The Wagner Model of Industrial Relations

1.The Wagner’s model provides automatic certification of unions and grants the workers the right of collective bargaining. It also gives the unions the voice in some matters like the length of the working day, payments, layoffs, etc. 2. Under the Wagner’s model, the management still has the power of decision making over the division of labor. Moreover, the union leaders have to ensure the members abide by this model, which creates a widening wedge between the workers and their leaders. Finally, it is prohibited to go on strikes while under the collective agreement. 3. The Neo-liberal policies partially deprived the workers of the workplace security. The decreased governmental initiatives to stabilize economy caused workers their welfare and job guaranties. 4. On the one hand the workers wanted more control over matters such as hiring or layoffs, especially because at that time there was huge favoritism and inequality. On the other hand, the managers wanted to preserve their natural right to determine the hiring process and other matters. 5. The role of the war was very important as it shaped the image of unionism and influenced its transition to more structured organization. It was a sort of a transition period. The instability, the labor shortage and the orientation of economy for the military production has helped workers to achieve some crucial improvements in their rights. 6. Rand Formula granted the workers one of their major demands, namely the dues check-off. This resolved the problem of free riders and removed the existing lack of incentives to join the union. 7. The inability to strike during the collective agreements seems like a very high price to pay for other advantages. In some cases strikes were the only weapon that the organized labor possessed to achieve their goals. Now they were deprived of this weapon without any real and powerful alternative to rely on. 8. The Wagner’s model created a gap between the leaders of the unions and the rank and file unionists. Ultimately, the leaders associated more with the management than with the workers. They also had a role to suppress the workers, preventing them from strikes, and accepted compromises suggested by the government behind the backs of the union members.