How do unions work? How did they get in power and give us rights?
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If your employer wanted to lower your pay you can accept or you can quit. If you’re an average worker there you quitting will have minimal impact.
If your employer wanted to lower your pay, but that would make you *and all of the other workers* quit, that would be very disruptive and lead to losses in sales, productivity, customer satisfaction, etc.
In the first example you are on your own. In the second example the work force united behind you. You are benefiting from their union.
Unions give leverage to regular workers against the company. This situation leads to companies trying to stop unions from forming and regular workers voting for politicians who strengthen these rights.
Unions can form when more than half of a work force agrees to unionize and there are firms that specialize in creating unions out of work forces.
There are some tricks to breaking/making unions. Anti Union efforts that had success are “right to work” labor laws. People read the title and assume it expands their rights when it doesn’t. It makes Union dues voluntary which has the effect of financially crippling a Union. They have less resources, they perform worse, more people opt out and repeate. This law also allows you the “freedom” to quit on the spot (you will not be rehired if you do this but you can). This also allows an employer to terminate *you* on the spot for any non protected reason (race=no, don’t like you = yes). Pro-union efforts have been changes to expand what a legal Union is. Instead of 50% of all employees a sub group (like maintenance) can unionize with 50% of that group agreeing.
So a union has the leverage to *ask* for better wages, healthcare or working conditions. They also pool resources to know *what* to ask for, *how much* to ask for and *how to respond* in these negotiations.
All of this doesn’t mean all unions are good. They are as susceptible to incompitance and corruption as anything else.
To add what little knowledge I have to the subject unions have varying degrees of success and effectiveness as well. Wonder why it’s so hard to fire a police officer? Union.
Serious question here. I’ve known family friends who have worked in a few shipyards here for years and some of them hate “union workers”. What’s the downsides of a union??
I read this as “How do unicorns work?” and I started to question reality.
At first I read this as “How do onions work? And how did they get in powder and give us rights?”
That said, I’m in a union and lots of good answers here.
Carry on.
No matter how tough and strong you think you are, you’re never as strong and as tough as you and a hundred of your friends.
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If you want to see how unions should work, take a look at [trade unions in Germany](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_unions_in_Germany). At their core, unions are supposed to be an organization of the workers who collectively bargain with the company, companies, or among themselves in the case of independent trade unions, to set pay structures and compensation, as well as establish working standards and treatment.
I suggest looking at the Germany trade unions because the relationship between unions and corporations in the US has always been very combative whereas the relationship between unions and corporations in Germany has been very cooperative, to the point where union representatives sit on the board of directors for many companies. I think the closest unions/corporations in the States have gotten to that level of cooperation was during the airline downturn after 9/11.
I just came here to say that I read the title as **How do Unicorns Work?** Says something about my state of mind before the holidays…
I went from walmart (infamously nonunion, managers are trained to squash any union like talk, etc) where I was always just 2 rungs under the store manager, to fred meyer/Kroger (which is union), and let me tell you, I dont miss walmart one bit, some of the people, sure. And dont get me wrong there are growing pains, but, overall, it’s a much more relaxed atmosphere
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