Labor Unions Must Fight Globalization or Become Extinct Essay

Unionism is the concept that traditionally business, especially big businesses are inherently going to exploit their employees. Therefore, in order to protect themselves, the workers form organizations called unions, in which all laborers who work at a certain craft, or in a certain industry band together. By this process of “joining forces”, the unions gain power in numbers. Unions traditionally try to protect employee interests by negotiating with employers for wages and benefits, working hours, and better working conditions.

As everything in this world has both positive and negative sides, labor unions are not an exception. There are workers who support them and only want to be union members and others who are completely against them. I believe it depends on your profession, the company you work for and the state you live in. We base our decisions on what is better for us in a particular situation. A friend of mine is a nurse in one of Brooklyn’s Community Hospitals belonging to 1199SEIU union. On my question if she would rather be a member of a union or not, she stopped whatever she was doing, looked at me and said: “It is like having a private spa in your apartment and never going there.” Her analogy was rather vivid and made me realize it is actually worth it to be a union member.

     Labor unions have been in America for a very long time. There are many unions in a myriad of different fields. Labor unions were and are used to allow for equal treatment of workers. Employers always want to maximize their profits and they try to give the least to get the most in return. For reasons such as this is why unions were formed. Generally a union boss is appointed or hired to protect the rights and privileges of the employees. The union boss is generally very representative of the demographics of the workers. The leader of the employees needs to know what they want and what is fair for them and this is why he tends to represent one type

The United States has a population of 300,000,000 (16+), and only about 190,000,000 people are involved in the workforce. This means that 63% of the citizens are involved with the workforce, and 37% are not. Of the active workforce, only 78% of the workers have at least a high school degree, and only 50% have a college degree. The average worker makes $51,759 on a yearly basis. Based on your degree you will make more or less. The younger part of the workforce has had less productivity in comparison to the older part of the workforce. The younger part has not yet learned how to effectively use time, and resources, while the older part has had a lot of experience. Overall, the workforce is pretty productive. The tables have really turned for the unionized vs nonunionized workers. In 2010 there were 60% of workers involved with the union, and 40% that were not involved with the union. In 2015, there were only 40% of workers involved with the union, and the other 60% were not involved. This is a huge difference in the just the time span of 5 years. The union has had some problems in the past couple years, which have caused the number of unionized workers to drop.

In the 1900s - 1940s the federal government enacted many new policies and acts that caused the growth of their power. In this time, the expansion of the government's power proved to be more beneficial than harmful to the majority of American lives.

The formation of unions has been around since the early 20th Century with the boom of the

Author Colin Gordon takes a look into the early 20th century at the influences and defining factors of the New Deal developed in the 1930’s. His take on American businesses and labor forces before, during and after the New Deal are at the core of his argument that the relationship between business and politics is inescapably the “central landmark of modern U.S political economy.” (1). Gordon investigates the individual aspects of the political economy of the United States which are a product of the decentralized federal system. The nature of that system creates instability in the political economy due to multiple centers of power.

The labor movement began during the industrial revolution and exists because of worker-employer relationships and working conditions, thus providing the landscape for labor power (Mahutga). Labor power can be broken down into associational power and structural bargaining power. Mahutga’s Lecture on Globalization and Labor builds on Beverly Sliver 's argument on the Forces of Labor and Tamara Kay 's argument on Labor Transnationalism and Global Governance about what Labor market power and Labor Transnationalism mean as regards labor on a global scale (Mahutga, Kay). Is it creating better standards for the working and living conditions of workers? Associational power results in collective workers ' ability to unionize and organize to present one opposing voice. Structural bargaining power results from the workers ' place in the economic system,

Another key point in the decline of labor movement is Globalization. According to studies, there are two ways in which globalization can cause a decline in labor movement. The first issue is the growing proportion of workers who would be in constant competition with semi peripheral labor. (Clawson & Clawson, 1999). And lastly, is the “the state's ability to manage its share of the world economy declines, movements that rely on state power suffer as well" (Clawson & Clawson, 1999). These are all key reason as to why labor movement is in decline or going through a decline.

Neo-Liberalism capitalism has manifested itself as the main ideological thinking of the 1980s through 1990s and has drastically reshaped the cultures that its policies affect. According to David Graeber, neoliberalism as a political and economic theory is broken into three main components: governmental deregulation of the economy that leads to privatization, liberalization of trade and industry, and reduction of governmental social welfare programs (Graeber, 2009, p. 81). While neoliberal Capitalism can be seen as strictly an economic therapy that can alleviate economic crisis, it has drastically affected many aspects of American culture as well as all other global cultures involved in its policies. Through David Graeber’s theory on the bureaucratization

Neoliberal globalisation is therefore the global expansion of neoliberal economic theory; this has resulted in the formation of a global economic system which operates with oversight from neoliberal economic institutions such as the International Monetary Fund and

In an article entitled “Resisting and reshaping destructive development: social movements and globalizing networks”, P. Routledge describes neoliberal development, “Contemporary economic development is guided by the economic principles of neoliberalism and popularly termed ‘globalization’. The fundamental principal of this doctrine is ‘economic liberty’ for the powerful, that is that an economy must be free from the social and political ‘impediments,’ ‘fetters’, and ‘restrictions’ placed upon it by states trying to regulate in the name of the public interest. These ‘impediments’ - which include national economic regulations, social programs, and class compromises (i.e. national bargaining agreements between employers and trade unions,

Instead of immigrants, the neoliberal structure of the US economy is the main culprit of the current employment tensions and low-skilled labor supply surplus. Neoliberalism refers to the ideological practices and political-economic structures that serve the corporate instead of public interest (23 Harvey). Specifically, it advocates steps of privatization, financialization, the management and manipulation of crisis, and state redistributions benefit the corporate power. Nevertheless, different from the traditional capitalism defined by either Adam Smith or Keynes, it emphasizes more on the systematic involvement of the government to support their local and oversea interests (Harvey). In result, it possesses a strange but unique phenomenon not predicted by many scholars—the inability to upgrade the labor to meet the demand of supply. Neoliberalism promotes the large outflow of capital oversea, especially those that are best characterized by labor-intensive industries. These industries usually require minimal amount of training and generate mass employment. On the other hand, the high-ended technological and innovative capital, best characterized by capital-intensive industries, remained domestic. These industries often demand a great amount of skill and training, whose cost are very high, but provide only limited employment. In these cases,

Anti-union sentiment is increasingly pervading American culture. In fact, one critic says, “The United States in now on the verge of a risky experiment: to become the first parliamentary democracy in modern world history without a substantial trade union movement” (Lichtenstein 66). In addition to weakening bargaining power, the judicial system allows workers to resign in the midst of a strike and scab on coworkers. A huge

The fact that working environments in the contemporary society are very different from how they were in the first part of the twentieth century means that many of the previously mentioned points are not relevant today. The National Labor Relations Act failed to address a series of ideas such as global competition occurring in the present and this means that unions can actually suffer as long as systems like the unfair labor practices dominates thinking in individuals discussing solutions to improve conditions for workers across the country. Employers now have more power than they did before and it is difficult for unions to continue to maintain their position as long as they are not willing to accept that they need to