Why Have A Union?
Why should you join a union? I've been looking around online for info and arguments to help make the case, and here is a compilation of some of them. (Each link means the following info is from a different website.)
Cause trouble where you work - print this out and stick it on bulletin boards around the workplace when no one is looking.
Union Workers Have Better Health Care and Pensions
Union workers are more likely than their nonunion counterparts to covered by health care and receive pension benefits, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics. In March 2007, 78 percent of union workers in the private sector had jobs with employer-provided health insurance, compared with only 49 percent of nonunion workers. Union workers also are more likely to have retirement and short-term disability benefits.
Dignity: The presence of a union means employees must be treated fairly by their employer, and that you have a voice and vote in important decisions that effect you.
Power: An employee has little power and almost no way to improve wages, benefits, or working conditions. Collective Bargaining balances the power that an employer has over its employees even in a "Team" or high performance work environment.
Protection: Without a union there is no due process at work. Unions provide a grievance & arbitration procedure which ensures fairness for all employees.
Here are five good reasons to join your co-workers in uniting to form a union:
1 - Working together, union members have the strength to win better wages, affordable health care, a secure retirement, and safer workplaces.
2 - The "union advantage" is substantial. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, union members are much more likely to have health benefits and pensions.
3 - For people of color and women workers, the union impact is even greater. Women workers who are union members earn nearly $9,000 a year more than their non-union counterparts. For African-American workers, the union differential is also about $9,000, and for Latino workers the yearly advantage is more than $11,000.
4 - In addition to helping workers win better wages and benefits, unions help all workers by giving working families a stronger voice in our communities, in the political arena, and in the global economy.
5 - By joining together, we can build the strength to hold elected officials accountable, stop the "race to the bottom" by employers who cut wages and benefits in favor of bigger profits, and win improvements such as affordable, quality health care for all.
Union members earn better wages and benefits than workers who aren't union members. On average, union workers' wages are 30 percent higher than their nonunion counterparts. While only 14 percent of nonunion workers have guaranteed pensions, fully 68 percent of union workers do. More than 97 percent of union workers have jobs that provide health insurance benefits, but only 85 percent of nonunion workers do. Unions help employers create a more stable, productive workforce--where workers have a say in improving their jobs.
Unions are making a difference. With most of the economic benefits of our economy going to corporate America, working people are using the power of collective action to get their fair share.
Workers never got anything without uniting for it.
* The 40-hour workweek
* The 8-hour workday
* Overtime
* Sick Leave
* Paid Vacation
* Employer-paid health insurance
* Pensions
* Safety and health protections
* Grievance procedure for wrongful discharge and discipline
* Fairness in promotions
* Higher wages
Just think of what you and your coworkers may be able to win if you had a union contract.
And, finally,
Income for the Wealthiest Is off the Charts.
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Thank you Dave.
We can accomplish so much together.
There would be no reason to have unions if more workers understood that collectivization is imperative for the promotion of common welfare. We could, then, get every possible benefit that unions have brought the world just through government. But that level of understanding just is not upon us yet, so the more enlightened will always promote the union movement. Even if, on an individual level, we're not in a position to benefit directly from union membership.
Unions were born of the bastard child of SOCIALISM; They are single handledly responsible for the demise of the US auto industry...Their support of Socialist/Democratic principals; inspite of their best interests has caused their own demise. The people like Mr. Dingle and all the other socialists that promote the high taxes and are beholden to the enviromental lobby that actually creates the incentive to move jobs overseas. I have no sympathy for the union thugs....
Dude: "Singlehandedly" ignores the fact that every labor contract was signed by management. Of course little details like that have never mattered much to wingnuts like you. "Workers" are always the problem, and "trickle down" is always the answer in your world.
Singlehandedly? Of course, leadership had no hand it it, nor did engineering, nor marketing.
The environmental lobby does not move jobs overseas, management does.
Remember one thing, Mr-Socialism-be-damned, there is no value that can be created without human effort.. None.
Do we need an official union to band together? We do have the power, and sometimes it takes us being organized to truly utilize that leverage, but it's not necessary to have an official union. Someday someone who owns a business will realize that a "living wage" not only makes the worker happy but improves production all-around. To say that unions "Strong arm" companies into paying "ridiculous" wages is almost an immoral statement, given the growing discrepancy between the super rich and the just-below-poverty-liners. When Bear Stearns' CEO can walk away after selling his shares and ruining his company, and all the people working there are left to fend for themselves, something is horribly wrong. But we can stand united without a union just as much as with one--imagine if all the soldiers go see "stop loss" this week and then decide to no longer support this Iraq Democracy Oil project/ war...then we wouldn't have to wait for November.
Union dues, lower quality health care, lower wages?
Unions have a place, no doubt. Strong supporter.
On the other hand, they aren't the best thing in the world. Like any organization they exist to self-perpetuate, and in that regards, they don't have the interests of the worker, but themselves, at their forefront.
Unions are the single reason why companies have gone overseas. Union's strong arm companies to pay ridiculous wages to union members, but no politician will ever come out in public to denounce them. Why do you think our cars are so expensive? Why do you think Ford, GM, and Chrysler are in huge financial trouble?
Thankfully, union enrollment has steadily declined over the last 20 years.
If we do away with unions, we'll have more affordable american made products.
What lies you are spouting do you work for a anti union company? unions are not the reason companies go overseas greed and tax incentives are Thankfully union activity is on the rise repubs want you to think like you do Ronald Regan is to blame for companies going overseas
Rising costs of health care?
nah that can't be it, right?
Couldn't possibly have to do with their absolutely craptastic quality of cars, their focus on SUVs, their inability to adapt to the Japanese technology, and their unwillingness to punish executives who failed to change the Ford, GM, and Chrysler business model for the new century.
No, it has to be because of unions. That's the ticket.
Keep believing that-- it'll get them, and you, real far.
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Just because an American made product is affordable doesn't mean it's worth purchasing. And doing away with unions is no guarantee that greedy corporate robber barons will lower prices on American-made goods.
American cars are no more expensive than foreign cars. The problem is that the quality basically sucks compared to what Honda and Toyota and Nissan are putting out. No amount of union-busting will change that. It's a basic design problem, not a union problem. Until Detroit puts out a well-designed, reliable, fuel-efficient car which is competitive with foreign manufacturers, I will not purchase their products.
Actually, the best way to bring back the outsourced jobs may be to encourage unions in low-wage countries. If Mexico and other countries had stronger labor unions and higher wages and benefits, U.S. companies would be less likely to send jobs there.
Unions are the single reason the American economy was built into the strongest in the world. Companies have strong armed unions to reduce wages and benefits and pensions that are essential to the economy and therefore the country. Companies that strong arm unions are anti-American. Car prices reflect the actual cost of production which includes a living wage for workers, and reducing labor costs will reduce the market for these products. Ford, GM, and Chrysler are in trouble because they are being forced to compete with cheap overseas labor and are being robbed by healthcare conglomerates.
Union membership is on the rise because Americans realize that their very lives and futures depend on strong unions fighting the cut throat employment practices of unregulated capitalism. And if every American were in a union, we would not need for goods to be continually cheaper in order to match our paychecks.
Capitalism is Supply and demand - the company can charge you more for the supply if your demand is higher. HOWEVER, capitalism works both ways. Meaning, the consumer AND the worker can bargain too. The consumer can take their demand elsewhere (as they should) if they can find a better quality product somewhere else (toyota, anyone?), or the SAME quality product for less (honda, anyone?). Also, the worker should be able to bargain with the employer based on their production and value to the company, since there would be NO production and NO profit at all without the workers!
This is NOT the way it works without unions. My dad works for the post office, and they have a union - which can barely keep up to make sure my dad is treated with a modicum of respect. The company takes terrible advantage of him even with the union doing what little they can to make sure he is treated fairly. The management sit on their asses all day dreaming up ways to squeeze more productivity out of the harried workers for the same pay. They find all sorts of ways to pad their bottom line and snag their bonuses at the expense of the workers. This is NOT RIGHT! These practices are destroying America! But my dad has a union. So it could be worse: he could be buried alive at the bottom of a mine shaft, right Mr. profit-at-all-costs?
All of those reasons and more are why I'm a proud member of the IBEW.
CWA here
Actually the problem isn't with union workers, it is because of the ridiculous pay and perks of top management. The discrepancy between CEO pay and average worker pay is higher in this country than anywhere else in the world. Just one example: the average Wal-Mart worker would have to work 1000 years to make what Lee Scott makes in one.
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