Join me in welcoming Amy M. Traub, director of Research at the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy.
President Bush seems to have discovered that the economy is turning sour just in time for his State of the Union address. But for current and aspiring middle-class Americans, things have been tough for some time. In 2007, prices rose faster than wages, with the cost of essentials like health care and gas soaring particularly high. People tried various means to make ends meet: credit card debt went up. Consumer bankruptcy filings escalated. Some working people even did something really crazy: They joined unions.
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics released numbers showing the first increase in the share of workers represented by unions since they started collecting data in 1983. The increase, from 12 percent of the nation’s workforce in 2006 to 12.1 percent in 2007 is so tiny that it may be a statistical anomaly. But the point remains: in 2007, there were 311,000 more union members in the United States than the year before.
As an economic survival strategy, unionization is a winner. The evidence suggests that those who managed to join unions got through 2007 in better economic shape than those who didn’t: in virtually any sector you care to look at, union members made more than their nonunion counterparts. In the private sector as a whole, union members took home an average of $167 more every week than those without the benefit of a union contract. Union members also were much more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, to pay a lower share of the premiums for it and to have other benefits from life insurance to paid leave.
The problem is that it’s a hell of a lot harder than it should be to exercise the right to join a union. The process is fraught with intimidation. One fifth of workers attempting to organize can expect to be illegally fired in retaliation for trying to join a union, according to the Center for Economic Policy Research. Those who don’t actually lose their jobs are still likely to face illegal harassment. And the Bush-appointed National Labor Relations Board continuously comes up with new ways to restrict workers’ rights and make it harder to organize.
But in 2007, hundreds of thousands of workers were up to the challenge (more than just the 311,000 net increase because many union jobs were lost as well). Now imagine if working people could actually join a union just because they and a majority of their co-workers wanted to. That’s right: This is another pitch for the Employee Free Choice Act. Tough economic times demand it.
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ZED!
Can anyone explain to me quickly what the issue is about secret ballots for union memebership? That is, which sides are unions/corps on and why does each take that side?
This is one my representative did the right thing on.
Thanks to dear Ronnie unions have been being busted by big corporation every since he broke the air traffic union: Ronald Reagan’s War on Labor
Join a union and make big business pay decent wages!
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Since 2006, we’re focusing locally on getting unions to band together and work on getting pro-union/pro-worker candidates elected at the local level. Getting a union-friendly atmosphere around here isn’t easy – workers are still afraid of losing jobs for trying to organize. Despite all the benefits mentioned above, having a hostile government and press beats down the positive messages we send.
We’re hoping to show that this will bring more members out for other union events, etc. Now, attendance at union meetings are pathetic across the board. Getting some results in the next election may help us grow. Our other thoughts is a downturn in the economy will drive unionization. That’s now something we’re hoping for…
My wifes employer is very anti-union.
She is a low level manager, and they have very detailed policies on how to discourage anyone thinking about unionizing. The company supposedly “keeps it legal”, but their hostility is in no way contained.
I love these posts on American labor and what is good or isn’t good for the American economy
corporate propaganda has managed to demonize the labor movement and a good portion of Americans actually believe unions are bad for the economy and bad in general
it’s that propaganda we have to battle in order to give labor back the power it is supposed to enjoy in a country that was established for the people and by the people
this government is NOT supposed to serve corporations, it’s NOT supposed to be by or for corporations, it’s by, for and to serve the people
now I’d like to bring up a point of discussion I always like to point out when it comes to the union
what needs to be pointed out is the fact that the only purpose of the Union is give the proper bargaining leverage for one of the products businesses need to purchase
a business has bills and it has to pay those bills, it has to pay for the steel it uses to manufacture it’s goods, the electricity, the heat, the water
the business doesn’t set the price of those goods, the supplier sets the price, the business could bargain and try to get the best deal but never the less, the supplier sets the price
labor SHOULD be the same thing, it is a commodity the business needs to purchase, it CANNOT set the price it pays, the SUPPLIER sets the price
all the business SHOULD be able to do is bargain for the best deal
that is what a union is SUPPOSED to be there, it’s supposed to insure the laborer is allowed to bargain for fair market value in providing the commodity the business has to use if it is to survive
that is the dynamic…bussinesses don’t want to bargain, they want to set the price and insist the provider abide by that price
but just as the steel they buy, IT’S THE OTHER WAY AROUND, the provider sets the price, NOT the purchaser
and THAT is why we need unions
there ARE times a union gets a contract that is above fair market value for the commodity it’s providing
THAT IS BAD TOO
there really has to be a negotiation, the value of the labor must be fairly paid, not overly paid not underly paid
and that is what the bargaining process is for
WHEN a business uses foreign labor because they are allowed to pay below fair market wages, we MUST tariff that product so the company does NOT benefit from slave, child, or unfair labor practicing
I would think the unions are on the side of secret ballots so the laborers who voted for the union would not face reprisal
But Perris – Corporations ARE people!
According to a business friend of mine, the exact opposite is so, he says so that unions can “intimidate” workers into voting for the union. But I do not know if his version is accurate & am looking for facts.
*waving*
OOO boy are you in for it! :)
How could the union intimidate workers?
The employer holds the power, and has the most to lose.
Oh yea, you ever worked as a hod carrier and work faster than the “members” want you to?
In atomistic markets of homogenous products, prices are set by the intersection of the supply & demand curves. That is the textbook case. Markets rarely fit those assumptions, so the price determination mechanism is more complex in reality, but both supply & demand are almost always critical determinants. At the extremes that is not true, as in monopolies or cartels. But most markets are not at the extreme.
Huh? I just repeating what I was told, that I have reason to doubt, and looking for the facts.
Ronald Reagan really did a number on the unions. Ironically, he used them to get job security in his business and once he got ahead, he took it away from everyone else. What a guy!
RR also made life difficult for small businesses, the Ma ans Pa types. He swore they were not reporting all their earnings. Less than 2% of small businesses could survive and the ones that did were usually the larger small businesses.
This was all part of a plan for giant corporations to dominate. He deregulated everything and we suffer the results of deregulation, lawlessness, today.
Does anyone remember that Jimmy Carter did more for small business than any other president? To assisst women in getting their own business, he classified us as “Minority Status”. God bless him. Now women could qualify for an SBA loan. When RR got in, one of the first things he did was remove women from “Minority Status”.
One of the first things I hear is that unions are currupt. Who keeps putting that out there?
this symbol is a smiley face meant to indicate some level of humor :)
I’m afraid not.
I love my union, but from where I am coming from, as an RN, the Unions involvment with my is really only the collective barganing power when we negotiate our contract.
{{{I love you Perris!}}}
Thought so, but had to check as your message was mixed.
Yea, my experience was with construction unions in central Illinois.
Cool
For all the carping in the media — traditional and otherwise — about personality of the presidential candidates, their broad stances on various issues, and such, that CEPR report illustrates the importance of the power of a president to make appointments at all kinds of levels of government.
Christy often (rightly) harps on judicial nominees and DOJ appointments, and this post illustrates well how the same appointment power can screw up other departments of the executive branch.
I, for one, was surprised when I read this from the report:
That’s no penalty at all for a major company — not even a slap on the wrist. It might be worth a push — probably in the new congress — to elevate these penalties to something more . . . penalizing.
And I’m guessing a Cod Harrier does something with fish?
My point is if a shop is not union, and has no union members, how could the union intimidate people to organize?
hod carrier?
I don’t have a clue…
You would not believe the extent to which the Board and top executives indoctrinate their mid-level managers to keep the company “union free.” They make it part of the performance standards for all managers & supervisors; they make middle management suffer and lose money and lose promotions if their rank & file workers complain about working conditions and ask questions about unions.
I love this thread! This actually has something to do with my day job (which I can’t describe exactly, so don’t ask!).
I know this but never the less the buyer has to bargain with the supplier
that is what a union provides, however when it comes to labor the buyer wants to set the price.
unions do their best to equalize that power
Soylent Green is people
Corporations are fiction
Welcome, Amy. The good news about labor union membership being on the rise is indeed good news.
Can you tell us what you think it is that contributed to that? Organizing, public opinion, legislation, other things that might have factored into that?
is a three-sided box for carrying bricks or other construction materials, often mortar. It bears a long handle and is carried over the shoulder. A hod is usually long enough to accept 4 bricks on their side, however, by arranging the bricks in a chevron fashion, the number of bricks that may be carried is only limited to the weight the labourer can bear and the unwieldiness of that load. Typically 10-12 bricks might be carried. [1]
Hod carrying is an unskilled labouring occupation in the building industry. Typically the hod carrier, or ’Hoddie’ will be employed by a bricklaying team in a supporting role to the skilled bricklayers. Two bricklayers for each hod carrier is quite normal. His or (rarely) her duties might include:-
It’s like being a grunt.
I agree with your conclusions about the labor “market,” but on my assessment of the structure of the market itself, wherein an individual worker has NO bargaining power until the unemployment rate gets so low that companies feel obliged to bid workers away from each other. In the 1960s this happened when the unemployment rate dropped below 4%. After that, real wages rose strongly. There was another brief episode in the 1990s, when unemployment was low enough to spur accelerating nominal & real wages. But that was the only time since the end of the 1960s, nearly 40 years.
Unions are one of the few proven counters to the power of corporations, as you say.
And then add governments thumb on the corporate side of the scale, and you get what we have.
I am with you Tula but I have a question, in order for unions to be effective at this point in time don’t we have to protect them with tariffs so their bargaining power has gravitas. Don’t NAFTA, CAFTA, et all essentially put us in competition with 2 dollar an hour or less sweatshops. I put this out there for discussion, because I sure as hell am no expert or as informed as you, and thank you for the post.
and that is where the problem lies, it is the very platform a real progressive needs to be running
we MUST rescind personhood for corporations, they cannot be considered people by any measurement
it is not there in any decision, personhood was placed in a decision by a clerk and it must be removed
if the supreme court refuses then an amendment must be passed rescinding corporate personhood
a person can have a baby, a person can get sick, a person can serve the military, a person can go to jail
corporations are NOT entitled to the same freedom a person enjoys just as people are N6T entitled to some of the financial protections corporations are entitled
that platform would be huge and most people who THINK they are republicans would vote for a platform along those perameters
hod carrier
Think bricks
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Make it a crime… if a few of these greedy Bas*ards did some jail time the others might…just might think twice about screwing their workers.. Oh thats right the rethuglians changed the rules in favor of the corporations!
And now I know!
:)
obviously an individual can bargain for his worth
however labor is a grand commodity, for instance, if I want steel I would bargain for it, if there were better versions like stainless steel and differant blends of stainless steel each of those would require a differant price and method for arriving at that price
the buyer should not be setting the base price, the provider should be, when there is no group that is a provider buyer has more power then they are entitled and they will be able to pay lower then market value
I do not believe in single unions for any labor field, I believe there must be competition among unions as well
but for a craft, i believe that labor must be part of a collective bargaining process and that can only happen if there is a collective
I’m sorry, my wife is always on me because I have “too many sayings”. In the construction industry in central Illinois hod carrier was a colloquialism we used to describe laborers, which we were.
This probably isn’t going to be popular, but let me tell you of my time in a union. UAW local 1616, we worked at NCR in Dayton building banking terminals and the early versions of the Autoteller in 1978.
I thought it strange when I started, that for 15-20 minutes EVERY hour the ladies who did the first assembly on my line would sit and read. Or chat. When I enquired, they said they had to be careful not to go over quota or they’d get in trouble with the union. There’s at least 25% no work time, and it was usually longer.
My job was testing the terminals. I’d put them under a bank of soleniods that imitated fingers and a computer would drive the soleniods and print me a report. If there was a problem, I fixed it and sent it on to final QA. If they failed at QA, it was the senior techs job to fix. Well, the tech took a well deserved vacation and as the terminals failed QA they simply piled up at the end of the line. After the first week, there were at least 20 or there. And I knew how to fix all but about 4.
I went to my boss and told him I could fix those and get ’em to shipping. He said go for it. And we BOTH got in trouble with the union for it!
The contract I entered under was new, and it was one of those Screw the new hire contracts where we got substansially lower wage then the people who were there before the contract. Naturally, us screwee’s didn’t like it much and we ran one of our own for Shop Steward. When I voted, there were two oldtimers watching the ballot box and both gave me a rtousing speech in favor of the incumbent. Despite our superior numbers, somehow our steward lost.
It’s really tough for me to think about making unionization easier, when I still remember the above.
Boxturtle (Asbestos shell on, let me have it)
Hi folks….
My husband used to work at Greyhound when he pretty young when there was a union back when Reagon was in office….
At the time the union wages were just barely decent but there was health insurance….
When the last strike hit and broke the union people died trying to save it by laying in front of buses to stop the scabs from driving the buses, it was so tragic….
After there was no union the workers at the bus station received minimum wage and no health insurance….
So I guess I’m in favor of unions because I do honor those people who died tried to save Greyhound’s….
I will never cross anyone’s picket line…
From a theoretical perspective, the realtionship between a union and its employer may be characterized as a monopoly-monopsony. There is no a priori determinable outcome-which side will win, which will lose, by how much, and what kinds of economic inefficiencies will ensue.
But what is the alternative? A monopoly, meaning the employer gets all the goodies, which is somewhat like we have now?
To my knowledge, no one has devised a better outcome than to balance power on one side with collective organization & bargaining on the other, replete with all the bad outcomes you describe.
Christy has a new thread upstairs folks…
Alhoa!
I worked for a large furniture retailer in the Northeast (Raymour and Flanigan). They are virulently anti-union as this story will show.
They had a large distribution warehouse in Philadelphia, the workers and drivers there voted(was hard to get exact details)to join the union.
Within a week they closed this huge operation, moved it 50 miles away to New Jersey and fired every single worker and driver. It was a firing offense to even mention this episode.
Regarding secret ballots: the problem is that the current system for choosing a union includes secret ballots but excludes nearly every other feature we expect from democratic elections. As a result, employers have disproportionate power to intimidate employees. The Employee Free Choice Act keeps the secret ballot in place but also provides another option for deciding on union representation. For a full explanation of the ballot issue, see http://www.americanrightsatwor…..nough.html
Here we go, State Treasure of Ca announcing support for mitt and saying next Pres will probably have the chance to confirm 2 or 3 Supreme Court judges. C-span now. Has any of our canidates addressed this issue? Why not!
that’s what i was talkin bout
We need unions not only for people traditionally defined as “workers” but also for “white collar” and “professional” workers. As a health professional I was able to join a union and did. I worked for a relatively labor-friendly employer, but in a one-of-a-kind position it was difficult for me to negotiate with my employer, a large organization. With the union representing me, I was able to resolve issues that I could not draw attention to alone. Unions are good for the paycheck but also in many other ways such as addressing working conditions, quality of service, and long-term interests and community interests of the organization they work for.
That’s so true DeanOR. The WGA strike is another indicator of this as is the fight against “perma-temping”. Its important for people to start realizing that unions are just for “other people” they’re for everyone.
I think new organizing is one good explanation for the rise in union membership. A number of unions have been focusing intensively on new organizing for some years now, and it may finally be paying off.
Another possible contributor is the housing boom: construction trades were among the industries that saw the biggest rise in union membership. Unfortunately, the housing downturn that we’re seeing now will be hard on these workers. So to the extent that the increase in union membership comes partly from the housing boom, we could expect to see the numbers trend back down in 2008.
National legislation has not contributed to the rise of union membership: we have the same restrictive laws we’ve had for decades, with ever more anti-union interpretations of those laws from Bush appointees on the National Labor Relations Board. But some state laws may have contributed: for example in New York Governor Spitzer signed an executive order giving 28,000 daycare workers the right to organize. (The intersection between state and federal labor law is complicated!) They overwhelmingly voted to join the teachers’ union.
“Screw the new hire contracts”
Actually the company was probably the one who parlayed that little bit of union busting agreement.
It’s a tactic that is very useful in breaking a union because it splits the members in different tiers of wage comparisons….
Notice how this has soured you on unions in general?
Actually it was effective in your case and a lot of other people’s too…
I agree. For most of my life I have been an individual contributor so unions didn’t apply for me… but I was once a union member of the the Teamsters and they kept my job for me… The company tried to let me go just after my probationary period and the union stepped in … they had to pay all my back wages and put me back on the payroll… There is a place for unions as it is the only way workers get any say with the company!!
Thank you
Yea, essentially laborers, and I was and often am one. The butter on the bread, the grease for the wheel, where the rubber meets the road we move the earth.
and those suits got bupkes without us.
A hod is an inverted triangle on a stick that is used to carry bricks.
I knew a guy who told a story like that about when he started construction work. The older guys kept telling him to slow down. As he resented having to be in the union and he thought they were jealous of him, he sped up. He got going so fast he turned his ankle and was out of work for three weeks. When he got back, the other guys gave him a really pretty cane and told him to slow down.