Description

Why are unions important? Labor Unions are necessary because most companies are more concerned with profits than they are with the well-being of their employees. Employers are trying to undo gains made in the past. These include providing health insurance, good pensions, reasonable work hours and job safety protections. But companies are making workers’ employment and incomes less secureContinue Reading››The post Labor Unions Are Still Relevant -IO009 appeared first on Impartial Observer.

Summary

Why are unions important?
Labor Unions are necessary because most companies are more concerned with profits than they are with the well-being of their employees.
Employers are trying to undo gains made in the past. These include providing health insurance, good pensions, reasonable work hours and job safety protections. But companies are making workers’ employment and incomes less secure through downsizing, part-timing, contracting out, and outsourcing jobs off-shore.
Unions are needed now more than ever. Working people need the and bargaining power unions provide to keep employers from making the workplace look as it did before collective bargaining.
Without unions sweatshop conditions, unlivable wages and 70-hour work weeks may become a part of working America’s future as well as its past.
CEO and executive compensation are rising astronomically. At the same time, the middle class is suffering layoffs, unemployment, and stagnant wages. Average CEO total compensation at S&P 500 companies, according to the AFL-CIO 2010 Pay Watch, is over $11 million.
 

Do Americans today still need labor unions?
Collective bargaining means that by representing all employees, a union can negotiate a better collective contract. Because the union negotiates collectively,  they represent all employees, regardless of his or her productivity or effort.

* INDIVIDUAL ABILITIES

Collective representation makes little sense in today’s knowledge economy. Machines perform most repetitive manufacturing tasks that in the past humans did. Employers now want employees with individual insights and abilities.  

* SELECTIVE HIRING

Union members earn more than the average non-union member. This is not because unions are better at negotiating.  It’s because companies that are unionized are more selective about whom they hire. Because unions make it difficult to lay off subpar workers, companies employing union workers are careful to hire more productive employees in the first place.

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LABOR UNIONS IN THE PUBLIC SECTOR


The one area where labor unions remain relevant is the government. Almost half of all union workers are in the public sector.
Unions fit more comfortably into government workplaces than the private sector. Government bureaucracy does little to reward individual initiative. And the government faces no competition.

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With Less Than, 40% of Americans Earning a Living Wage, Are Unions Still Relevant?


There’s no settled amount as to what constitute’s a living wage. A living wage is an amount a person would need to handle all of their basic needs. The national Housing Wage (the amount a person must earn to be able to afford a one or two-bedroom apartment rental) stands at $18.92. Assuming the national housing wage corresponds with a living wage, a full-time worker with no earned vacation or sick days would earn $39,353.60 a year. By this standard, fewer than 40% of Americans earn a living wage, as 63% of Americans earn less than $40,000.00 a year. http://politic365.com/2015/04/29/with-less-than-40-of-americans-earning-a-living
The Washington Post reported in Jan 2017 that the power of American unions has been fading for decades. In 1980, nearly a quarter of the U.S.