Before we can complete a proper analysis of the current question of whether unions are more productive, we need to develop an understanding of the effects they have on the workplace and how this impacts decisions of management and in particular the policies that will be created and enforced by human resources management so that the organization complies with all aspects of the collective agreement, should one be in force at the time. This agreement is at the heart of the employer-union relationship as it expressly outlines all employee benefits as well as the necessary behavior of management, anything outside of this legal agreement falls within the authority of the employer in the context of the "rights of the direction". (Verma, 2005, p. 418) Taking this new relationship into consideration, the realistic effect that unions now have on the workplace is their “strong use of their monopoly power to force employers to pay wages and benefits significantly better." (Verma, 2005, p. 416) These are the aspects of employment relationships that are most widespread and visible to the general public; however, there are other areas in which unions have a greater impact, termed “industrial jurisprudence in which the union, both its leadership and its members gain a significant voice in almost all aspects of managerial decision making that can have important consequences , not just for the workers, but the organization as a whole.” (Verma, 2005, p. 416) According to the same author, the main motivation that pushes unions to behave in this way is based on the pursuit of equity and the achievement of more favorable working conditions, as well as on maintaining a strong voice in workplace issues. (Verma, 2005, pp. 416-418) The overall effect is… half of the paper… related to productivity, a word of caution should be included before considering such results. nominal value. Meador and Walters in another issue of the Journal of Labor Research concluded that many of the studies they have conducted that have published their research on the positive effects unions have on productivity are problematic. They provide the following reasoning as to the reasons for this: These studies that emphasize an efficiency-improving perspective of labor productivity may have been the result of a) a skewed increase due to the effects of unions on wages, which tend to be taller in most cases. unionized environments and b) an integrated selection process whereby less productive unionized organizations are excluded by market forces and therefore not adequately represented in the data used to compile and carry out these studies. (Meador and Walters, 1994, p. 382)