Labor and Unions
Public policy in our country is typically made our time and with much struggle. A good example of this is can be found in countries handling of labor laws and labor unions. The struggle against labor activists and unions begin all the way back in 1880 and they were not legalized until the Supreme Court decision in 1937. Unions originally were created to try and achieve a basic safe work environment as well as fair compensation. Then by the 1980’s and 1990’s at the time was probably considered the union’s greatest period, when the United Auto Worker (UAW) achieved guaranteeing their workers massive upgrades in benefits and wages. Now as we look back this time might end up being the beginning of the end for unions as the recession has led many companies to massive lay off’s because they cannot afford to pay what the unions requires.
Looking at our government system public policy can usually be classified into two different types. Proactive in which create policy in order to avoid problems in the future for example air pollution laws in order to make sure our air stays breathable for generations to come. Policy can also be reactive in which we create policy based off a certain event that has already happened. Looking at the example in the first paragraph or union and labor laws most of these policy’s were created due to events that have already happened for example union’s had already gone on strike but now the policy was created in order to legalize it.
References
- Roe v. Wade.” The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia (Roe v. Wade)
- Pearson Education, publishing as info http://www.infoplease.com/ce6/history/A0842237.html Retrieved on 01 Jan 2012
