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Lesson 5 - Union and Business Labor Strategy and Structure
Why Unions Matter
Thinking back to the four schools of thought from Chapter 2 of Budd, we see that each of the four schools takes a slightly different bend on the question of whether unions matter. For those who follow the industrial relations school of thought (the view that is most closely aligned to the US labor laws), unions are seen as critically important and the best method to equalize power and to solve the labor problem. For those who follow the HR school of thought unions are no longer needed due to the progress of HRM and employment laws. For those who follow the critical school of industrial relations, union are important, they matter, but they are not enough. Finally, for the neoliberal school of thought followers, the belief is that labor unions interfere with the effective functioning of the free market.
Economist Michael Yates, argues in Why Unions Matter, that unions are still important to equalize power between workers and their employers. He also presents evidence that suggests that unions help to solve the labor problem by increasing wages that otherwise stagnate and even decline when adjusted for inflation, protect workers in terms of safety and security and help to assure the human right to dignity for working people. According to a study by Western and Rosenfeld (2011), the decline in union density has led to a 20-33% of the increase in income inequality in the United States, leading to a level of inequality that has not existed in the US since the Great Depression. A 2015 study by Freeman, Han, Madland and Duke, concluded that unionization is a key to increasing upward mobility for the children on union workers as well as the children in areas where unions are strong. Morantz (2013) found that unions play an important role in increasing the safety for mineworkers.
From the standpoint of union workers, as discussed throughout Chapter 2 of Budd and as we see in the works mentioned above unions continue to play an important role in decreasing inequality, increasing upward social mobility, increasing workplace safety and assuring workers rights. As union density has declined and union power has decreased, Rosenfeld (2014) has shown that unions have become less able to drive these social level outcomes. However, if we believe that decreasing record levels of inequality in the U.S. (and globally), increasing upward mobility and protecting worker safety, dignity and wages and benefits are important goals, then there seems to be a strong case that unions do indeed still matter.
