Employee Relations: The Working Class Goes to Heaven Movie - Essay Example

?Employee Relations Conflict between employers and workers often happen in the world. Typical reasons for the strikes are the lower wages, bonus and other such related things. In this paper, I will discuss an example of a strike in terms of its effects on industry positive or negative, role of the management and union in this form of conflict and transformation of the roles of workers during the strike. This example was taken from a movie “The working class goes to heaven”. I will also describe here a few examples from the world so that it may be understood in a wider perspective. “The working Class goes to heaven” is a story of a worker who was first very faithful and obedient to his master i.e. factory employers. He also used to pursue other workers in favor of his masters. That is why the other workers did not like him. He after some time lost his one finger in an accident during his work in the factory. After that the masters did not bother to help him. Then he decided to agree on with other workers in the protest against the factory owners. The union of the workers did not exactly wanted to get what the majority of the workers are trying hard to achieve during strike. He was eventually fired from his job due to his conflict with the masters as well as the union of the laborers. After some time when the conflict was sorted out in a decent manner, his job was again given to him. In this movement we see the roles of the workers are transformed during the strike. They were actually the cause of reduced supply of products to the market no matter what the products are in this case. This shortage of supply eventually leads to inflation in the market and the innocent people suffer. This is a negative role prescribed to workers in the market. In the example above, it is clear that the purpose of workers were not actually the same as that of the union of laborers. This evidence shows that the union member’s purpose was somewhat different and hence some kind of political influence and affiliation seemed to be present working efficiently here. The purpose was not exactly the same in most of the cases in the world. For example, according to a study made by Shri Ram Centre for Industrial and Human Resources, the laborers in Punjab wanted to settle down their matters silently by directly talking to the responsible authorities (Prakash, 2006, 91-109). In this way, the conflict due to the strikes can avoided between employers and employees. But the conflict is caused by the union itself often for some personal or political influences. Moreover, strikes only leads to destruction due to the stubborn behavior of the both parties. The laborers lose their jobs as in the above example and eventually suffer. On the other hand the owners of the organization also suffer due to having no work due to the strikes of the workers. The management also does not act according to its responsibilities at the time of strike and due to this irresponsive behavior political elements can get benefit of this situation. If the products produced have a few competitors in the market, it may lead the market towards monopoly. So this political influence can be caused by the close competitor of the organization in which the workers are striking. The relationship between the employers and the workers can be better due to the strike but the exact inverse is also possible. If the conflict is handled in a decent and effective manner, this will be the cause of greater trust from both the sides because the demands from both sides were equally treated. On the other hand, this situation may be worse if the conflict is not handled responsibly. This can lead to a more intense strike from the workers. For example, in the above case the workers were fired due to the strike going on because of the unprofessional behavior of the people sitting in the factory administration. The same example can be taken from another strike in the Johnson steel strike of 1919 where the authorities called the police during the strike of workers. Police were arresting the workers due to the influenced owners of the industry (McCammon, 1990, 206-229). This will eventually leads to lack of trust between both the parties which will eventually harmful to the both parties economically in the long term period. Strike does not have its direct effects on any social institutions. Capitalism always wants the person to work for as many hours as possible. Strike has an indirect effect on social institutions because the work is stopped during the period of strike. Due to this reduced production, industry suffers and wants some laws to be made in terms of the continuity of the work during the strike as well. So in 1935 America made a law which states that it is right of a worker to strike due to any personal or collective reason only relating to the job environment. The law also says that the work will also be continued during the strike (Ladd-Taylor, 1985, 465-490). So if we analyze the above example in terms of its effects on the social institution, we see that the workers were first fired due to the conflict they are creating in the factory. When the authorities saw that they are short of their targets due to the firing of some workers, they eventually sorted out the matters with the union and the aggressive workers and reassured their prior position to them. So the authority’s only act when they will actually need the living human beings to perform on their targets and other related things. This is often the case in the world and laws are made in the world relating to the strike of the workers. For example if we study a research paper written as “Women Workers and the Yale Strike”, we see that the Yale university authority only lost the battle with the school union when the problem is causing financial or economic hazards to them. During the strike the women leader from the Yale university were successful in increasing the wages of the employers working there as well as some other related benefits concerning to some benefits (Sharma, B.R. , 1970, 335-356). The role of the union is the central one in the conflict between the employers and workers. A study tells us that according to workers, unions are important as well necessary. They are made to address the difficulties of the workers in the practical field properly if any to the responsible authorities of the factory or organization. The union should actually be a role model for all the workers. It should consist of some honest employees who have the capability to address the troubles of workers in an efficient way. It should be made such that it cannot be exploited at any cost by someone. People are also of the opinion that the union always try to engage in their personal r political goals and forget their actual cause which is obviously to secure the position and dignity of the people. Employees are always prone to these unions. They always look forward to them for making their service as easy as possible… This leads the unions to the practical significance of it in an industry (Gani, 1992, 243-258). But these unions are sometimes manipulated by the political organization for their personal purposes. This will be harmful to all i.e. union members, workers as well as owners of the factory except the workers who get benefit from the “help” from the political organizations. For example, the example from “The working class goes to heaven” tells that the cause was not similar of workers and the workers’ union. So this will lead to the doubtful character of the union during the strike. It seems that it is due to some political competitors’ influence, as explained earlier in the essay. Another example of the political influence is the labor movement in the United States of America in the 20th century. It is proved through evidence that the main cause of these labor movements was a kind of political influence from some political organizations due to some personal interests (Clawson, D and Clawson, 1999, 95-119). It would eventually lead towards the shortage of supply in the market for some period and the people no matter belonging to that industry or ordinary people suffered. So the role of the union members should be clear, concise and members should be chosen on merit and with leadership qualities. The role of the management of the industry during the strike of workers is very critical. It should be done with deep understanding, finding and sorting out the root causes of the actual problem. The workers should be given a chance to speak for themselves for defending their point of view and demanding what they urgently need at the moment to sort out the conflict peacefully. If this is not done, the conflict may become more intense. SO every decision should be made with deep thought. If the authorities respond at once not in a proper manner, for example calling police to stop the victims or to arrest them, it would not be in their interest (Marcus, M. 1996, 96-118). As in “The working class goes to heaven” suggests that the decision were not made decently and so the eventual results were not beneficial to majority of the people. The authorities first fired some workers form their job for some time and later they felt their mistake so bringing them back to the work. In between these two events, time went without any beneficial work for anyone. If the authorities might be acted efficiently towards the conflict, the loss could have avoided benefiting to both of the parties. So the role of the management should be professional and authorities should respond positively to the concerns of the others. These strikes are not provoked to waste the time or to bring loss to the owners of the industry in terms of not working professionally in the field. There are some genuine causes for the strikes. These are mostly economical, legal, constitutional and political in its dimensions (Prakash, 2004, 4317-4320).It shows the nature of the strikes. It is sometimes highly influenced by some political affiliations of the industrial workers which eventually provoke them to step ahead in favor of their fundamental rights given to them by the government being the ordinary citizens of a country (Siddiq, 1974, 197-206). As in “The working class goes to heaven” reveals the difficulties relating to health, wages and other such issues. These are real and reasonable issues that should be managed by their responsible authorities. The size and duration of the strike also matters for the effects of the strike. Empirical research has been done on this issue which suggests that the issues are not well addressed when the people does not show up in great quantity to show any of their concerns in the strike. They eventually lose their marks because of lower intensity and less number of workers present in the protest against the responsible authorities (Harrison, A. and Stewart, M., 1993, 830-849).On the other hand, in “The working class goes to heaven” a great number of workers were present in the strike which compelled the authorities to respond quickly to the matter. Moreover, these strikes are perhaps the only solution when workers are refused by the judicial system and the authorities in the industry (when they go to them for their issues which are to be solved quickly so that they may work with ease in their relevant field.) To sum it up, this paper discusses almost all the aspects which are of great significance regarding the employer and employees relationship. It also explores some mistakes made by the authorities, union members and the workers in addressing their issues. This paper also gives some solutions to all of them and tells them how they should approach to a strike. Strike should be approached in an intense situation. It is always helpful to use direct methods to solve individual issues so that all process should be done in a proper and efficient manner. Work Cited: Poonia, V. S., Garg, R. and Parkash, Om (2006). Dimensions of Strike: A Study of Textile Workers of Punjab. Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. Vol. 42, No. 1 (Jul., 2006) (pp. 91-109) McCammon, H.J. (1990). Legal Limits on Labor Militancy: U. S. Labor Law and the Right to Strike since the New Deal Social Problems.Vol. 37, No. 2 (May, 1990) (pp. 206-229) Ladd-Taylor, M (1985). Women Workers and the Yale Strike Feminist Studies. Vol. 11, No. 3 (Autumn, 1985) (pp. 465-490) Sharma, B.R. (1970). Union InvolvementIndian Journal of Industrial Relations Vol. 6, No. 4 (1970) (pp. 335-356) A. Gani (1992). Membership Participation in Union ActivitiesIndian Journal of Industrial Relations. Vol. 27, No. 3 (Jan., 1992) (pp. 243-258) Clawson, D and Clawson, M.A. (1999). What Has Happened to the US Labor Movement? Union Decline and Renewal Annual Review of Sociology. Vol. 25, (1999) (pp. 95-119) Marcus, M. (1996). The Johnstown Steel Strike of 1919: The Struggle for Unionism and Civil Liberties Pennsylvania History.Vol. 63, No. 1, LABOR HISTORY (Winter 1996) (pp. 96-118) Prakash, A. (2004). Workers' Right to Strike Economic and Political Weekly. Vol. 39, No. 39 (Sep. 25 - Oct. 1, 2004) (pp. 4317-4320) Siddiq Ashraf, M. (1974). Political Affiliations of Industrial Workers: An Area Study Indian Journal of Industrial Relations. Vol. 10, No. 2 (Oct., 1974) (pp. 197-206) Harrison, A. and Stewart, M. (1993). Strike Duration and Strike SizeThe Canadian Journal of Economics / Revue canadienne d'Economique. Vol. 26, No. 4 (Nov., 1993) (pp. 830-849) Read More