state of the union

Examples of state of the union in the following topics:

• Modern Labor Organizations

  • Labor unions have lost power in the United States over the years and, today, union membership varies by sector.
  • The American Federation of Labor (AFL) was one of the first federations of labor unions in the United States.
  • The AFL was the largest union grouping in the United States for the first half of the twentieth century, even after the creation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) by unions that were expelled by the AFL in 1935 over its opposition to industrial unionism.
  • Today, most labor unions in the United States are members of one of two larger umbrella organizations:
  • Unions no longer carry the "threat effect:" the power of unions to raise wages of non-union shops by virtue of the threat of unions to organize those shops.

• The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA)

  • On March 20, 2009, during the financial crisis of 2007–2010, the NCUA took over the two largest corporate credit unions with combined assets of $57 billion, because of the losses on their investments in mortgage-backed securities.
  • The National Credit Union Administration (NCUA) is the United States independent federal agency that supervises and charters federal credit unions.
  • NCUA also insures savings in federal- and most state-chartered credit unions across the country through the National Credit Union Share Insurance Fund (NCUSIF), a federal fund backed by the full faith and credit of the United States government.
  • The chartering of credit unions in all states is due to the signing of the Federal Credit Union Act by President Franklin D.
  • As the insurer and regulator of federally chartered credit unions, the NCUA oversees credit union safety and soundness, much like the FDIC.

• Labor Unions

  • Labor unions are legally recognized as representatives of workers in many industries in the United States.
  • Both advocate policies and legislation on behalf of workers in the United States and Canada, and take an active role in politics.
  • Most of the recent gains in union membership have been in the service sector while the number of unionized employees in the manufacturing sector has declined.
  • Although most industrialized countries have seen a drop in unionization rates, the drop in union density (the unionized proportion of the working population) has been more significant in the United States than elsewhere.
  • This diagram shows the rise and fall of union membership in the United States.

• Trends in Labor-Management Relations

  • In the early 1950s, a third of the United States' total labor force was unionized; by 2012, the proportion was 10%, falling 5% for the private sector.
  • The UAW's numbers of automobile union members are representative of the manufacturing sector:
  • Wisconsin, New York, and other states saw the emergence of public-sector unions, including:
  • Then there are scores of inter-regional federations, such as the European Trade Union Confederation, the International Confederation of Arab Trade Unions, and the Organization of African Trade Union Unity.
  • Richard Trumka of the AFL-CIO is one of the most prominent union leaders in America

• Landrum-Griffin Act

  • The Labor Management Reporting and Disclosure Act of 1959 (also "LMRDA" of the "Landrum-Griffin Act"), is a United States labor law that regulates labor unions' internal affairs and their officials' relationships with employers.
  • After passage of the Taft-Hartley Act, the number of union victories in NLRB-conducted elections declined.
  • During the 12-year administration of the Wagner Act, unions won victories in over 80 percent of elections.
  • Enacted in 1959 after revelations of corruption and undemocratic practices in the International Brotherhood of Teamsters, International Longshoremen's Association, United Mine Workers and other unions received wide public attention, the Act required unions to hold secret elections for local union offices on a regular basis, and provided for review by the United States Department of Labor of union members' claims of improper election activity.
  • Declare that every union officer must act as a fiduciary in handling the assets and conducting the affairs of the union.

• The Decline of Union Power

  • The changing conditions of the 1980s and 1990s undermined the position of organized labor, which now represented a shrinking share of the work force.
  • While more than one-third of employed people belonged to unions in 1945, union membership fell to 24.1 percent of the U.S. work force in 1979 and to 13.9 percent in 1998.
  • And much American industry has migrated to the southern and western parts of the United States, regions that have a weaker union tradition than do the northern or the eastern regions.
  • As if these difficulties were not enough, years of negative publicity about corruption in the big Teamsters Union and other unions have hurt the labor movement.
  • Perhaps the biggest reason unions faced trouble in recruiting new members in the late 1990s, however, was the surprising strength of the economy.

• Labor Interest Groups

  • The National Labor Union (NLU) was the first American federation of unions formed in 1866.
  • The Pullman's union and the United Farm Workers unions are examples of unions that came together to advocate for the economic interests of African-American and latino workers.
  • With the reduction of manufacturing jobs in the US, the number of people represented by unions has fallen.
  • Twenty-three states have such laws in place; these are the so-called "right-to-work" states.
  • While only 7% of workers in the private sectors belong to unions, 31% of federal workers, 35% of state workers, and 46% of local government employees belong to unions.

• The Evolution of Labor Relations

  • The prevalence of unions, both from a geographic and industry standpoint, often significantly impacts the welfare and wage propositions of a substantial number of employees.
  • Finland, on the other hand, has union participation of 70% (2010) and Canada has 27.5% (2010).
  • Union workers in the United States make anywhere between 10% and 30% more than nonunion workers in the same job, underlining why businesses often oppose unionization and workers often support it.
  • The above chart is extremely useful in understanding labor-relations trends over the past century or so in the United States.
  • This held strong for many years, and the decline of unions is a very recent trend in labor relations.

• Unions

  • Unionization is the process of workers forming a union, which is an organization to further the workers' shared interests.
  • Human resource professionals deal with the employees of an organization and, therefore, the unions as well.
  • The current method for workers to form a union in a particular workplace in the United States is a sign-up followed by an election process.
  • If over 50% of the employees sign an authorization card requesting a union, the employer can voluntarily choose to waive the secret-ballot election process and just recognize the union.
  • Describe the function of a labor union in the larger legal perspective of human resource management

• Organized Labor

  • An early example of a labor union is the Knights of Labor.
  • The union was formed for the purpose of organizing the flyers and educating and directing the power of the industrial masses, according to their constitution of 1878.
  • The union grew slowly until the economic depression of the 1870s, when large numbers of workers joined the organization.
  • In many developed countries, these functions have been assumed by the state; however, the provision of professional training, legal advice and representation for members is still an important benefit of trade union membership.
  • Since the 1970s, the proportion of employees who are part of unions has been on a steady decline.