What Does It Mean To Be Selfish

Labor Unions: Aging Dinosaur or Sleeping Giant? The Labor Movement and Unionism Background and Brief History Higher wages! Shorter workdays! Better working conditions! These famous words echoed throughout the United States beginning in “1790 with the skilled craftsmen” (Dessler, 1997, p. 544). For the last two-hundred years, workers of all trades have been fighting for their rights and “seeking methods of improving their living standards, working conditions, and job security” (Boone, 1996,p.287). As time went by, these individuals came to the conclusion that if they work together collectively, they would grow stronger to get responses to their demands. This inspired into what we know today as labor unions. “A labor union

Despite being able to cause a small improvement in workers’ pay and hours, labor unions ultimately died out by the 1900s due to their methods. Unable to truly focus on the plight of skilled workers, most labor unions instead focused on that of unskilled workers, pushing aside the skilled workers. (Doc D). The actions of labor unions ended up being counterproductive, forcing companies to wage war against the labor unions. These stricter contracts such as that of Western Union Telegraph Company, forced workers to affiliate themselves against labor unions. (Doc E) One important thing to note is that the workers’ rights advocates were never able to coincide on one factor. As evidenced in an illustration in 1887, labor unions had to compete with other movements such as socialism, anarchism, and other labor unions. (Doc F). Because of this, the media, although recognizing the labor union movement, began viewing the labor unions as dangerous entities. Although the initial strikes such as the Wabash strike were successful, the ones that followed proved detrimental to the movement, and caused the steady decline of the labor unions. Because some of the strikes were dangerous, many strikes resulted in the deaths of those involved, such as the Homestead Crisis, and Pinkerton (Doc G). Combined with events such as the Wildcat strike, Haymarket strike, the Pullman Strike, the public began to associate a negative

You may think Labor Unions were bad and not a good idea because they got violent. The reason they got very violent was because nothing was being changed. They were still being treated badly and still were not earning enough money. At this point, they have fought for their rights for a long time and they were all tired of protesting.

Unions do provide a lot of good services to its members, such as higher wages, better hours, more benefits, and safer working conditions. There is a price to pay for these services, though. Every union requires its members to pay dues, whether they are in the form of a percentage of each paycheck, or a flat rate. The money form dues goes towards lobbying politicians to pass union-friendly legislation, or better labor laws. The money also finances officers in the union organization, who are the ones calling the shots, as far as labor negotiations are concerned.

First some disclosure about myself: my mother was a strong union member for General Motors for over 32 years where she held several different offices in the union. My stepfather was a member of the local iron workers union and then a member of the union at Tinker Field Airbase. When I got out of high school I worked at General Motors wishing I could join the union. Within a year of being out of school I hired on the fire department and joined their local union where I was a member for over 22 years. Needless to say I have a long history with labor unions and the benefits they provide. I know unions have done great things for our nation and have been a counterbalance to greedy companies that take advantage of

There is a proven history behind the efforts of labor union. Unions fought and succeeded in advancing the concerns of the work force as a whole. It is a testament to the efforts of labor union that even with the steady drop in membership labor unions are still able maintain safe work environment and provide good wages for members. This is impressive given that in the beginning it was the size of membership that gave the labor unions a most effective weapon in the form of a strike. Ultimately what is at stake here are our very livelihoods.

The labor relations movement has been one of the most successful driving forces behind such efforts as: providing aid to workers who were injured or retired, better health benefits and to stop the practice of child labor in the workforce. Ostensibly, unions in the United States arose out of the need to better protect the “common interests” of laborers. Today, many of the social movements and alliances forged are created under the guise to better protect the employer from a plethora of interests made against the organization, rather than, increasing wages, improving reasonable employment hours and/or enhancing work conditions.

The changes brought up labor unions in the United States over recent history has brought about a movement. This specific movement has shaped the way that employees and workers are treated in the workforce,and how they maintain their quality of life through this employment. Many people think that the labor unions’ influence has created a power struggle between management and union leaders. In many cases this can be considered true, as there have been countless feuds between management teams and labor unions, especially in recent history. In today’s times, on the one hand, some people believe the existence of unions are a necessity in order to ensure and promote employee freedom; while on the other hand some people view labor unions as just another problem in the line of employee success.

Unions are incentivized for mobilizing citizens to engage in politics. Some join unions to gain employment. Most union members do not have prior political experience. Once they become a member, this begins to change as the union will teach the members political skills. Unions attempt to change the political identities of their members. One way they do this is by exposing their members to pro-labor situations. (Kerrissey, J., & Schofer, E., 2013) Unions are a partisan interest group that is in cooperation with the Democratic Party. This is as a result of the fact that Democrats are pro-labor and labor is the most important part of a union.

Being a part of a working union comes with a lot of benefits, for example, most workers that belong to a union have a better set wage than those who do not. Also, “Some 93% of unionized workers were entitled to medical benefits compared to 69% of their nonunion peers” (The pros of Joining a Labor Union). Union workers are not easily fired, they have a lot

I too agree that unionization gave many workers a voice that they otherwise wouldn’t have had. We see this in other areas as well; protests, rioting, picketing, marches, sit-ins, demonstrations, etc. I think we all remember the Occupy movement, which was part of the Occupy Wall Street movement. This movement led to groups from around the country setting up camps (for lack of a better word) within well populated areas, all in an effort to bring attention to social and economic inequality. Again, the reason we all know about it is because of the number of people involved, otherwise the media wouldn’t have covered it and therefore, it wouldn’t have been know or effective.

Also, Workers don't usually engage with union politics. The labor movement is viewed as a subject of the Democratic Party and an advocate of liberal causes. And lastly, most citizens now turn to the government instead of unions, for basic protections. Civilians now rely on the government for healthcare, pensions, protection and many different varieties that were excluded from the unions. And, unless the unions find a way to change its decline, they run the danger of their membership falling into irrelevance. (Shmoop Editorial Team, 2008)

In an ironic twist of fate, the successes that unions had for workers rights, have contributed to their own demise. However, there are proponent’s who believe that unions are still needed in today. Pamela Prah quoted Robert Korstad, a history professor at Duke University who specializes in labor said, “Workers need unions today as much as they ever have, most workers want full-time jobs with health care, retirement and other benefits, but in today’s economy workers can often only find part-time work without benefits… Just for financial reasons alone, there are lots of arguments in support of unions” (713). Therefore, workers need to have a catalyst [unions] that will fight for its member’s rights.

Philosophers have debated for centuries the question “Are humans are selfish or selfless?” There are two main arguments for debating human nature, ethical egoists and ethical altruists. Ethical egoists believe that “even though we can act in others’ interests because we are concerned for others, we ought always to act in our own interest” (Solomon et al 2012 p. 460). Ethical altruists believe quite the opposite; ethical altruism is the belief that “people ought to act with each other’s interests in mind” (Solomon et al 2012 p. 461). In discussing the four theories, psychological egoism, psychological altruism, ethical egoism, and ethical altruism, with my husband, there was not a clear dividing line for whether humans are selfish or selfless in nature. After much debate, we concluded that humans are born ethical egoists; however, ethical altruists are made through proper training, care, and nurture.

Most of us assume that selfishness is both wrong and unhealthy. But is this true?