Labor Unions

What is a labor union?

A labor union is an organized group of workers mostly within a trade or a specific profession, working together to further protect their rights and to improve their skills.

Pros of a union

Labor unions are a group of workers that belong to the union, working for a multitude of different companies for a wide range of projects. Some pros to a labor union is that labor union workers make on average 30% more than the average non unionized worker.(Roberts) Along with higher wages the typical union worker has a guaranteed pension and job related health coverage.

Cons of a union

When working in a union, you have a sense of specialization to your work, meaning that you have been hired for a specific reason and each and every other worker on the job site have their own specified job, this sounding great and all but it discourages camaraderie and cooperation between two separate workers as you can only do your job not allowing you to help other workers with their job if they need a hand because you are “taking somebody’s job” by helping out. Labor unions are also know for discouraging individuality as they believe that groups are stronger in numbers, although this masks as individuals voice when it comes to expressing concerns. Along with that, unions drive up the price of business. As union workers are collecting a much greater amount of pay than those who are non union, when a union is working in the business it forces the business to sell its product or service at a larger cost to compensate for the increase in pay to the union workers, therefore increasing prices for consumers.

Would I join a Union?

Short and sweet, I would not join a union. Working in the construction industry I have nothing against unions besides the fact that they get paid much more than the rest of us for half the work, but I am the type of person that likes to help out wherever I can and broaden my knowledge in all aspects of an industry. Whether it be running machinery, laboring in the field or working in the office, I think the most valuable employees are the people that are proficient in multiple things instead of one job. Nothing agains unions they just aren’t for me. One thing that would encourage me to join a union would be the elimination of specialization. As I mentioned before I like to explore every avenue of an industry and I wouldn’t be happy doing the same thing everyday, so if there was a “jack of all trades” union, you could count me in.

Sources:

Roberts, James. “Benefits of Union Membership.” Union Plus, https://www.unionplus.org/page/benefits-union-membership.