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Unions....Love 'em or hate 'em....if it wasn't for Unions, everybody would be working for free with no benefits and pensions would be destroyed.

Unions Are Good for the American Economy

The essence of what labor unions do—give workers a stronger voice so that they can get a fair share of the economic growth they help create—is and has always been important to making the economy work for all Americans. And unions only become more important as the economy worsens.

One of the primarily reasons why our current recession endures is that workers do not have the purchasing power they need to drive our economy. Even when times were relatively good, workers were getting squeezed. Income for the median working age household fell by about $2,000 between 2000 and 2007, and it could fall even further as the economy continues to decline. Consumer activity accounts for roughly 70 percent of our nation’s economy, and for a while workers were able to use debt to sustain their consumption. Yet debt-driven consumption is not sustainable, as we are plainly seeing.

What is sustainable is an economy where workers are adequately rewarded and have the income they need to purchase goods. This is where unions come in.

Unions paved the way to the middle class for millions of American workers and pioneered benefits such as paid health care and pensions along the way. Even today, union workers earn significantly more on average than their non-union counterparts, and union employers are more likely to provide benefits. And non-union workers—particularly in highly unionized industries—receive financial benefits from employers who increase wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.

Unfortunately, declining unionization rates mean that workers are less likely to receive good wages and be rewarded for their increases in productivity. The Employee Free Choice Act, which is likely to be one of the most important issues debated by the 111th Congress, holds the promise of boosting unionization rates and improving millions of Americans’ economic standing and workplace conditions.



Unions help workers achieve higher wages
Union members in the United States earn significantly more than non-union workers. Over the four-year period between 2004 and 2007, unionized workers’ wages were on average 11.3 percent higher than non-union workers with similar characteristics. That means that, all else equal, American workers that join a union will earn 11.3 percent more—or $2.26 more per hour in 2008 dollars—than their otherwise identical non-union counterparts.

Yet union coverage rates have been declining for several decades. In 1983, 23.3 percent of American workers were either members of a union or represented by a union at their workplace. By 2008, that portion declined to 13.7 percent.


American workers’ wage growth lags as productivity increases
Workers helped the economy grow during this time period by becoming ever more productive, but they received only a small share of the new wealth they helped create. Throughout the middle part of the 20th century—a period when unions were stronger—American workers generated economic growth by increasing their productivity, and they were rewarded with higher wages. But this link between greater productivity and higher wages has broken down.

Prior to the 1980s, productivity gains and workers’ wages moved in tandem: as workers produced more per hour, they saw a commensurate increase in their earnings. Yet wages and productivity growth have decoupled since the late 1970s. Looking from 1980 to 2008, nationwide worker productivity grew by 75.0 percent, while workers’ inflation-adjusted average wages increased by only 22.6 percent, which means that workers were compensated for only 30.2 percent of their productivity gains.

The cost of benefits—especially health insurance—has increased over time and now accounts for a greater share of total compensation than in the past, but this increase is nowhere near enough to account for the discrepancy between wage and productiv¬ity growth. For example, according to analysis by the Center for Economic and Policy Research, between 1973 and 2006 the share of labor compensation in the form of benefits rose from 12.6 percent to 19.5 percent.

If American workers were rewarded for 100 percent of their increases in labor productivity between 1980 and 2008—as they were during the middle part of the 20th century—average wages would be $28.53 per hour—42.7 percent higher than the average real wage in 2008.

Unionization rewards workers for productivity growth
Slow wage growth has squeezed the middle class and contributed to rising inequality. But increasing union coverage rates could likely reverse these trends as more Americans would benefit from the union wage premium and receive higher wages. If unionization rates were the same now as they were in 1983 and the current union wage premium remained constant, new union workers would earn an estimated $49.0 billion more in wages and salaries per year. If union coverage rates increased by just 5 percentage points over current levels, newly unionized workers would earn an estimated $25.5 billion more in wages and salaries per year. Non-union workers would also benefit as employers would likely raise wages to match what unions would win in order to avoid unionization.

Increased unionization would boost Americans’ annual wages
Union employers are also significantly more likely to provide benefits to their employees. Union workers nationwide are 28.2 percent more likely to be covered by employer-provided health insurance and 53.9 percent more likely to have employer-provided pensions compared to workers with similar characteristics who were not in unions.

Tell the GOP to go suck a big one

Punk , I feel for you , I really do , but those horror stories are everywhere. Union print shop I saw a guy's fingers mangled on a slitter / coalator and another one's arm almost ripped off WITH a regulation , union approved tee shirt , by a print roller.

I lost half my right thumb due to slipping into unit #6 of a CI print drum .. 12 feet in the air.
Reason I slipped ? The hydraulc unit was pissing oil at the rate of 5 gal an hour and maint. was too busy to fix it.

That shit happens all over , union or no union . Unions HAVE BROUGHT MANY BENEFITS TO THE WORKPLACE , but , at what cost ? To be able to control political decisions that affect us all ? To be able to outpace the majority of the population ecconomicaly ?

If , like 35 yrs ago , more people were employed by unions than the private sector , we might not see some of the disparity in our own country. But that's just part of the whole problem.

I have the feeling today that people will take what they can get .. shame this country took 500 steps back.

If it wasn't for the assault against unions over the last 30 years by a certain side of the government, America's economy would be booming instead of collapsing. The situations in Wisconsin and Ohio only guarantee that if the anti-union crowd get their way, more Chinese people will be doing jobs that were once done by American's.

I just changed the brakes on my car yesterday and guess what, the rotors were made in China, the brake pads were made in Mexico, and the only part made in America were the pins. WTF? These parts used to be made by Americans in union jobs done for Americans. Now I have to pay higher prices for manufactured obsolescence courtesy of China and Mexico, so that the CEO's make huge profits while their sweatshop slave laborers make a bowl of rice? Thanks to union destroying politicians? That sux bigtime.

Education is also under attack in America, courtesy of the Right. In fact, it's one of the place's that has been taking the worst cuts. Go figure. Keep 'em "Dumb All Over".

The destruction of our unions is the worst kind of terrorism America has ever been subjected to. When Bush was president, it was like 450,000 9/11's happening every single month by the time he left office. That was the rate of jobs losses on his watch. Now The GOP leadership in Wisconsin and Ohio want to get back to those bad 'ol days, and for what? So CEO's can still sell us the same worthless manufactured obsolescence at the same inflated price without having to pay a sweatshop laborors in China or Mexico the same wages they used to pay Americans, without the benefits, without the pensions or the protections so many generations of Americans had sacrificed their blood for?

The Republicans are now showing us their ass. The Tea Party folks don't even realise that they've just sold themselves, and the rest of us out to the same people they call the "enemy". Dumbasses. The billionaire Koch brothers couldn't be happier with the results.

So what is it that YOU are doing to make your life better, other than whinning and hoping the gov. baby sits you.

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I'd say it's hyperbole to equate union-busting with terrorism. I would say it's certainly more mercantile than laissez-faire capitalism. Y'know the shiny neo-corporatism that's typified by hostile takeovers, Massey Energyu, Goldman-Sachs, BP and so on. You're right on with the rest of that though.



Yep. Saw a bunch of signs this weekend saying the teabaggers should learn to spell.
First, it might be better if they learned some math. Cuz, y'know.