The labor movement has been in decline for years, but that doesn’t mean that unions don’t still have alot of influence. In fact, there’s reason to believe they may even be on the rebound. We’ve been seeing quite a few signs of life recently.
I don’t think too many people would disagree that labor unions have made some positive contributions over the years. There was a time when rapid industrialization forced unskilled workers to labor long hours in crowded, unsanitary conditions. Unions helped to correct many of those problems using their most powerful tool – collective bargaining.
Union influence has been steadily declining since its initial successes though. To be effective, labor unions rely on their ability to negotiate on behalf of a larger group of workers. That’s hard to do when membership rates fall year after year. In just more than 20 years, the percentage of employed wage and salary workers who were union members fell by almost 50% – from 20.1% in 1983 to just 12.0% in 2006.
Paralleling this decline has been a change in focus away from the folks they represent and toward the realm of politics. Here in Oregon, for example, SEIU Local 503 was the second-highest spender on lobbying among non-governmental entities in 2005. What union leaders don’t seem to get is that when they stop focusing on change in the workplace and start trying to influence politics generally, they eliminate any incentive for workers to join.
The unions have come up with other means of attracting new members though (and keeping the old ones for that matter): political favors. A good example came up just this past week in Salem. A new piece of legislation, House Bill 3273, attempted to empower state weighmasters (the people who make sure heavy trucks are complying with state regulations) to use police warnings lights and sirens to make traffic stops on Oregon roadways.
The bill should have been dead from the start, particularly in light of the horrific death of a Marion County Deputy in a car crash just last week. The officer killed was on his way to assist another agency, with lights on and sirens blazing. Somewhere along the way though, he crashed head on with an oncoming vehicle. If even a seven year police veteran – someone who was highly trained and who routinely engaged in high speed pursuits along Oregon roadways – could become involved in a serious car accident, then asking virtually untrained and inexperienced truck weighmasters to play police would just be inviting other highway deaths.
The bill survived though, thanks mostly to strong support from the SEIU Local 503. The bill doesn’t seem to relate very well to SEIU’s stated purpose of “winning better wages, health care, and more secure jobs for our communities.” Why then would they support such a bill? Well, your guess is as good as mine, but I’d point out that Motor Carrier weighmasters are all SEIU Local 503 members. A little political favor giving them legal authority to play cops and robbers on Oregon roads might go a long ways in keeping union dues flowing in. Lucky for you and me, the bill was finally tabled.
There’s not just cause for alarm here in Oregon though – unions at the national level are adopting new tactics too. The Senate will soon vote on a bill already passed by the Democratically controlled House that would do away with secret ballots on votes to unionize. The idea sounds innocent enough, until you picture how hard it would be to vote your conscience with a union enforcer standing over your shoulder. Just imagine this:
Unions may be a good thing for the country. In representing their members though, they should remember why they came about in the first place. They’d do much better to focus on improving individual workplaces, and stay out of the halls of Congress and State Legislatures – though those places could use some improvement too.
Um, you are a bit off here. The bill would do away with formal voting on unionization all together. It would go back to the good old days, when a working person would simply decide to sign or not sign a union card. If a union signs up more then 50% of the workers, then the union has been approved. No more voting. The signing of a union card is your vote. It’s a good bill and I hope it gets signed into law.
The way it works now, the employers hold all the cards. What they do is fire anyone they think is pro-union before the vote. I know several people who have been fired from jobs because their employer figured them to be ready to vote the union in.
Thanks for the comment ClapSo. You’re right, the bill does operate by eliminating the voting process. The unionization decision would then be made solely on the basis of the union cards.
As I eluded to in my post, I see several problems with that. First, union cards are often rashly signed by employees upset by a routine management decision. They sign the card as a negotiating tool, sometimes not having really considered the costs of actually joining a union. An up-or-down vote gives them a chance to think about all the pros and cons.
Second, and I think even more troublesome, union cards are not anonymous. Union bosses are able to monitor who has, and who hasn’t, showed their “support” for the union. My experience has been that folks who haven’t signed the card often get a bit more attention from union members. That “attention” isn’t always positive, and in some cases people are coerced into expressing their “support.”
An anonymous up-or-down vote is the only means of guaranteeing that employees as a whole really do want to form a union. I’m disappointed that Democrats are trying to eliminate a fair, up-or-down vote for these decisions – but I’m not entirely surprised. After all, unions are often one of their main sources for campaign cash and volunteers.