DISCUSS THE EXTENT TO WHICH YOU AGREE THAT TRADE UNIONS ARE A MAJOR CAUSE OF UK LABOUR MARKET FAILURE IN 2013 (20)
14TH NOVEMBER 2013 POLLY COPESTAKE 13CMC
DISCUSS THE EXTENT TO WHICH YOU AGREE THAT TRADE UNIONS ARE A MAJOR CAUSE OF UK LABOUR MARKET FAILURE IN 2013 (20)
Trade unions are groups of workers in the same industry who combine forces to try and improve their pay and conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Labour market failure occurs when there is either allocative inefficiency or social inequality. This happens when too much or too little labour is allocated to any one particular market or if the market is deemed to be unfair to sections of society. To say that trade unions are a major cause of UK labour market failure would mean that trade unions are pushing wages above equilibrium therefore resulting in a surplus of labour, or in other words, unemployment. In the UK, during 2013 there have been situations of both successful and unsuccessful debates over pay and conditions involving trade unions some of which causing market failure.
The current UK unemployment rate is currently 7.6%, which is the lowest it has been in the last 3 years, with its peak in 2011 as a result of the recession starting in 2008. This recent improvement suggests that labour market failure is being fixed, but since unemployment is a form of market failure, it is still present. There are many trade unions active within the UK work force, some bigger than others. For example, NUT the national union of teachers, and Unison which is a union for all public sector workers. The reason trade unions exist is because workers have more influence on their pay and conditions if they operate as a collective body, rather than as individuals. If the trade union is large and therefore powerful, they can be referred to as monopoly suppliers of labour. Monopoly is when the labour market is controlled by a dominant supply of labour. We would expect this monopoly supply of labour to be pushing for a pay rise, which if granted, would usually be accompanied with a fall in the quantity
DISCUSS THE EXTENT TO WHICH YOU AGREE THAT TRADE UNIONS ARE A MAJOR CAUSE OF UK LABOUR MARKET FAILURE IN 2013 (20)
Trade unions are groups of workers in the same industry who combine forces to try and improve their pay and conditions through collective bargaining with employers. Labour market failure occurs when there is either allocative inefficiency or social inequality. This happens when too much or too little labour is allocated to any one particular market or if the market is deemed to be unfair to sections of society. To say that trade unions are a major cause of UK labour market failure would mean that trade unions are pushing wages above equilibrium therefore resulting in a surplus of labour, or in other words, unemployment. In the UK, during 2013 there have been situations of both successful and unsuccessful debates over pay and conditions involving trade unions some of which causing market failure.
The current UK unemployment rate is currently 7.6%, which is the lowest it has been in the last 3 years, with its peak in 2011 as a result of the recession starting in 2008. This recent improvement suggests that labour market failure is being fixed, but since unemployment is a form of market failure, it is still present. There are many trade unions active within the UK work force, some bigger than others. For example, NUT the national union of teachers, and Unison which is a union for all public sector workers. The reason trade unions exist is because workers have more influence on their pay and conditions if they operate as a collective body, rather than as individuals. If the trade union is large and therefore powerful, they can be referred to as monopoly suppliers of labour. Monopoly is when the labour market is controlled by a dominant supply of labour. We would expect this monopoly supply of labour to be pushing for a pay rise, which if granted, would usually be accompanied with a fall in the quantity