Post by Judge Sam on May 23, 2009 13:01:29 GMT -5
I thought I'd start off these flavor posts by first explaining exactly what a union is haha, since when I started my research I did not know much at all about it. This is not surprising since in the last 100 years union membership in the US has plummeted drastically. Some have attributed this to the effectiveness of union busters. About 20% of the US labor force is now in a union.
According to Wikipedia, a labor union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals. The labor union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The purpose of these organizations is maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment.
Okay so that's not terribly exciting so here's my take on it. Basically the biggest issue in the world is the allocation of resources. So we've made X amount of money, who gets it? How is it divided?
Most political disagreements are based around where to spend the money the government takes in through taxes. Everyone has their own opinion of where and to whom that money should go. It's no different with a company - everyone in the company works together to do whatever it is they do that makes money. After they've made their money, they have to decide who gets that money. Disagreements over who gets that money is what brings unions into consideration.
Now I'm sure everybody thinks they are deserving of that money the most. But how is it divvied up? Some employees may be crucial to making sure the business works. Those people may be paid more than others who are replaceable. Some people may have no idea how much the whole business makes. If they feel they are happy with what they've got they may not even realize that their bosses are making millions more.
As you may imagine, the upper management has basically all control of how the money is doled out. In most businesses, the bosses want to make the most money for themselves as possible. This involves paying their workers the least amount of money as possible. Despite the fact that the workers might actually perform the entirety of the work that manufactures the product the company sells, they have no control over the money that is paid for that product. In order to gain some control and improve their own working conditions, the workers band together in labor unions. The theory goes, if all of us decided to stop working, they would have to pay us more or they wouldn't make any money at all.
Hopefully, the unions think, with a little strong-arming they can be paid what they feel they are worth rather than the least possible amount of money before they quit. Of course the way I've set it up makes it sound like an amicable disagreement over who gets their fifth yacht first, in reality conditions for workers are dire. They may work in dangerous environments, be barely paid enough to eat, forced to endure 12+ hour workdays, and be denied paychecks and treated like dirt.
According to Wikipedia, a labor union is an organization of workers who have banded together to achieve common goals. The labor union, through its leadership, bargains with the employer on behalf of union members and negotiates labor contracts (collective bargaining) with employers. This may include the negotiation of wages, work rules, complaint procedures, rules governing hiring, firing and promotion of workers, benefits, workplace safety and policies. The purpose of these organizations is maintaining or improving the conditions of their employment.
Okay so that's not terribly exciting so here's my take on it. Basically the biggest issue in the world is the allocation of resources. So we've made X amount of money, who gets it? How is it divided?
Most political disagreements are based around where to spend the money the government takes in through taxes. Everyone has their own opinion of where and to whom that money should go. It's no different with a company - everyone in the company works together to do whatever it is they do that makes money. After they've made their money, they have to decide who gets that money. Disagreements over who gets that money is what brings unions into consideration.
Now I'm sure everybody thinks they are deserving of that money the most. But how is it divvied up? Some employees may be crucial to making sure the business works. Those people may be paid more than others who are replaceable. Some people may have no idea how much the whole business makes. If they feel they are happy with what they've got they may not even realize that their bosses are making millions more.
As you may imagine, the upper management has basically all control of how the money is doled out. In most businesses, the bosses want to make the most money for themselves as possible. This involves paying their workers the least amount of money as possible. Despite the fact that the workers might actually perform the entirety of the work that manufactures the product the company sells, they have no control over the money that is paid for that product. In order to gain some control and improve their own working conditions, the workers band together in labor unions. The theory goes, if all of us decided to stop working, they would have to pay us more or they wouldn't make any money at all.
Hopefully, the unions think, with a little strong-arming they can be paid what they feel they are worth rather than the least possible amount of money before they quit. Of course the way I've set it up makes it sound like an amicable disagreement over who gets their fifth yacht first, in reality conditions for workers are dire. They may work in dangerous environments, be barely paid enough to eat, forced to endure 12+ hour workdays, and be denied paychecks and treated like dirt.