Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Unions
Matter
any people of faith and good will
“
of employment to provide health insurance. Unfortunately,
Workers want a safe working environment nearly 53 million people are without health insurance as of
Unions create safer working environments in two ways. 2009. Most of these uninsured are workers in low-wage jobs
They help to improve the conditions in which employees and their family members. Over half of all nursing-home
work, which reduces injuries; secondly, they encourage workers are without health insurance because it is either not
workers to report and seek care for the injuries that they suf- offered by their employer, or the co-payments are too high.
fer on the job. Unions help to correct the company’s priorities Unions place a high priority on securing health insurance
so that the worker’s welfare and safety on the job are seen as coverage for workers.
integral to the company rather than a Workers want and deserve other benefits such as
liability to profits. paid vacation, paid holidays and secure pensions.
Because there are so many danger- These are benefits for which unions advocate. Although
ous jobs, workers form unions to protect there are nonunionized workplaces that offer good ben-
We had no
themselves. Farm workers form unions to efits in industries that require limited amounts of train-
consistent personnel
reduce their exposure to pesticides, and ing, a union is often the difference between having and
policies. People were
$11.87
Cashiers
$8.11
$12.45
Cooks
$8.61
$14.30
Waiters and Waitresses
$9.81
Source: Barry T. Hirsch and David A. MacPherson, Union Membership and Earnings Data Book, BNA, 2007, forthcoming. Prepared by the AFL-CIO.
and union representatives familiar with Raising the Wage Floor for All Workers
contracts and bargaining. Union members gain higher wages through collective bargaining, a
Negotiating a contract is referred to as process that creates a wage floor that benefits all workers, especially
collective bargaining. When relations workers in low-wage jobs. Frequently even nonunion employers raise
between unions and management are wages to retain good workers and to dissuade the rank and file – non-
decent, contracts can usually be agreed to management employees – from organizing.
in a relatively short period of time – a few Between the mid-‘40s and the early-‘70s, when labor unions were
days, a few weeks or at most, a few
at their strongest, real wages rose consistently. At the beginning of the
months. Negotiations that drag on longer
21st century, however, unions represent only 12 percent of the work-
than a few months usually do so because a
force. Their decline is clearly a contributing cause to the overall decline
company does not want a contract.
of wages and benefits of all workers.
U
who Choose to Form Unions
nfortunately, U.S. workers face a very course of the next 65 years, the intent of the law
hostile climate for organizing unions. has been changed via amendments to the Act
Workers who choose to organize for a and various judicial and administrative deci-
collective voice on the job are often viewed as sions that weaken the power of unions. The
disloyal troublemakers. This is true even in Taft-Hartley amendments to the NLRA, passed
some religious institutions that claim to pro- in 1947, strengthened managers’ abilities to
tect workers’ rights to organize. oppose unions. The amendments permitted the
According to a 2009 study by Kate employers to campaign against union represen-
Bronfenbrenner, 53 percent of all working tation as long as there was “no threat of reprisal
Americans would vote to join a union if they or force or promise of benefit.”
had the opportunity to do so without risking
their jobs. However, workers are afraid. The
weak laws alone are bad enough for those who
What happens to workers who
choose to organize but a sophisticated, multi-
attempt to organize?
million dollar industry has developed to consult • Ninety-one percent of employers require
and advise employers on how to oppose employees to attend a one on one meeting
unions. More than 80 percent of companies with their supervisors where they are told
faced with union organizing efforts hire help to why unions are bad and why they should
wage anti-union campaigns. No other industri- vote against a union.
alized nation has such a vibrant union-busting • Fifty-one percent of employers illegally
industry or weaker labor protections. coerce union opposition through bribes and
Ex-union buster, Martin Jay Levitt out- favors.
lines the kind of unsavory tactics used against • Thirty percent of employers illegally fire
workers who want to unionize. pro-union employees.
Union busting is a field populated by bullies • Forty-nine percent of employers threaten to
and built on deceit. A campaign against a eliminate all workers’ jobs if they join
union is an assault on individuals and a war together in a union.
on truth. As such, it is a war without honor.
The only way to bust a union is to lie, distort, Most of this anti-union activity occurs after the
manipulate, threaten, and always, always workers have signed cards indicating they
attack. The law does not hamper the process. want to be represented by a union, and before
Rather it serves to suggest maneuvers and the official NLRB-supervised election. If the
define strategies. Each “union prevention” point of an election is to determine what work-
campaign, as the wars are called, turns on a ers really want, then it would seem that both
combined strategy of disinformation and per- sides – union and management – should be
sonal assaults. (from prologue of Confessions able to present their cases fairly. But given the
of a Union Buster, 1993) laws, the anti-union campaigns, and the con-
U.S. Labor law is dominated by the trol that employers have over workers’ lives,
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and the the cases are not presented evenly. In effect,
Taft-Hartley amendments. The original the time between signing cards and holding an
National Labor Relations Act was passed in election appears to be a time to scare workers
1935 to improve workers’ living standards by into voting against unions.
increasing the power of unions. Over the Anti-union activities have become so