What Do Labor Unions Provide Workers With?
Many workers, particularly those in manufacturing and building trades, are members of labor unions. Labor unions allow members to collectively bargain for wages and benefits, rather than going about it alone. This pays off at the bank as members of labor unions typically enjoy higher wages than nonunionized employees, according to figures from the U.S. Department of Labor. These same figures indicate that women and minorities especially benefit from collective bargaining.
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History
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Unions grew out of medieval trade guilds. The first true union in the United States was a shoemakers union in Philadelphia. The Knights of Labor organized 19th century workers around communities, not trades, leading the fight for things like the eight-hour day and abolition of child labor. The Congress of Industrial Organizations organized workers during the the U.S. Great Depression around issues like higher wages and safer working conditions.
Function
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Unions organize members into a collective bargaining unit. This means that workers bargain with employers as a group, rather than as individuals. To enforce bargaining agreements, unions negotiate legally binding contracts with employers. This differs significantly from nonunion "at will" employment that can be terminated at any time by an employer. Further, under "at will" employment, employers are free to change working conditions, benefits and wages at any time.
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Effects
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The effects of unionization can be demonstrated in concrete terms. Union employees receive wages 27 percent higher than nonunionized employees, according to Change to Win, a union-based organization. As of 2010, 81 percent of unionized employees receive workplace-related health care benefits, compared with 50 percent of nonunionized employees. Union employees pay, on average, 43 percent less for family health care coverage than nonunion counterparts. Seventy-two percent of all unionized employees receive pensions, compared with 15 percent of nonunionized employees.
Significance
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Labor unions provide benefits even to workers not holding membership cards. In so-called "right to work" states (states whose laws make union organization difficult under the auspices of the open shop system), the average hourly wage for a private sector employee was 11.1 percent lower, as of 2009, than in states where it is easier to organize unions, according to the AFL-CIO. Further, unions fight for better workplace conditions under the law through political action committees. Such laws make sure that safe workplace conditions are the law of the land, not the terms of a contract.
Misconceptions
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Unions are often thought of as blue-collar organizations that raise wages for such professions as machinists, longshoremen and Teamsters. However, unions had 53 percent white-collar workers as of 2010, with 18.6 percent of all professional employees enrolled in unions, the AFL-CIO says. While America has far fewer manufacturing jobs than half a century ago, the number of professional, white-collar jobs continues to increase in places like health care, education and science. Unions exist for professional occupations such as social workers, nurses, teachers and professional technicians.
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