Labor unions are organizations that operate so that they can protect labor employees from employers that might encroach on labor employees’ rights. (Labor Union: Definition, history, and examples) What labor unions do is they band together all the laborers so that they can effectively negotiate for higher pay, better working conditions, employee rights, etc. Without labor unions laborers need to stand up for themselves and attempt to negotiate with employers individually. Standing up individually may work well for some employees in some circumstances, but overall, it is easier to negotiate with employers if all the laborers are banded together as one cohesive unit. The cohesive unit is what enables unions to leverage the value of the labor employees to negotiate with employers. To operate and function unions do need to generate some form of revenue. Their means of doing this is by charging union fees from employees. In many situations this is acceptable and understandable. But in some circumstances the unions can become greedy. In these situations, the unions may charge unnecessarily high union fees to employees. This has a negative impact on employees for obvious reasons. In other situations, labor unions may attempt to demand unnecessarily high wages for employees so that they are able to charge higher union fees. This can result in companies cutting portions of a unions workforce resulting in less jobs. Unions work to protect workers’ rights and make it easier for labor employees to be entitled to better pay and working conditions. But, in some situations unions can be greedy, which can negatively impact on the employees that the union is representing.
Works Cited:
Team, T. I. (n.d.). Labor Union: Definition, history, and examples. Investopedia. https://www.investopedia.com/terms/l/labor-union.asp