Analyzing Labor Relations Issues and Employee Engagement in Healthcare

This discussion post delves into the critical issues of labor relations within the healthcare sector, specifically focusing on unionization and employee engagement. It explores the advantages and disadvantages of healthcare worker unionization, including job security and bargaining power, while also acknowledging potential drawbacks such as strike impacts. The post references the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and its role in regulating labor disputes and protecting employee rights. It emphasizes the importance of hospital administrators honoring contracts and fostering a positive work environment, whether or not employees are unionized. The analysis also examines how organizations are adapting to meet employee needs, the role of employee engagement surveys and the importance of addressing employee concerns to improve satisfaction and overall organizational performance. The post references supporting literature to enhance understanding of the topics.

Running head: LABOUR RELATION ISSUES 1
Labor Relation Issues
Student’s Name
Intuitional Affiliation

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Labor Relation Issues
Unionization in Health care
National Labor Relations Act allowed the healthcare workers and nurses to
unionize in about forty years ago. The unions in the health sector seem appealing as the
health worker and nurses in these unions pay a monthly fee of about $ 90 per month
(Allen, Aldrich, & Adams,2019). These unions in healthcare sectors have enabled the
workers in the sector to have a more significant bargain power due to their numbers. The
unions in the healthcare has allowed the staff in the sector to fight and air their queries
which have resulted to their satisfaction in their scope of practice.
Workers who work under the wings of unions in the healthcare sector do not
have to involve themselves in political affairs concerning health care. The non-union
employees will have to concentrate on political affairs to know the legal requirement or
changes in the healthcare sector. The workers in unions have the benefits of having a
representative from the union to air their queries.
There are advantages and demerits of being a member of a union. One of the
merits is job security. When an economic crisis arises, a company may decide to lay off
some of its workers, for example, the nurses. Employees under unions cannot be affected
by layoffs as the union's signs contracts with companies that regulate the companies’
practice toward the unions ‘members such as layoffs(Saarmann,2019). Additionally, the
workers are represented by union officials to help and advocate in their absence when
facing termination or discipline. Finally, the employees in a union have bigger bargaining

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power, as they present their needs and query as a group. The bargaining power enables
the worker to fight for their rights such as good working conditions and better pay.
Apart from many advantages that are experienced by the unions, there are still
some disadvantages. One of the demerits of being a member of a union is when a worker
is working in a firm where they don’t recognize or don’t allow their workers to be
represented by unions (Kaine, & Ravenswood, 2019). Another demerit occurs when the
unions are at strikes and the workers are directed not to work in their places of work.
Strikes make the members of unions suffer individuals due to lack of payment of wages
by the employers.
National Labor Relation Board (NLRB) this a self-governing federal agency
created by the United States Congress to control and regulate the Wagner Act (Hafiz,
Rogers, Dau-Schmidt, & Bronfenbrenner, 2019). The board is responsible for the trial of
labor disputes and determining them through a judicial proceeding. NLRB ensures that
the rights of employees are protected such as the right to join unions.
From the unionization concept, the only way hospital administrator in the
healthcare sector can ensure a better working environment with the nurses and hospital
specialist is by honoring the contract between the employee and unions (Botterill &
Hancock, 2019). Organizations or hospitals that have non-unions employees, they should
keep them satisfied by offering better working condition, honoring the contract and better
pay.

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In the past few years, the firms and industries have accepted the need for workers
to join unions in their strive to meet workers satisfaction. The firms are working together
with unions to ensure employees are satisfied which result to better performance of the
firm towards achieving their objective(Falk, E., Chantis, J., & McGrath, D. (2019).
Although the organizations has accepted the need for workers joining the unions, the
organization has made some improvement towards fulfilling the needs of its workers such
that they are providing better pay, better working condition and use of work industries
and firms contract to protect the rights of the workers (Arnesen, Broderstad, Johannesson,
& Linde, 2019). The firms have also created forums such as suggestion box where the
workers can air their query about their place of work. Through these forums, the
management in firms is able to work on the needs of the employees which results in
employee’s satisfaction. These improvements in management towards the employee’s
satisfaction has discouraged the workers in joining unions as their employers have
covered all services offered by unions (Falk, Chantis, & McGrath, 2019).

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References
Allen, J. I., Aldrich, L. B., & Adams, M. A. (2019). Preparing for Large-Scale
Disruptions In Health Care Delivery: Nursing Strikes and Beyond. Clinical
Gastroenterology and Hepatology.
Hafiz, H., Rogers, B., Dau-Schmidt, K. G., & Bronfenbrenner, K. (2019). Labor Law,
Antitrust Law, and Economics Professors' Comment on the National Labor
Relations Board's Proposed Joint-Employer Rule.
Saarmann, L. (2019). Ideals for Nurses: A Study of the" American Journal of Nursing"
and" RN", 1940-1960 (Doctoral dissertation).
Falk, E., Chantis, J., & McGrath, D. (2019). 2018 Service Academy Gender Relations
Survey: Statistical Methodology Report (No. 2018-070). Office of People
Analytics Alexandria United States.
Botterill, K., & Hancock, J. (2019). Rescaling belonging in “Brexit Britain”: Spatial
identities and practices of Polish nationals in Scotland after the UK Referendum
on European Union membership. Population, Space and Place, 25(1), e2217.
Arnesen, S., Broderstad, T. S., Johannesson, M. P., & Linde, J. (2019). Conditional
legitimacy: How turnout, majority size, and outcome affect perceptions of
legitimacy in European Union membership referendums. European Union
Politics, 1465116518820163.

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Kaine, S., & Ravenswood, K. (2019). Employee Voice in Practice: Aged Care in
Australia and New Zealand. In Employee Voice at Work (pp. 183-200). Springer,
Singapore.