Answer to Question #26401 in Management for Janette Washington

Question

Identify three key historical events that have shaped the current(since 2000) labor management landscape.
Describe the potential effects upon union cooperation if management shares information openly.

Answer 1

In 2011, most companies have an adversarial labor-management relationship.However, this model will likely lead to failure in the 21st century. Instead, labor and management need to collaborate. Some companies have forged a joint relationship with labor and management with great success. For instance, the Hunt Wesson food oil refinery in Memphis, Tennessee, has employees form teams and propose their own performance standards. Hunt Wesson has also divided the duties of the traditional supervisor and given them to team members, who rotate these tasks every hour. After making these changes, Wesson saw a 58-percent jump in the number cases of oil produced per worker, a 62.5-percent drop in absenteeism and a 10-percent reduction in material waste, according to Restructuring Associates.

Labor unions have suffered something of an image crisis over the past decade. People blame their presence for convoluting many political and economic conversations. The crisis that labor unions face today is real. That challenge can be met and you have very capable labor leaders today that are trying innovative strategies. They need to forge new ways to work with companies.