My experience with people that have negative opinions about unions are that they have never been able to get into one or have been in one and are unable to appreciate the importance of the inner workings of such a structured working environment. Labor laws and Unions exist because business owners tend to exploit human resources as much as they can to benefit the profit margin of the business. A non union worker will only make as much money as the minimum wage that it costs to replace him/her and that worker will often do the work of 2 or more people ie. a machinist will run 2 or more machines instead of one. The so called “prevailing wage” is often the only support a non union worker can lean on to argue his/her deserved wage and most managers will scoff at it. A union worker will make as much money as the collective bargaining power of the union tell the owner what the worker is actually worth to his business and that worker will do only the work of one person. ie. run one machine at a time. Union shops are pro-worker and at the same time not anti-management. Non union shops will almost always cut corners and the first people to get negatively impacted are always the workers. Union shops enforce rules that prevent workers suffering from such management cost cutting measures. Don’t want a union in your business? Pay your workers what they’re worth TO your business and respect them as human beings not human drones.
This is ludicrous. For many of these unions, it means the union leadership is working on behalf of retirees — even if it is at the expense of current workers.
The United Steelworkers is a perfect example of this. I think they have something like eight retired members for every active worker. So when it comes time to negotiate labor agreements, the union is perfectly willing to have active workers getting paid peanuts with minimal benefits — as long as the big steel companies keep the pension funds solvent and the generous retirement benefits in place.
It’s a recipe for failure all around.
Unions also have lots of outside benefits, like financial palning, lawyers, representation at workplace hearings.