Union--Is it really worth it, or just another cost to the employees?

While getting into the schematics over dinner with Laylo, he brought up some execellent points of the lack of knowledge of the workers as they are embeded into a union. Exactly what is the perception of the worker that has been doing the same job for 20 years and literally going nowhere in there job/career. Not that they are not qualified but its the "cap" that is put forth during negotions between the Union leaders and the Companies that are potentially not letting workers fulfill there total capabilities. I'm going to attemt to break this down... again I say attempt!

It’s highly likely that the way you look at unions isn’t from an unbiased, objective perspective. Seemingly, labor and management that have ongoing issues with each other will see things differently, but often people that really have no attachment to unions at all will dock deep felt opinions, potentially stemming from a specific political persuasion. Since it’s tough to put this aside, let’s try to see if we can put things out into both perspectives.

Let's handle "Labor" first...

Organizing labor made a huge impact in our development as a country. We pushed well beyond legislation and led the fight in workers’ rights, safety, wages, etc. While the majority of the worker's rights walk purposefully in history books, wages and benefits are clearly where unions benefit the worker today. Millions of people would be living far worse lives without their union jobs. It’s also important to take note that union conditions set the normal and established practices for the general working environment which has great impact on non-union workers. Basically it all sums up to, without unions, workers would be worse off.

While working in a union comes with several prices. Most obvious is the union dues that are being paid by union members (workers). But there is also a cost in flexibility. Union workers may be able to move to another company, but they are generally locked out of moving to another industry. This means, once a teamster... always a teamster. Doing something else means starting completely over, and one of the biggest benefits of a union is the pension, which sometimes is not transferable to another line of work. Another twist on flexibility is the inability to go beyond your designated position or do more than the contract stipulates. Once you are at the top of list, that’s where you’ll be until you retire, no matter how hard your work compared to others. If you want to move up, you need to go elsewhere, and unfortuantely at this point you lose your benefits.

Now "Mananagment"

A professional and reliable workforce provides union companies the ability to staff frequently. Many non-union companies face labor issues daily that kill profits and block competitive abilities. For example, a non-union worker may not have the motivation on any given occasion to get out of bed before dawn, whereas a union worker may have more long term incentive to do so. Also, drawing from a professional labor pool on a project basis allows companies to bid work even when they aren’t exactly sure who is going to do it.

Clearly the cost is big issue here, but it’s not just the money. Unions have power and when times are good, they push for benefits for their members. While this makes sense, when the pendulum swings back the other way and money is tight, those wages become non-competitive. This means that non-union companies can lower prices because the market price for labor is lower than the union contract. So more than just a higher cost. It’s really when the labor costs gets significantly beyond the market price that the company can’t compete.

Now the result of of any discussion on this topic always leads back to the side of the table you’re on as this is an ongoing negotiation. I just wanted to try to educate people on both sides, and while it’s obviously a more complex topic than can be covered on my blog, it’s hoped that when you discuss this topic you’ll go beyond your own point of view to that of other people’s perspectives.