Chapter 10
LABOR UNIONS
A. THE RISE OF LABOR UNIONS
1. The rise was brought on by unsafe
conditions, long workdays, and poor
wages
2. There were no laws against child labor
3. Workday = 12 to 14 hours a day,
sometimes in deadly conditions
4. Sweatshops were commonplace - people
work long hours for very low pay
5. Labor unions were formed to improve
conditions since the 19th century
6. A labor union is an organization that
fights for workers’ rights, wages and
benefits in a specific industry
7. Management are the overseers of the
workers who are hired to keep costs
down, who, in turn produce as much as
possible in order to make a profit
8. 1st modern union = 1866 to 1872 =
National Labor Union (NLU) - fought
for 8 hr work day
LABOR UNIONS
B. PROS and CONS of UNIONS
1. Pros:
a) Provides an 8 hr wk day and 40 hr
work week
b) Overtime pay for more that 8 hrs a
day
c) health benefits including medical care
and compensation when hurt
d) vacation pay, sick pay, and time off for
baby or ill relative
e) Quality of work may be better than
non-unionized labor
2. Cons:
a) Many believe individual workers
can bargain with management
b) Production costs go up because of
demand for higher pay
c) Can divide and disrupt companies
d) Quality of work may not be as
good as non-unionized labor
C. DO YOU HAVE TO JOIN?
1. If your job is part of a union - you should join
2. Must pay union dues in order to receive benefits
- they support the union
3. In a union shop, new employees must join the
union after 60 or 90 days
4. In an agency shop, employees don’t have to join
but still pay dues
5. If your state has right-to-work laws, you don’t
have to join a union
6. 1947 – Taft-Hartley Act - outlawed closed shop
(union only workers) and allows for right-towork laws
D. UNIONS AND MANAGEMENT
1. Fringe benefits - health care, vacations, sick
days, etc – just what workers want
2. Management wants to keep workers’ “fringe”
benefits costs down
3. Both sides will meet through collective
bargaining – meeting to work out acceptable
agreements through compromise
4. If no agreement takes place, the union may
strike (call for a work stoppage)
5. Management may hire “scab” workers nonunion workers hired to take the place of
those on strike
6. Unions may call for boycotts - telling
consumers not to buy a company’s
products which could hurt the profits for
the company
7. Management may choose to lockout
employees – it will close its doors to
workers, which means they won’t get
paid!
8. Tactics could result in violence at the
work place!
9. Both sides could go to arbitration whatever the arbitrator decides, both
sides would come to an agreement
E. UNIONS TODAY
1. The number of people in unions has
in the past 20 years
decrease
2. Decreases have occurred (1) since there
are fewer jobs in an industry, (2) people don’t
believe unions are as strong, and (3)
Competition from foreign countries
3. Unions have agreed to either give up wage
increases for job security or have promised to
maintain workers benefits instead of trying to
increase them
F. AFL-CIO
1. The American Federation of Labor –
Congress of Industrial Organizations
2. Includes 70 unions and 13 million
members
3. AFL - skilled craft workers
4. CIO – unskilled assembly line workers
5. Joined together to try and improve
conditions for all forms of labor