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Table of Contents
Topic
Labor Movements
What are Unions for
How Unions Seek to Raise Wages
LABOR MOVEMENTS
TERMS TO REMEMBER:
1. COLLECTIVE BARGAINING
Collective bargaining is the effort of both employees and the employers
group to negotiate and ultimately agree upon the terms of employment.
2. UNIONS
Unions are long-term permanent associations of employees formed and
maintained for the specific purpose of securing concession from
employers.
3. COLLECTIVE AGREEMENTS
Collective agreements are the labor contracts or agreements negotiated in
collective bargaining.
4. EMPLOYERS ASSOCIATION
Employers association are organizations of employers formed for the
purpose of dealing with unions most commonly for negotiating working
relationships with employees.
5. THE BARGAINING UNIT
The bargaining unit is the particular groups of jobs covered by a collective
agreement. It might include all jobs and employees of a certain
corporation.
6. NEGOTIATIONS
It is the phase of collective bargaining in which the parties try to arrive at
an agreement that will guide their relationship for a specified period of
time.
7. BARGAINING AGENTS
These are the unions that represent employees in each bargaining unit.
8. CONTRACT ADMINISTRATION
It is the day-to-day application and interpretation of collected agreements.
*based on our status quo, there is increasing number of demand for job while the
job vacancies are scarce or limited. Labor unions were created to maintain and
maximize every job position as possible. But some laborers find it unfair because there
is a chance of demotion. Labor unions role when it comes to control of job opportunities
is to maintain the position and allocate their member/employee to the job that they are
most efficient and productive. The main goal of the unions is to control, maintain and
maximize every position or job. Thirdly, the union plays a very important role particularly
with regard to improvement of wages, job tenure, hours of work, and other terms of
employment. Output per capita has been rising through the years and thus, continuing
improvement in wages and working conditions has been taken for granted. In addition,
the impact of inflation has brought increasing pressures to bring adjustments to wages
and other working conditions. *labor unions are created to protect employee's rights
especially when it comes to their wages. Due to the continuous rise of inflation laborers
tend to demand for additional wage. They make sure that they get the right amount or
compensation they deserve depending to the service they rendered. Since output per
capita has been increasing the laborers are pressuring their employers for adjustment to
wages.
The following are the ways the unions use to seek wage raises:
1. Reduce the Supply of Labor
- In general unions can restrict the supply of labor in two ways: slow down the
growth of the labor force and promoting policies that make it hard for workers
to enter a certain field.
The following are examples of how unions reduce the supply of labor:
Refusal to admit new members
Admission of non-union members that already have jobs
High initiation fee
Long Apprenticeships
*Shifting the supply of Labor to the left would decrease the equilibrium
quantity and increase equilibrium wages.
*By shifting the demand curve to the right, equilibrium quantity and wage
increases.
3. Raising Standard Wage rates
- Lastly, unions seek higher wages by raising the standard wage rates, therefor
having a benchmark were wages can only be equal or above minimum wage
level.
Reported by: Roxas, Judy Anne
EMPLOYER POLICY IN LABOR RELATIONS
1. Protection of profits - Many employers see their primary function as that of trying
to make the business as profitable as possible. They may feel that their own
security depends largely in their continued success as measured by profits.
They oppose unions if they conclude that unions threaten profits by demanding
too much for employees. On the other hand, in some situations employers
welcome an industry-wide union that standardizes wage rates, forcing
competitors to pay uniform wages and thus protecting their competitive position.
2. Protection of management rights and prerogatives - The manager may regard
himself as the guardian and trustee of employer rights to manage. Employers
frequently emphasize their responsibilty as decision-makers and express
concern if unions interfere in this function.
They may see a union's demand to share in the determination of working
conditions as an invasion of the area of rights and privileges associated with
the ownership and property, of which they are the protector and defender
Employee Loyalty is the extent to which the personnel are faithful to the
organization, having feelings of bonding, inclusion, care, responsibility and devotion
towards it. It can also be described as the extent to which there there is a general
willingness among employees to make an investment or personal sacrifice for the good
of the organization.
Ways to Increasing Employee Loyalty
Many managers assure that unions offers a mean of satisfying needs not
rapidly attainable in any other way
The most common attitude is one that accepts unions, negotiates
agreements, and maintains effective working relationship with unions but
fears their further inroads into what the employers regard as area reserve
for and essential to managerial decision making.
Reported by: Salangsang, Christine Joy
Phase 1. Resistance to unions. The managers are looking for the ability of not
being affected by the unions. The employers are not recognizing unions and the
leaders. They have several techniques to stop or prevent the formation of unions in their
firms. The employers may refuse to hire union members and discharge any union
members in their firm. The employee have to sign papers stating not to join any unions
otherwise they would be dismiss.
Phase 2. The employer realizes that they cannot eliminate unions. For the
economic prosperity, government pressure, a vigilant labor union association unions are
cannot be eliminate. So the employers realizes that they should live with the labor
unions and lessen its influence even they don't like to.
Phase 3. Collaboration or Acceptance. Since the unions are recognized, the
employers have to accept the unions and collaborate with them. They are having
collective the process of negotiation between employers and a group of employees
aimed at reaching agreements to regulate working conditions. The interests of the
employees are commonly presented by representatives of a trade union to which the
employees belong. The collective agreements reached by these negotiations usually set
out wage scales, working hours, training, health and safety, overtime, grievance
mechanisms, and rights to participate in workplace or company affairs. The employers
may be critical of certain but they have to collaborate with the unions and its leaders.
Phase 4. Union- management cooperation. At this period the employer and the
employees which are members of the unions are having a friendly relationship with one
another. And this is an advantage for the both sides. If they are having a good
relationship, they can work as one for the better production and services. These give a
welfare for the employers and for the union members.
Reported by: Gabriel, Erica May
However, mainly owing to the American influence and to the free access of
the filipinos to books and periodicals.
Led by:
Isabelo Delos Reyes
Dominador Gomez
Aurelio Tolentino
Hermenegildo Cruz
Lope K. Santos
And others
They founded the first labor union in the Philippines, the Union Obrera
Democratica de Filipinas (Democratic Labor Union of the Philippines).
With La Redencion de Obrero as its official organ.
The union voiced social demands and nationalistic feeling of the worker,
for the labor unions of the period were the projection of the nationalistic
era of the revolution.
Writers, who found in literature an ideal medium for communicating their nationalistic
and socialistic tendencies, wrote essay, poems, and novels depicting the social
conditions, the aspiration of the masses, and what they believed to be the ideal state.
Banaag at Sikat (Lope K. Santos)
-
Most influential works, the book influnced the workers in fighting for
economic, social, and political reforms. As a result, more and more labor
unions sprouted.
May 01,1913
Presented a united front when they held the first labor congress on the occasion
of the celebration of the first labor day in the Philippines.
1920s
1939
Secretary of Labor, Jose Avelino formed the national on labor, both the communist and
conservative faction continued up to the outbreak of the war, when all labor unions were
declared illegal by the Japanese conquerors.
Philippine labor unions seem formidable in terms of numbers and bargaining strength.
Up to the end of 1966, there were no less than 2,000 unions scattered all over the
country with a strength of some 750,000 members distributed in all industries.
Reported by: Saria, Don
Labor Gains
It is the gains in the labor from creating the Bureau of Labor (Fepartment of Labor
and Employment) and the reactment of legislations in providing the prosecition of
userers, theprotection of domestic help, the payment of compensation to workers
injured in line of duty and the protection of women and children working in factories.
There were a lot of legislation in safeguarding the rights of labor, but the most
significant in these legislations is the Republic Act No. 875, popularly known as the
Magna Carta of Labor.
Under this Act, a social security fund is set up to be administered by the Social
Security Commission. The fund consists of contributions from employers and
laborers.
From these funds taken and collected, it made to be an allowance for the sick
and the unemployed members of the Social Security System and the retirement
and disability accruing to the laborers.
This law encourages laborers freely to form unions and recognizes the rights of
labor to bargain collectively and to declare strikes.
Under the Magna Carta of Labor, a union could be guilty of unfair labor practices
if it intimidates or prevents laborers from joining collectively uunions of their own
choice.
There are still other legislation in labor, these are the Social Security Act of
1954, The Minimum Wage Law and The Anti-Scab Law.
Under this Act, a social security fund is set up to be administered by the Social
Security Commission. The fund consists of contributions from employers and
laborers.
From these funds taken and collected, it made to be an allowance for the sick
and the unemployed members of the Social Security System and the retirement
and disability accruing to the laborers.
The Termination Day Law and The Blue Sunday Law. These two legislations are
considered to be important in labor gains.
This law provides that neither employer nor employee, in case there is no
This law gives a semblance of leisure to the laborers, for it prohibits work on
Sundays, Holy Thursday, Good Friday, Christmas Day and New Year's Day.
Mergers of unions have failed in the past because of the insistence of some labor
leaders on certain degree of autonomy from the parent organization, a demand that was
not taken seriously by those in power. On the other hand, labor leaders seldom agree
personally and in principles, with one another. They have their own principles to stand
up for. Thats the reason why they build up rivalries instead of unity.
Some in the government thought of ways to prevent these rivalries. They made
a mother organization called Kalipunan ng Manggagawang Pilipino or KMP. But there
are other unions who pulled-back from that organization because of their different
principles so up until now our labor is still divided.
Some unions have leaders who are doing wrong. They are called misleaders.
These misleaders use their members for their own benefit, for their personal ambitions.
For example, the union leader would gather all of his members for a meeting.
The leader would then persuade his/her members that the management is functioning
wrong so they should held a strike. For instance, the leader would persuade his/her
members that their wages are low so they would hold a strike for the purpose of higher
wages. As days go by, the leader would negotiate with the management. The
management, being afraid that their employees would be gone, will present the union
leader a gift, cash specifically. Of course, the union leader would accept the gift then
he would persuade his/her members to end the strike for they would lose their jobs and
the members, being nave, would believe the union leader and end the strike.
Reported by: Tolentino, Mary Claudine
day. But in reality management gives them six or seven pesos per day. If he hires 100
laborers in the payroll, he earns a cool Php 200 per day at two pesos per laborer while
Php 300 per day at three pesos per laborer. No wonder that some labor leaders with
relatively small salaries as heads of their labor unions live like princes.
Another bad feature of Philippine labor is the workers lack of civic sense. Having
been brought up under the tradition of close family relations, the laborer thinks
only of his family and forgets the larger issue of the class where he belongs. A
striking union fails because scabs act as strike-breakers and they do not do so
because they think in terms of their families and not of the working class. He
thinks of the here and now, of the present predicament of his family and not of its
future, and ignores the fact that in acting, thus, he helps in actively perpetuating
his unenviable condition. Also because of the close personal relations that
characterize the workers as Filipinos, he does not, in general, vote for his class
candidate for elective positions. In 1959, a trade union leader ran for Manila vice
mayor in the elections of the said year and lost to a novice. It showed the Filipino
workers misplaced individualism and sense of personal loyalty. He votes for any
candidate, no matter how reactionary, who has patted him on the back and who
has given a few pesos. The candidate for his own class, is therefore ignored and
suffers an ignoble defeat.
Reported by: De Luna, Carl Angel