Seriously, I’ve heard so many people cheer on union but when I search up what it is I don’t understand it in the slightest bit.
Please, explain like I’m five.
In: 7
It is strength in numbers.
If workers want higher pay or better benefits or better safety conditions or be treated more humanely, they can go to their boss.
If a single worker goes to the boss and ask for more or better working conditions, the boss can fire them or tell them to leave if they don’t like the job.
If all the workers get together and go to the boss as a single group they can say, change this or we will all leave.
The boss can easily stomach the loss of a single worker, but if all the workers threaten to stop working together he has fewer choices.
Basically if workers unionize they can negotiate with their employers as a single block. This give them power and the ability to negotiate for higher pay, more time off and better safety and health rules.
OF course employers don’t like having to pay workers money and thus hate unions and would like to stop their employees forming unions.
In the past those conflicts have escalate to outright violence, with mine and factory owners employing police, Pinkertons and the national guard to kill and beat workers who unionized against them.
Those days are mostly in the past in the US though. The bosses won and this is why unions in the US have a bad reputation and workers in the US have far fewer rights than their counterparts in places like Europe.
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