Do unions do anything for today's worker? The biggest complaint heard amongst union members and non-members who leach off of benefits garnered by the unions, is that the union doesn't do anything for me. I'm just wasting money paying for the benefit and I get nothing in return. It is understandable that many people feel this way in the anti-union labor climate we live in today. It seems that with watered-down enforcement from the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), a President that won elections twice, largely based on talk of strong support of unions, has failed to provide that support, and union reps that have been beat down by members, non-members and managers. Sometimes it just seems there is no justice in the workplace anymore. If you are a postal worker, you truly feel this impact more than many with the closure of mail processing plants and post offices across the nation and a much smaller workforce. Workers are frustrated with unions that contractually protected them against being forced to relocate more than 50 miles, only to have their National Union Offices agree with the postal service to force relocations of 100 miles or more. Disrupting family, as well as communities. So what do unions do for us? The Bureau of Labor Statistics can give you some insight into what unions do. For example, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014 Data) states, Median weekly earnings of nonunion workers ($763) were 79 percent of earnings for workers who were union members ($970). Even though wages have stagnated amongst unionized workers, as well as non-unionized workers, and the lowly wages of America's real workers is a pittance of that of the fat-cats. The difference in the median weekly earnings of unionized and non-union workers is substantial over the course of a career. In a nutshell, wages are probably the number one concern with workers, running nearly a tie for first place are benefits, pensions and job security, which a unionized workforce tends to have. This in itself should be proof enough of what union membership provides. Specifically, if your union evaporated, you would quickly see your wages decline and pensions dissipate.
Who are the people the union is representing and protecting the most (based on data)? According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (2014 Data), it is men (11.7 percent), Among major race and ethnicity groups, black workers had a higher union membership rate in 2014 (13.2 percent) than workers who were white (10.8 percent), Asian (10.4 percent), or Hispanic (9.2 percent). By age, the union membership rate was highest among workers ages 45 to 64--13.8 percent for those ages 45 to 54 and 14.1 percent for those ages 55 to 64. The union membership rate was 12.3 percent for full-time workers, more than twice the rate for part-time workers, 5.8 percent. In 2014, 7.2 million employees in the public sector belonged to a union, compared with 7.4 million workers in the private sector. The union membership rate for public-sector workers (35.7 percent) was substantially higher than the rate for private-sector workers (6.6 percent). Within the public sector, the union membership rate was highest for local government (41.9 percent), which includes employees in heavily unionized occupations, such as teachers, police officers, and firefighters. In the private sector, industries with high unionization rates included utilities (22.3 percent), transportation and warehousing (19.6 percent), telecommunications (14.8 percent), and construction (13.9 percent). Low unionization rates occurred in agriculture and related industries (1.1 percent), finance (1.3 percent), professional and technical services (1.4 percent), and food services and drinking places (1.4 percent).
In synopsis, you can see there is a defined benefit to the worker in a unionized workforce. However, if you have kept an eye on data over the years, as union membership declines, so do wages and benefits. There is power in numbers and corporate America is winning the fight against worker protections, wages and benefits by working hard to kill unions. Will you let them win and continue to rob you in contract negotiations, thru the media and thru buying politicians? Only time will tell. If you do not feel you are getting your benefit from your union, then speak up, vote them out, file labor charges, and more importantly, you should step up and volunteer your time to change things. And more importantly, register to vote and vote out those who are trying to kill unions, protect tax breaks of the wealthy, and steal your Social Security and pensions.
Reference: npmhu317.blogspot.com
