Unionism, What's in it for You?

    As employees and the Union both face increasing challenges and stress, declining membership further threatens the Unions ability to adequately represent the membership. As the threat of Plants consolidations and further excessing moves closer to reality, it is more important than ever that we seek to strengthen our Union. Unfortunately, the same elements (frustration and dissatisfaction) that highlight the need for a strong union also contribute to declining memberships. 
    So why should anyone who is dissatisfied maintain their membership. Why should anyone who is not currently a member join the Union? What good is this Union or for that matter any union?

    I would suggest that the importance and benefits of Labor Unions could be categorized three ways:

1. National and Historical Benefits. Contributions to our national economy, social conditions, democracy and the Nation as a whole.
2. Neighborly Benefits, ways in which Unions benefit non-members.
3. Benefits to the individual member.

1. National and Historical Benefits: Concepts like health benefits, overtime pay, vacation and sick leave were non-existent until Unions fought for them. Prior to Unions, a gold watch was the standard retirement plan, and job security was non-existent. In the 1870s, unions were responsible for the end of the 12-hour workday. In the early part of this century, Unions accomplished the abolishment of the ten-hour workday. As non-union companies had to compete with unionized companies for the workforce, non-union wages and benefits began to reflect the gains won by unions.
    The Health Insurance industries owe their actual existence to Labor Unions. Can you imagine what would happen to the Blue Cross/Blue Shield if all of a sudden the Unionized workforce in Indiana lost their health benefits? The Health Insurance Industry (and consequently the Nations economy) would be devastated if Postal Workers (the second largest workforce in the country) were striped of their benefits.
    Written into the Constitution and Bylaws of virtually every Labor Union in America are requirements that they support and fight for Democratic principles, Social justice, and promote the welfare of their Community. Can corporate America make such a claim? Desegregation, Voter Rights, Civil Rights, Veteran Benefits, Child Labor Laws and many other causes have been championed by Labor Unions.
The fight against the exportation of American jobs and the creation of a 'one world corporate government' is being led by the Labor Unions.

2. Neighborly Benefits, ways in which Unions benefit non-members: Look at your supervisor, his supervisor, the SDOs and MDOs. Do you think they would be making what they make if you were not making what you make? Base salaries for supervisors and management are always connected to the base salary of subordinates. 
    Yes, we might make more than they do when overtime is available but remember when the present system was setup management was given the option of being overtime eligible or bonus eligible, they chose bonuses. Nevertheless, their salary is where it is because of where ours is. This connection also extends to benefits. Besides the fact that management benefits nearly mirror ours, gains made by the Labor Unions are routinely targeted by management organizations as justification for awarding them similar benefits. 
    In the Postal Service and the private sector, the influence of Union benefits extend not only to management, but in a similar fashion the presence of a Union tends to raise the level of benefits and wages for the non-union eligible portion of the workforce too. Non-Unionized office, clerical, and human resource staff at Unionized companies tend to share similar benefit packages and have higher wages than their counterparts at non-unionized companies. The reason?  If they didn't get comparitive wages they would be constantly trying to transfer into the Unionized workforce plant.

3. Benefits to the individual member:  I won't preach or point out the Union line about benefits, wages, vacations etc., since most of us either tend to take them for granted or contribute those gains to activities at the National level more so than the local level. While I believe this is a mistake, I won't go there. To put it simply, the best way to determine how your Union benefits you personally is to just compare your paycheck to the paycheck of any casual. Note the difference between your pay and theirs, your earned annual and theirs, your earned sick leave and theirs, your total hours and theirs. Compare your schedule to theirs. Can you find their vacation signup sheet? Do they have any security? If your Union did not exist, or ceased to exist, there is little doubt that the resulting workforce would be predominately Casual Employees! Prior to the gains of the Union in the 1970s, there was little difference between the full time employee then and today's Casuals.
    Mistakenly too many members are inclined to blame the Union for what they perceive as an inability to 'control' management, but this blame is misdirected. No Union, no matter how strong, can ever 'control' management. It is the nature of the Labor-Management relationship that Labor is inherently at a disadvantage. The adversarial role of the Union is such that, while it can seek to decrease its disadvantage, it can never completely control what management does. 
    A good example of this is the contentious relationship between employee owned United Airlines and their Labor Unions. Even though the employees own the Airline, the adversarial relationship between Management and Labor cannot be completely closed, and neither can their roles be reversed. For this reason Labor will always be at a disadvantage in dealing with Management, but the stronger a Union is the smaller the disadvantage.
    This is why t is very important that we seek to strengthen our Union. The first step is to stop the decline of our membership numbers. It is important that we stop the occasional voluntary resignations from the Union and seek to bring back previous defections. As conditions get worse, a strong and involved membership becomes even more important.