Weakening Unions


Labor unions have been around since the late 1800s, and they have paved the way for workers who were treated unequally. They organized protests for higher wages, a shorter working period, and more. However, the number of unions has been declining since the 1960s, and this has had a considerable impact on American workers and the economy.

A recent report indicates that labor unions have a significant role in lessening the income inequality between the rich and the poor. Although the income inequality gap has been increasing since the 1970s, the time period between 1944 and 1977 was the "golden age of unions". All types of workers were receiving equal pay, and the reason behind this was that the workers had leverage over the companies. They could form groups to bargain and companies had to compromise during these times; otherwise, a strike would threaten the company's production and progress. Besides, a quarter of the work force was already in unions.

However, due to the changing economy and recent Supreme Court cases, the percentage of union workers has been reduced to around 10.7% and companies have more power over workers today. Technological advances have caused employers to seek employees who are well educated and are competent in their field, which has also caused the disparity in income to significantly increase in recent years. Now, it is harder to unionize and workers are struggling to receive equal pay.

https://portside.org/sites/default/files/styles/large/public/field/image/union-workers-8-27-2017.jpg?itok=mAI0Fy4H
https://www.nytimes.com/2018/07/06/business/labor-unions-income-inequality.html
https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/articles/2018-08-31/weakened-unions-explain-stagnant-wages

Comments

  1. AustinApril 19, 2019 at 2:57 PM

    Interesting post! The reason why I think worker unions are slowly disappearing is because of the division of employment, by that I mean people are being paid at drastically different wages because of what they do. The existence of high technology jobs and jobs that requires a certain amount of education over the past few decades has caused the workers unions unnecessary for these type of workers, since their labor is in demand, making their pay fair. This leaves those who rely on manual labor unable to form an union.

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