Labor Unionization Pros And Cons

Within the American, Labor unions are beneficial to its people because they help maintain the middle class, raise living and working standards, and help keep the balance between workers and companies.

1.Background

“Beginning with the workingmen’s parties of the 1830s, the advocates of equal rights mounted a series of reform efforts that spanned the nineteenth century. Most notable were the National Labor Union, launched in 1866, and the Knights of Labor, which reached its zenith in the mid-1880s.” (History.com Staff) Although it these labor organizations were very unorganized, they helped workers around the country to work together to reform society to give them a longer work day, have the abolition of child labor within the factories,
This argument is untrue. When companies pay workers a higher salary, it raises worker morale so they want to work better and are more enthusiastic about benefits instead of having to be in a factory with long work hours and very little pay that they can hardly live on. “Unions raise the wages of their members in the lowest and second-lowest fifths of the income distribution by 27.9 percent and 16.2 percent, respectively. The advantages of unionization are even greater in overall compensation (wages and benefits), with union workers receiving 33.8 percent more than nonunion workers.” (Shulman) Increased wages means an increased number of products that are able to be bought by the public because they can actually afford them. People against labor unions also disagree with the fixed wages labor unions have, especially in education. Fixed prices mean that really good teacher are paid the same as the lazy teachers who probably shouldn't be teaching in the first place. They argue that if the teachers are paid the same, they would have no incentive to do their job right. This might be true on some occasions but not always. It’s hard to determine if a teacher is doing a good job professionally and it would take a lot of time in order to argue for a higher wage. Finally, there is also the argument that labor unions get in the way of business. They send too much time negotiating for things that don't really matter and halting the flow of the company. Business can't get anything done if unions refuse to cooperate with them. This can be said about almost all things in government. No system acts perfectly and its impossible to make everyone agree. Labor unions and companies need to work together to help everyone