What are the pro and con of labor union?
Pro. Job security Better pay Health Insurance extra benefits Cons. If the Union is a lame duck and cannot get nothing done, you end up paying for nothing. In regards to Labor Unions getting smaller you would have to consider the reason labor unions came about. In a sense, safety, work hours, benefits were all on account of labor unions. Thus, their own success has resulted in their downfall. Now on another note, Union membership has balanced out finally; unfortunately, not to the level it had before where almost 60% of workers were union. In short, a labor union can be considered protector of your job, or just a selfish way to take your dues. I'm a union member and I make roughly $30K more a year then non-union members who do the exact same job. My dues are approximately $115 a month.
What is it like to be in a labor union?
I have always joined a union if I had the chance.Firstly you have a greater sense of job security and confidence that you won't be bullied. The "unity is strength" idea.Things that some people find very stressful, like wage negotiation is done by others as is a lot of legal stuff.It is a huge advantage for disputes involving your employer: it makes them less personal: you have an outside (if biased) organisation to deal with it. My example in a car crash you get your insurers to deal with it, this means you don't get involved in face to face disputes. My union took my employer to court on my behalf a few times when I was injured (not seriously) on health and safety grounds and did offer legal help against dog bites (I was a postman at the time). They could have got the dog involved destroyed (two different attacks), but I opted not to proceed: I couldn't live with being a dog-murderer.I have been injured at work when not in a union and the management were less than sympathetic (docking my pay during a hospital visit) and then trying to blame me for their negligence. It wasn't a job I wanted so I just left.Unions often have some social activities, which can be fun: certainly they ran cricket and football teams.I would say here that being in a union is wholly beneficial in terms of social and economic terms. To give some balance I will try and give some of the downside.Although unions are democratic a lot of the (higher) leadership is political in nature and self-serving: (at a local level it is volunteers) There is very much a loyalty first attitude and paranoia and secrecy. There are all the problems involved in politics, with cliques and corruption. I was at war with my union a lot, purely because I hate secrecy and am more of an idealist. A lot of managers try and subvert the unions by giving preferential treatment to officials. Second is any organisation has a herd or groupthink mentality. Some people with valid criticisms were labelled as "heretics" or whatever the equivilent was.I always felt the problems with unions were failures on an individual level: rather than systemic. Sometimes they fought to protect whiners or obstruct useful change, but most often this was by popular demand.I think if union have a real weakness it is that they represent their members, a lot of which are human, self-interested and non-pc.
What are labor unions?
A labor union is an association of workers formed for the purpose of resisting the power of management and the employers, and using their solidarity and collective action to force management to not do things it wants to do, or do things workers would prefer they do. In short, a union is (to varying degrees depending on the union) a kind of organized worker counter-power to management.
What's the purpose of labor unions?
In practice, the purpose of a labor union is to unify workers under one banner and to act as a collective bargaining unit representing workers whenever they negotiate a new contract with management. When used for this purpose, a labor union can be very effective in enhancing conditions for the working person. A labor union can negotiate for such things as increased wages, better working conditions, better work hours, and worker safety.Unfortunately, nowadays the original purpose and intent of the labor union is greatly misunderstood and often abused. These days, labor unions are starting to resemble the big business entities they were originally formed to work against and act more as a go-between for rank-and-file workers and management. Even though an excellent concept, labor unions these days are often viewed as as much of an enemy or threat to employment as big business.If labor unions got back to their original roots, and actually represented the best interest of workers, they would regain much of their lost respect. Hopefully, that day will come again soon before it's too late, ie big business has taken over the entire country and contaminated our society with runaway capitalism.
What are Labor Unions in America?
Labor unions formed in the mid 1800s as urban and factory-based industry increased. They were formed to protect the interests of workers, particularly craftspeople. Their primary goals have been a reasonably short work week, high wages, safety on the job, job security, unemployment insurance, workers comp insurance, promotions, Social Security, retirement benefits, and "having a voice at work." They also engage in politics to push these agenda. They have accomplished many goals, particularly in legislation and regulation around wages, health and safety, unemployment, health insurance, social security, and whistleblower laws. Their goal of having many members, however, has not been achieved, as only 10% or so of workers today are in unions, and it never really got much past 30% of the workforce. Today, the unions are failing to organize workers in financial institutions, information technology, fast food restaurants, custodial work, landscape maintenance, retail stores, and large swaths of the service economy. They are good for the American people. It's hard to say whether they are good for the economy or not. Without these protections and regulations, businesses find it easier to be profitable. Maintaining safe work conditions costs money. Hiring more people instead of overworking people, and not paying overtime, costs money. On the other hand, unions tend to stabilize jobs that are seasonal, sporadic, or dominated by small and medium businsses that contract with large businesses. The construction unions do this by maintaining a list of qualified labor, and generally do it better than temp agencies.
What is a labor union? Plz need help!?
its when a bunch of workers (in a factory lets say) get together and agree to bargain collectively. this means instead of one guy telling the boss he wants a raise, they appoint a union representative to tell the boss he needs to give them all a raise or else. they often strike, meaning all the workers agree to stop working, making all production stop and forcing the boss to surrender. they used to be shut down by the government, but today most workers have some sort of union. any group whose name includes "brotherhood" or "guild" is probably a union. they are supposed to produce better goods under better conditions, but at a higher price.
What good do labor unions still do?
As union membership has declined it's become harder and harder to demonstrate the wider goods that unions bring to the world. However, unions bring up wages throughout their industry -- especially as they grow -- just because firms are in competition for workers, and in order to ensure they attract good workers they will raise their wages to be commensurate (or, in some cases, are larger than -- but that is unusual) with union jobs.Unions are also necessary to enforce labor laws / contracts. I don't know how much experience you have with government agencies but if you are an individual it's easy to get lost in the paperwork, in the bureaucracy, in the massiveness of it all. What labor unions do is push back on these power centers and try to make better for the people within their particular local. They enforce the contract and the law better than any other agency, and they educate workers better than any other agency too.
What is labor union microeconomics?
Labor Unions are Monopolies of labor, permitted to be monopolies by law, and they exist to extract more Wages and Hourly Wages than their labor is otherwise worth in Free Markets.The Microeconomics are clear: absent that legal monopoly, union workers would be paid a market-clearing rate for their labor, and as that would lower the costs of production of whatever goods or services that are produced by union labor (unless the unions are incompetent and didn't successfully demand wages in excess of market labor rate), those goods & services would become cheaper for everyone to buy.The Macroeconomics are clear too: society would better off because those goods & services are cheaper to buy - that's an improvement of the Purchasing Power of their money, i.e. for a given dollar in your pocket, you can buy more with it than you could in the presence of labor unions with monopoly power to set wages higher than the market would otherwise pay (and thus raise the prices of all goods & services produced by union labor).It is important to note that labor union monopoly on a given type of labor only extends as far as the jurisdiction of the government that granted the monopoly - this is why labor unions hate international Free Trade: it presents Competition to their monopoly. This is also why labor unions seek to impose "fair labor standards" on other nations whose labor costs are otherwise lower - to prevent that competition, i.e. cause the labor in those nations to be as expensive, or more expensive, than what they charge domestically.Labor union microeconomics are the microeconomics of Monopolies.
What is labor union racketeering?
It is basically when an organized crime group or an individual uses unions to extort a company or contractor, or use a union to control workers. I will give you some examples.Extortion: Basically, criminals corrupt the labor union bosses, or they are bosses themselves, and tell the workers to go on strike, and then the company/contractor cannot get work done, which can waste a lot of money, time, and resources. So the company/contractor is forced to pay a large sum of money to whoever controls the union, then the workers go back to work.Control: This somewhat ties in with extortion, but it is when criminals use unions to control workers, which allow them to control things such as ports which can then be used for smuggling in drugs, people, cars, etc.