Critical Thinking
Labour Unions came to the United States almost as last as the nineteenth century, while they were already gaining popularity in Europe as a result of the industrial revolution of the late eighteenth to mid nineteenth century. There was a growing need for labour unions and spokes persons for the labour force as industrialisation set in. Labour Unions in the United States have come a long way since then and become a force to reckon with. There is however a constant debate on the advantages and disadvantages of being a Union member and employing a member of the Union from the organization’s point of view. Julianne Treme, in her thesis, “Union Wage Advantage: Myth or Reality?” evaluates this conflict by conducting experiments on two different kind of groups to elucidate the same.
According to Ms. Treme, “perceived union wage advantage is generally a myth” (Treme). She concludes based on two models of interviews and research between two different classes of the working population not limited by race but more by qualifications and skill sets and their position of work and size of the organization that they work in. She does not however exclude the fact that wage decrease also comes with many long-term fringe benefits, which are important to some people. In this article we will examine the research conducted by Ms. Treme against the current economic condition in the World in general and United States in particular.
Let us examine Ms Treme’s findings from the standpoint of her thesis statement and evaluate under the individual models of experimentation. According to her first Model
The tenure variable showed that for every year workers were at their job their wages increased by three percent. If the respondent lived in a large city their wages were 20 percent higher than respondents in rural areas were. If the respondent had health limitations their wages were decreased by 32 percent. (Treme)
The respondents here were alike with respect to employment status, and from similar strata of society. The only difference between the two groups was their labour Union status. Some were members of the Union while others were not part of any labour union. The research done was quite thorough as it had a mix of people from different races, communities, skill sets and different demographics. Though not stated we will assume that they were workers from both public and private sectors, as we know that public sector laws insist on labour unions. Therefore it may not be far from accurate to assume that those that were not labour members were all private sector workers. The results obtained shows that wage differences were dependent on tenure of work, place and health limitations and not on labour Union status. We have to acknowledge the fact that the research done by Ms. Treme was under different economic conditions. Recent reports show that public sector pay scales have shown remarkable rise when compared to Private sector. The reasons as reported in the Guardian are proof and explanation enough. According to Brendan Barber’s report the public sector has enjoyed a higher pay in the last 30 years,
This is because public sector workers tend to be more highly skilled doing jobs like teaching and health care. Outsourcing and the privatisation of less skilled jobs like cleaning has made this difference starker. Women get a better deal in the public sector too, with less of a gender pay gap. (Kollewe, 2011)
Therefore the three percent wage rate that relates to the tenure of the worker is not a constant.
The wage increase per year has been shown to be over 7% and almost a 0.8% higher than in the private sector. The percentage increase shown above is not comparable to the current financial and economic climate. Ms. Treme’s findings are however accurate in identifying specific areas where wage increase was evident.
Power of Unions
Ms. Treme’s article focuses on the wage increase or decrease effected by Unions while not disputing the fact that the role of the Union is much more than just in relation to wages of its members. However we have to, in consideration of the current financial climate,
assert that it is inaccurate to look at the role of Unions in any other way than as protection of its members. If we view the results on a modern context, that is, under the current financial crisis in the United States, it would seem more prudent to be a union member as it has more job security as against one in a private sector with a higher pay but no job security. There are more chances of a person laid off in the public sector taking home a more secure if not substantial severance package. A Union wage earner also has long-term benefits and retirement plans already set for them. Like Adam Ozimek argues in the article, “The power of Public sector Unions”, wage decrease or increase cannot be mistaken or compared to the bargaining power of the Union Sector (2010).
Union’s effect on all workers
In order to prove that Ms. Treme’s view of Unions is limited and that this research cannot be limited and concluded only in relation to wages, we have to examine the effect that Unions have on Non-unionized workers. “Unionized workers also provide a counterbalance on unchecked CEO greed and promote greater income equality.” (SEIU.org). This point has been proved true in most sectors. Because of the minimum wage set by Unions for its members, workers who are in non-unionized sectors of partly Unionized organizations get paid 5% higher wages. Ms. Treme could have seen the wage increase in some non-union members because of this factor.
Unions reduce if not completely eliminate wage inequality based on colour, race and gender. Unions also provide protection and assure employability of people who fall under the lower skilled categories. Employees of Union organizations enjoyed better health benefits, paid holidays, medical and had knowledge of unemployment insurances and worker’s compensation. Unions in these cases acted as the intermediary between the workers and the employers and helped in employees gaining these benefits.
Non-union members also benefit from these standards set by the Union as the organizations are more informed and more inclined to keep to certain standards. Mishel et al, refer to this as the “Union threat effect,” because employers tend to pay non-union members more in order to keep that particular section of the company from Unionization. (2003). While we cannot use this argument to universally state that employees of Unionized companies benefit more than those in completely non-unionized companies, we can assume that Union demands set a standard for employees to bargain on. Reports also show that employees of completely non-unionized organizations most often were unaware of various protective measures that should have been awarded to them by their companies. One of the main disadvantages of a non-union company was non-availability of any information on severance package standards and unemployment insurance. These two factors are very important when considering our current economic climate.
Conclusion
Based on the above understanding of the subject and the research by Ms. Treme, we can see that Union workers see advantages over various factors and benefit from many long term plans. Union members have seen remarkably higher wage over certain periods of time. Unions have the power to negotiate and assure long term benefits and job security during financially trying times which may not be relative to increase in wages. We have also seen that non-union workers benefit from Unionized organizations. There is evidence to show that during trying economic times, union members have enjoyed higher wage benefits that can be measured in terms of tenure and skill. In economically trying times we have always seen that public sector companies have more staying power than private sector companies. This in turn relates directly to workers in the public sector and under unions.
Considering the above, while not completely refuting Ms. Treme’s findings but by broadening the research area, we can conclude that Union Workers ultimately have the advantage of a wage increase and that it is not a myth.
Works Cited
Julia Kollewe. “Public-private pay gap widest in 10 years”. Guardian.co.uk. July 5, 2011,
March 23. 2012. http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2011/jul/05/public-private-pay-gap-
widens
Adam. Ozimek. “The power of public sector unions”. August 9th 2010. March 23, 2012.
modeledbehavior.com/2010/08/09/the-power-of-public-sector-unions/
Lawrence Mishel and Mathew Walters. “How Unions Help all workers”. Economic Policy
Institute. August 26, 2003. March 23, 2012.
epi.org/publication/briefingpapers_bp143/
Julianne Treme. “Union Wage Advantage: Myth or Reality?”
