How unions benefit employees - Term Paper Example

Unions are there to make life better for workers, although they as well offer advantages to companies (Yates, 2009). A key benefit that union workers have over their non-union counterparts is compensation. Within a non-union place of dealings, earnings and other compensation are resolved confidentially. There is no assurance that two individuals working on the same post - with the similar qualifications - get the same income and other compensation. A labor union, on the other hand, guarantees that all salaries and compensation are written into the union's agreement.

Unions increase salaries of unionized employees by more or less 21 percent and increase compensation, together with both earnings plus other benefits, by more or less 30 percent. Each worker is treated without any prejudice within a union workplace. Preferential treatment does not play a part in who is promoted or what income raise is given. The union agreement indicates when increase in salary takes place, and with how much experience the corporation qualifies the employee for a promotion. Everyone is dependent on the similar guiding principle and job tasks.

“Unions reduce wage inequality because they raise wages more for low- and middle-wage workers than for higher-wage workers, more for blue-collar than for white-collar workers, and more for workers who do not have a college degree. Another main advantage of union membership for employees is that seniority is privileged. Within a company, that does not have union representation; the qualifications for a promotion are mostly subjective. In a union, the qualifications for promotion are generally supported by seniority.

The level of seniority that is required is spelled out in the union contract. Thus, loyalty is rewarded over a person's subjective opinion of the qualifications of candidates applying for a promotion” (Dray, 2010). Guiding principles within union companies are regular. A company with no union representation can frequently modify its anticipations of employees without notice. In a union organization, these tasks are exclusively established beforehand. This helps both companies as well as workers.

Staff has the benefit of more uniformity since they are acquainted with what is expected from them. Employers gain from a more satisfied workers and a reduced amount of time spent on training to implement continuous alterations. Union workers do not have to talk for their own benefit. Instead, union spokespersons talk in support of the whole group. This guarantees impartial dealings with the worker and protects against prejudice within the place of work. An employee can get a better position in discussions when he is united with a mass of workers.

Without any help or support, he has little advantage to discuss about raise in salary or enhanced working circumstances. The most extensive benefit for unionized employees is in fringe benefits. “Unionized personnel are more likely to get paid leave as compared to their nonunionized counterparts, are more or less 20 percent to 30 percent more expected to have ‘employer offered’ health insurance, and are 25 percent to 57 percent more likely to be in ‘employer offered’ retirement fund plans” (Mauer, 2001).

Unionized employees get more liberal health care advantages as compared to nonunionized employees. They as well pay 19 percent lesser health care deductibles in addition to a lesser share of the