Why we need unions

The following links and downloads were contributed by UALE email list members in response to a request for good articles about "why we need unions and how they help everyone".
 

  • from Ethan Snow (via Susan Winning): "I wanted to offer this article from the New Yorker as a more "up-to-date" glimpse at the general picture of the labor movement and the opposition it faces."

Union Blues by Hendrik Hertzberg, Mar 7, 2011
 

  • from Ruth Needleman: "I am with a big group of CWA staff and they suggested showing 'At the River I Stand'  which is not a reading but it does the trick!"
     
  • Steve Schnapp suggests an activity: "To accompany the article, hand out blank sheets of paper to participants (construction paper works best). Ask folks to take one sheet for themselves and another for each member of their household. Ask folks to write in large letters “worker” on their sheet, and “family” or “daughter” or “partner” etc, on each of the other sheets they took. Then ask a volunteer to come up to you who will be “the boss” for a minute or two. The boss takes the volunteers sheet and says something like “you spend too much time complaining to your co-workers about conditions here, you’re fired!” and tear her/his sheet in two. Now, ask the volunteer to collect all the sheets, put ‘em in a pile, and demonstrate how difficult it is to tear the sheets when they’re bundled together. That’s why we need unions."

 

 

  • from Don Taylor and Donna Schulman: In August, 2003, EPI published a Briefing Paper called "How Unions Help All Workers"  by Lawrence Mishel Matthew Walters
     
  • Joan Hill and Donna Schulman suggested articles available from the Center for American Progress:

“Unions Make the Middle Class”, April 2011 by David Madland, Karla Walter and Nick Bunker. 
 
"Unions Are Good for the American Economy" by David Madland and  Karla Walter, Feb. 2009, plus fact sheets for selected states


  • from David Prosten, UCS:

Michael Yates in 2009 published (Monthly Review Press) a second edition of Why Unions Matter. We carry it in our catalog.

Michael Mauer's The Union Member's Complete Guide (UCS Books), while just that, has a lot on the impact of unions in the community and broader issues, not just economics.  (But it also deals with a lot of basics you might not be interested in: explaining what a grievance is, how negotiations work etc.)  We carry it in our catalog.

Note: to buy books from UCS and support UALE at the same time, click on the "UCS Labor Books" button on the left side of the page.

 

  •  from Fred Glass:"Work, Money and Power:  Unions in the 21st Century," a 24 page pamphlet distributed by the UC Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education. It's currently out of print and being revised, but you can download a PDF here 

 

  • from Thandabantu Iverson: The study entitled "Unfair Advantage,"by Human Rights Watch provides striking accounts of what is happening every day to U.S. workers precisely because they have been denied their human right(s) to freely associate with others and join in a union. The study is available as a PDF on the website for Human Rights Watch, and the document is very accessible, albeit lengthy. The summary alone, however, would be very useful--especially in light of the scrutiny it helps to focus on the contradictory role of the U.S state.

 

 

  • Julien Minard and David Prosten recommended a couple of amusing short videos:

What Have The Unions Ever Done For Us?

Join  Union

 

 

  • from Moshe Adler: "At the risk of sounding self-serving, I want to respond to this discussion
    by mentioning my book, Economics for the Rest of Us: Debunking the Science
    that Makes Life Dismal    . The question why we need unions must begin, I
    believe, with an explanation of how wages are determined. If they are
    determined by productivity, as economic theory claims, there is very
    little unions can do. Therefore, the first step must be an examination of
    the theory of wages. In my book I show that the economists' theory of
    wages does not hold empirically and that the reason for this is that it
    based on a model of the production process that is pure fiction. Wages are
    not, and cannot, be based on productivity because productivity of
    individuals is not measurable. Production is carried out by teams, and the
    contribution of each member cannot be separated from that of the rest.
    What does determine wages is bargaining power, hence the need for unions."

You can read the introduction of the book on Google Books by clicking here.

 

To download a file, click the corresponding red download arrow.

Downloads

NameDescriptionDownloadEdit
Why Unions Matter
by Elaine Bernard, E.D. Labor and Worklife Program at Harvard Law School
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