INFLUENCE OF SOCIAL ISSUES IN THE HISTORY OF MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY Michelle Gilruth The Social Issue of Unions There are many social issues that have affected manufacturing over the years. Many of these issues led to the formation of unions. Before unions, unskilled workers did not fair well. They received half the pay of skilled workers like craftsmen, artisans, and mechanics. Many people moved to cities to work in industry and about 40 percent of those workers were low-wage earners.1 As industry grew, women, children, and poor immigrants found themselves the main targets for work in factories.
Many agreements call for shorter workweeks to create more jobs and help preserve the existing ones. Another problem for labor is the decline in the percentage of workers who belong to unions. In 1945, about 36 per cent of all laborers were members of unions. Today, only about 25 per cent are members [1]. Critics claim that many unions are too big, inefficient, and corrupt.
Even though unions had moved to improve the rights, justice and conditions of the workplace, it was not surprising that many workers were sacked for simply joining the unions. In the cities, many of the people worked in factories. Some employers and factory owners treated their employees well; they paid them above the minimum wage with good working conditions but in other cases, the workers were being treated like slaves. The temperature of the factories would rise in hotter seasons, sometimes rising above 40ºC, working between 8am to 6om, working to and fro work. Inquiries for better working conditions or wages were dismissed and so were the workers.
While workers fought for fair treatment and job security, the employers wanted the freedom to become more efficient and profitable. But when one threatens they others goal naturally the other will resist. In a dictatorship this would be handled favoring one party or the other (normally the employers) every time, but in a democracy there was a need for unions to do collective bargaining and at times when demands are not met , strike. <br>
government has accumulated so much debt that it is absolutely suffocating the U.S. economy” (Snyder, 2010). “Traditionally, about 75 percent of all new jobs are created by small businesses. But today, hundreds of thousands of small businesses are being strangled out of existence by all of the oppressive taxes, fees, rules, regulations, paperwork and demands that government keeps imposing on them” (Snyder, 2010). It is hard almost getting close to impossible for small businesses to prosper, and if small businesses can’t succeed, then there are not going to be any more jobs created. During all these years has become dramatically stacked in favor of large businesses.
A firm’s performance is negatively impacted because it hires fewer employees, which decreases output and profit. Consumers and taxpayers end up paying for such costs through higher prices. The ability of the United States to stay globally competitive is diminished, thus efforts to cut costs push many companies to send jobs abroad. In the long-term, members of a union also become affected due to changes in the market environment—e.g. new entrants, including foreign competition within the domestic boundaries, so they may have to adapt to such changes by accepting lower wage rates.
Remarriages are 50% more likely to divorce in the first five years compared to first marriages. There are a numbers of factors that contribute to this trend and cause the home to be unstable. The children feel at fault for their parents break-up, the stepchildren are constantly trying to figure out their position in the family structure, some children show hostility towards the stepparent and both stepparents tend to show favoritism towards their own children. Unfortunately, the women and children are the ones that suffer the most economically and academically because according to the AACC, Only Mise 3 half of the divorced men in America pay their full child support responsibility, one- quarter make partial inconsistent payment, and one-quarter pays nothing at all. Also, children of divorced parents drop out of school at twice the rate of children from
Unions have helped bridge the pay gap between male and female teachers, black and whites teachers, etc. I am a firm believer that teachers are under paid, but I also think teachers pay should be based on their effectiveness and ineffective teachers need to be fired or reeducated themselves, possibly put on a probationary status. But in some states, after two years of mediocre service, a teacher is branded as “tenured” and they have a job for life. This leads to problems of absenteeism, poor work ethic, failing America’s future economy, etc., because these teachers are protected by the
Meanwhile, to make matters worse, State funding is down twenty-two percent over the same time period. Severe Cuts in State funding and drastic spikes in cost have caused the disastrous situation that many Americans have found themselves in recently. (Coy,
Introduction During the last couple decades, companies have down-sized and the employees left are often tasked with additional workload. A result is that overtime is becoming prevalent in today’s society all across the world. Overtime can be defined as time in addition to what is normal or the amount of time worked beyond one’s scheduled working hours. As such, what are the effects of working overtime on an employee’s stress levels, specifically on their sleep patterns. Many studies on overtime and its effects on stress have primarily looked at employees working 50 or more hours per week.