Labor Unions in the United States - Essay Example

In order to consider the contemporary challenges facing the USA labor movement and the solutions to revitalize it and help defend workers interests let us consider labor unions. The formation of labor unions is a great progress of our civilization. It is well known that there were no labor unions neither in the epoch of slavery or in the epoch of feudalism. They became a very important public means of the regulation of social relationship and marked the progress of mankind. During last decades the American labor unions have been confronted with a lot of serious problems, which have led to substantial decline of their influence and importance. In the middle of the last century labor unions included almost half of the working population. Moreover there was a special department in the US Department of Labor, which took stock of strikes. Now labor unions comprise only small part of American workers and only some part of those workers are the employees occupied in private sector. The main reason is a shift, which took place in the relationship between employers and workers. For centuries labor unions struggled for good conditions for employees. In contemporary world employees are in competition with each other in order to get a better job. American corporations long ago realized that it is more efficient to hire purposeful, responsible, and interested in their job people. Accordingly people, who get a job today, automatically receive all those privileges labor unions had struggled for. Moreover, many corporations give their workers a possibility to become co-owners, offering them an opportunity to get low price stocks of the own enterprises. Thereby membership in labor unions for many Americans became senseless. As a matter of fact labor unions cannot find their place in the new system of labor relationship. In the course of time fundamental economic changes had happened in the country. The traditional heavy industry, a stronghold of labor unions, gradually becomes the thing of the past. According to Turner, ‘if unions can not hold their own and adapt to changing circumstances in the core industrial work force, the traditional bastion of labor strength, it is difficult to imagine that national prospects for unions elsewhere can be promising1’. Labor unions also have not been taken in the extremely developing industry of high technologies, and have not been widely accepted in the services sphere. So we can agree with the statement of Robert Baldwin, who claims that one of the factors that contribute to weakling of labor unions is ‘unskilled labor-displacing nature of new technology, including outsourcing2’. Notwithstanding it is wrong to say, that labor unions are doomed. One can hardly find an example of a democratic society, which does not have labor unions in its structure. American labor unions now are trying to take their own place in the new national economy. John Sweeney, the President of American Federation of Labor — Congress of Industrial Organizations, claimed that Georges Bushs administration carries out the worst labor unions policy in modern history. He stated that ‘in the face of the most anti-worker Administration in decades, America’s workers are struggling to get a leg up in this economy - - and many are trying to form unions3’ Let us consider the example of Northwest Airlines. In 2005 for the first time almost for a quarter of a century in the main headings in the American press there was a word "strike". The company urged on by the competition with inexpensive young airline companies, wishing to save 176 million dollars, wanted to dismiss a part of the personnel. There have been almost 4.5 thousand workers of Northwest Airlines striking. By the threat of flights cancellation employees have been trying to achieve the fulfillment of the term of the contract by the leadership of the company the work in. However management has fought labor union back. It had prepared the replacement of striking employees in advance and has declared that the company would continue to carry out all the planned flights. The labor union of aircraft mechanics has not made concessions to the company. Negotiations have been deadlocked. The leadership of labor union has suggested people to stop work and to start striking. On the one hand, the management of company has reproached union with misunderstanding a real state of affairs after the events on September 11th. The press secretary of Northwest Airlines, Andrea Newman, pointed out that to dismiss a part of the personnel would be more preferable, than to make all company to become a bankrupt. On the other hand, employees must have the right to protect their labor rights. Anyway the attention, that this strike has attracted, testifies that trade unions still keep some influence. The reduction of number of labor unions, which have been observed in last 40 years in the USA, can be explained by number of factors. The development of new technologies and transfer of manufactures abroad noticeably reduced the number of the workers occupied in industry. Industrial workers traditionally constituted the majority in the American labor unions. Besides, during last decades ‘more and more women and teenagers are working and their incomes tend to be a familys second income, they have a proclivity towards accepting lower wages, thus defeating the purpose of organized labor’4. So they do not show solidarity with requirements of labor unions and agree to work on the conditions dictated by employers. Many republicans and economists really consider that labor unions stand in a way of the development of US economy, as they defend for increase in salaries and various privileges for employees that inevitably raise industrial costs. Such activity of labor unions quite often leads to the complexities in searching strategic investors. An investor, especially on purchasing the enterprise having some financial difficulties, is obliged to consider the necessity of additional expenses for social guarantees for the members of labor union working at this enterprise. Moreover, labor unions quite often limit top-managers in their decision-making. Still a lot of specialists are sure that labor unions are the only chance for working America to hold corporations accountable. As Nelson Lichtenstein correctly mentioned, the history of social regulation in the industrial countries unambiguously shows: regular and, what is even more important, organized pressure upon the employer is necessary to animate the rights, which have been written down in the labor laws5. Social and economic efficiency is a classical unity and conflict of opposites at the same time: one means and at the same time contradicts another. That is why the question of vital importance is to find a balance. Work cited: Baldwin, Robert E. The Decline of Us Labor Unions and the Role of Trade: the role of international trade . Institute for, 2003. "History of Labor Unions." The Social Study Help Center. 2006. var sc_project=1227444. 26 Feb. 2007 . Lichtenstein, Nelson. State of the Union: A Century of American Labor.Princeton, 2002. "Remarks by AFL-CIO President John Sweeney at Labor Day Reporter Roundtable." AFL-CIO. 28 Aug. 2003. 26 Feb. 2007 . Turner, Lowell. Democracy at Work: changing world markets and the future of labor unions. Cornell University Press, 1991 Read More