious rebellion and maintained authority of the crown against the pressures of parliament.

Queen Elizabeth was the daughter of Henry VIII and his second wife Anne Boleyn. Elizabeth’s birth was possibly seen as her father’s greatest disappointment as he already has a daughter Mary, and was hoping for a son and heir to the throne. When Henry died in the January of 1547 and his son Edward became King. Even though Mary and Elizabeth were officially illegitimate, before his death Henry had reinstated his two daughters into the line of succession. The order to the throne was Mary to follow Edward and Elizabeth to follow Mary. Edward died in 1553, which made Mary Queen of England. Mary was not a very popular queen, and was suspicious of Elizabeth. On November 17th 1558 Elizabeth finally succeeded to the throne. She was crowned Elizabeth Queen of England on January 15 1559. Although Elizabeth’s right to the throne was questioned, she eventually succeeded to become Queen of England.

Racism Essay

Racism, discrimination and prejudice are extensive in the United States. Although, racism and discrimination are not accepted as it was in the 40’s and the 60’s, but it still subsists in our society and its being used socially today. Racism is a strong belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities, that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race. In addition to racism, Americans also tend to be ethnocentric. They tend to believe that their ethnicity is superior to any others and tend to judge other ethnicities from the perspective of their ethnicity. On the other hand, multiculturalism can be a possible solution to problems like ethnocentrism and racism.

Cultural minorities experience racism as a part of their everyday life. They experience verbal abuse and slander from people of majorities. Racism and discrimination go hand in hand as racism leads to discrimination. Discrimination is the treatment given based on the class, race, religion etc. of a person. Even if racism and discrimination are not legal anymore, they still haven’t been eradicated from our society.

Obesity Essay

Did you know that 31 percent of the population is obese in the United States? (USA today newspaper). In these days obesity has been reaching epidemic proportions; As a result, health problems have increased rapidly. Obesity is a medical condition characterized by storage of excess body fat, and it is associated with a variety of physiological problems such as, diabetes, hypertension disease, stroke, arthritis, and some forms of cancer (Heitmann, 1990). There are many causes that can generate obesity in children, men and women of different ages.

As first cause, many people think obesity is caused by eating too much junk food. Actually, they are right but, the biological factor is when a person consumes more calories than the body needs, the body stores those additional calories as fat. Therefore, that causes weight gain, and it makes serious problems to the person’s health. Sodas, snacks, chocolate bars, candy, hamburgers and hot dogs are usually junk food. This type of food is now more popular than vegetables, fruits and rice since fast-food restaurants increased their publicity and customers in the last few years. For example, restaurants such as McDonalds, Burger king, Taco bell and Wendy’s have increased their publicity and their quantity using television, radio, newspapers and magazines making these restaurants omnipresent around the whole world. Moreover, the publicity of these restaurants is made especially for the youth audience so they always want to go these fast-food restaurants. In addition, the people who consume more junk food are more often children and adolescents because they always like to eat at this places before mentioned.

Another cause of obesity in some cases would be by genetic characters between children and their parents. Obesity is partially determined by a person’s genetic makeup. Scientists are unclear about which genes affect human obesity. Moreover, one experiment published in 1986 followed children who were adopted shortly after birth. When the adoptees grew up, their weight were more similar to the biological parents than the adoptive parents. In other words, if a child has obese parents, the child must be obese too, but this doesn’t always happens. Anyway, the genetics in some cases is another factor that makes people obese since birth.

The third cause of obesity would be the lifestyles which have changed a lot in the last years. Thus, now more people spend less time devoted to exercise since the invention of many electronic appliances, such as computers, television, and videogames because most people prefer to just sit and watch TV, at the computer, or play videogames instead of practicing sports, riding bicycles, and walking around. As a result, this lack of physical activity has reduced the overall amount of energy expended in the course of these days, contributing to the development of obesity.

To summarize, being a “fattie” is not easy. Health problems are issues that obese people have to avoid with diets, doing body exercises, and trying to do not eat junk food. There are many people who do not care about their body, their fitness and their health, and they eat whatever they want, and they stay away from any body exercise. They may do whatever they want with their body, but I suggest to these people to do the recommendations before mentioned. Nevertheless, obesity is a disease which would be dangerous in the next years if we don’t keep in mind what we have learned

Leadership Esay

“Not the cry, but the flight of the wild duck, leads the flock to fly and follow.” – Chinese Saying
In this assignment, after some preliminary contemplation about school leadership, I will consider the content of the six SHU evening course sessions I attended in June and July 2003. Concurrently, as a secondary school subject team leader, I will reflect upon my practical experience of leadership, thinking about my strengths and weaknesses and possible steps I might take to become a more effective leader.

Clearly, in recent years, there has been a movement throughout the English speaking world to redefine and re-emphasise the role of school leadership. From New Zealand to Canada and from the United Kingdom to the United States, we see evidence of educationists writing passionately about how vital good leadership is in what has become a universal drive to raise standards in our schools. In the UK, we have seen the establishment of our National College for School Leadership (NCSL) and there is hardly a university Education faculty anywhere that is not focussing vividly on this area. In an NCSL website article, “Flavor of the Month or Serious Business?”, Vicki L. Phillips (2000) marks this seachange in our thinking about educational leadership: “For years school leadership has been more about organizing and managing the institution than about strengthening teaching and learning”.

Some commentators appear to reserve the term “school leadership” specifically for headteachers while others have a broader view of leadership, appreciating that within any educational establishment there will be different tiers of leadership. To these analysts, the pyramidal model of hierarchical leadership is invariably just a convenient caricature. Changes in the organisational nomenclature of my own school have recently emphasised the pre-eminence of leadership as a tool for eliciting positive change.

Global Warming Essay

The greenhouse effect, what exactly is this? The sun supplies the energy to warm the earth. The atmosphere absorbs outgoing reflected thermal radiation to keep then earth warmer than it would be otherwise. That is the greenhouse effect. Just like a greenhouse, it stays warm because the closed windows prevent the air from inside to cool by circulating.

The main concern about the greenhouse effect is the constant warming of the earth. Scientists fear that this warming may be a risk to humans, plants, and animals. The world warms at the accelerated rates and concentrations of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases continues building up in the atmosphere. As the oceans warm, they are not able to absorb as much carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as they do today.

Global warming risk assessment is complex because it is associated with the ozone depletion problem. Ozone depletion is represented by one main factor: chlorine and bromine from halocarbons. The higher these chemicals concentrations, the lower the ozone concentrations. It is a proven process, and the thinning ozone layer can be measured. Warming effects are such that the “short-term winners” –areas where the climate has become more temperate and crop yields have risen-are now deteriorating result of a drastically destroyed world economy.

An opposing factor of the greenhouse effect is that the main greenhouse absorber of infrared radiation is water vapor and clouds, not carbon dioxide! I f all of the greenhouse gases, expect water vapor, were to suddenly disappear, we would still be left with a significant fraction of the current greenhouse effect. Many scientists still feel, however that any increase in carbon dioxide and other smaller greenhouse gases would still lead to a rise in global temperatures. There have been studies conducted on the correlation of sea surface temperatures and the intensity and or frequency of tropical systems. Certain studies point out the fact that the intensity of tropical storms is not directly related to sea surface temperatures. This means that even if global warming does occur, there would likely be no cause and effect pattern occurring from the possible rise in sea surface temperatures and the intensity and or frequency of tropical systems.
If global warming were to occur, there would be NO increases in intensity/frequency of tornadoes and or tropical systems. What would the results be if it did? Most likely, there would be an extended growing season, larger harvests, and fewer famines. Human health usually has improved during warm periods throughout history.

Global warming would be beneficial to humans, rather than harmful.
Temperature is slowing rising, but not enough to notice in short time period, and lead society to believe it’s a bad thing. Yes, if over the years the temperatures rise too high, there could be lots of side effects. Too much heat could cause people to be uncomfortable causing them to migrate north to the colder weather.
Tom M.L Wigley, a senior scientist at National Center for Atmospheric Research, says fossil fuels, which release carbon dioxide when burned, which are used to run factories, cars and light homes, cause our earths atmosphere to get trapped with a overload of carbon gasses. Unless we reduce population growth and use of fossil fuels, the level of carbon dioxide will double by the next century. The future of our earth’s climate depends mostly on heat trapping gasses, primarily carbon dioxide.

This could cause some areas to lose population, jobs, and tourists spots to change due to heat overthrow. Another factor would be plants dieing off slowly due to the weather and lack of water due to evaporation. Depending on how you look at it, there are pros and cons.

This is a slow paced event that takes hundreds of years to rise usually, by the time it gets to hot our technology with probably find a way to fix the problem. Only time will tell the ultimate results of the situation.

Euthanasia Research Paper

At least once in a person’s lifetime he/she will experience the death of someone close to them. When that time comes, or if it already has, that person would not want their loved one to experience intolerable pain and suffering throughout the entire process of dying. This is why some people choose euthanasia. In Greek terms the word euthanasia means “good death” and it in our society it refers to killing a person at that person’s request to die, or mercy killing. Most instances of euthanasia are for eliminating pain and are related to physician-assisted suicide. This type of assistance is when a physician directly administers giving the patient lethal medication. Euthanasia is illegal in most state in this country. However, people should be legally given the choice to request euthanasia.

Religious opposers to euthanasia believe it is an act of playing God because it is interfering with God’s decision about who should live and who should die. Everyone has the right to commit suicide and ask for help in doing so if they want; no one has the right to deny that from anyone (Euthanasia and Physician…). The idea that God decides when, where and how a person should die and that no one should interfere with that decision goes against everything this society is about. We interfere with matters of life and death every day. What these opposers are actually saying is it is okay to keep a person alive against God’s will but it is not okay to put them to rest per their own request. If one should come across a person laying in the street who has been cut badly and bleeding profusely would it be an act of playing God to help this man? Would it be okay in God’s eyes to watch this person bleed to death because God decided it is his turn to go? Not everyone will answer these questions the same. We all have our own beliefs and our own opinions. If a person wants to die let them. Everyone has different religious beliefs and some actually have none. If you believe it is wrong and against your moral and religious beliefs then do not do it. But, if there is a person who believes God will forgive him/her – or maybe they just do not believe in God – euthanasia should be the choice of everyone.

Jacksonian Democracy Essay

Although Jacksonian Democrats promoted political democracy, equal opportunity, and personal liberty during Andrew Jackson’s two terms as president from 1828 to 1836, they were exclusively given to White males. Despite Jackson’s proclaimed “politics for the common man,” he may as well have said “politics for the common White man.” Despite the fact that many poor Whites were finally given the opportunity to partake in the political and economic opportunities that were previously available only to White male landowners, no rights whatsoever were given to women and Jacksonian policies were oppressive toward most minorities.

The area where Jacksonian Democrats made the most progress was in the area of political democracy. With the introduction of universal White male suffrage, Jacksonian Democrats created a whole new class of voters. The number of voting men more than doubled and this led to fairer elections whose results better indicated the will and preference of the people. In addition, the choosing of electors was changed from selection by the state legislatures to popular voting which allowed electors to be chosen by the common people instead of the wealth – and often corrupt – state legislators.

Domestic Violence Essay

Domestic violence represents a serious and long-standing problem in the United States as well as many other parts of the world. Domestic violence can take place between partners of the same sex and at times men are also victims of female partner abuse. However, in the vast of cases, the victims are women who were battered by their male partners. In fact, each day the statistics on domestic violence against women get more and more horrifying. A woman is beat every fifteen seconds, thirty five percent of emergency room visits from women are because of ongoing partner abuse, and approximately four million incidents are reported each year.(Texas, 1) Many questions come up in regards to this issue. For example, what are the warning signals, why don’t women leave and carry on with their lives, what happens if they stay? These are only few of the questions I asked myself as I tried looking from the outside in. Unfortunately, women are plagued with many different problems, and this sadly is the major one, which occur in different forms. Domestic violence is serious wherever and whenever it happens and in order to conquer this problem one must be educated and know that there is hope and help, but one must not stay quiet and stand up for herself before the worst occurs: death.