One of the most commonly discussed terms in the workforce is: “union”. And the term is very polarizing. If you’re an employee, then you’ll want to be in a union. And if you are a business owner, then you don’t want a union.
What we’re going to do in this brief article is review the main reasons people like unions and also the main reasons why employers tend to not like unions.
What Exactly Are Union Workers?
The typical person thinks of union workers as someone with a manual labor job, great benefits, and life time job security. Is this a reasonable thing to think? Are all union workers blue collar workers with jobs for life?
It’s actually not an accurate depiction. While most union workers tend to work in government or blue collar work, there are also millions of clerical workers in hospitals and other institutions who are unionized. Most union workers tend not to be professionals. They have jobs in industries such as Medical Work, Law Enforcement (police), government workers, and manual labor roles.
Union workers advance not due to performance, but instead due to obtaining certificates and having seniority. The upside to working in a union is that you have job security (a major reason employes love unions). The downside is that there is no advancement in a union organization unless you have seniority, know someone in management in the union, play “politics”, or obtain certifications.
Most union members nowadays are not in production work. Automotive work and manufacturing, which was the strongest union of the past, are all gone. Most union members today are government employees: clerks, sanitation workers, police, public school teachers, medical personal.
Three Reasons Why Employees Love Union Jobs
So, why exactly do employees love union jobs? Well, here are the three top reasons.
- Unions Negotiate Pay Raises
The first reason that employees love to work in a union is that the union negotiates the salary. One of the hardest things to do is to negotiate a raise with your employer. Most companies do not want to give their workers a raise, so that conversation is a very difficult one. When you are part of a union you do not ever have to discuss pay raises. The union handles all discussions for you. If the company won’t pay a raise, the union will either use legal representation or else go on strike.
- Unions Protect Your Job
Job protection is one of the most important parts of a union. In most companies, employees can be fired if they fail to perform. There are all many different sorts of performance reviews and KPI’s that employers can use to judge employees. In the corporate setting, people always need to justify their salary. Even in non-union nonprofessional work, people need to justify their job. This is not the case with union workers. They have job security and the company has to go through a long and drawn out process in order to terminate employees. When an employer tries to outsource work that pays a living wage, the union is there to make the public aware.
- Unions Workers Make High Salaries
One of the most common reasons people want to work in a union is that they will make huge salaries. Unions are very good at providing their workers with a comfortable wage and salary. The large public unions (such as police and teachers and government nurses) all make great salaries in union friendly cities such as NYC. The salary that a union employee will make is extremely attractive. Even manual labors who are unskilled such as doormen, porters, and janitors make decent wages—in cites such as NYC member of unions such as BJ37 and the rest make 80-100k when considering pensions. If the employer doesn’t want to pay, they simply go on strike. This is one of the reasons why nurses make so much money.
These are just three of the amazing benefit to working in a union. As you can tell, most people who work would want to work in a union. However, it’s not as simple as signing up for a union or using a recrutier to find you a union job.
Three Reasons Why Employers Hate Unions
For just as many reasons why employees love working for unions, employers hate unions. This is a simple fact. No one who has employees would want them to be in a union. In many cities such as New York City and Washington DC , Boston and Chicago, there is no choice for companies but to deal with unions.
And that’s a great thing for employees. It means excellent wages, permanent job security, and excellent vacations and health benefits.
- Unions Protect Poor Performing Workers
Employers hate unions because unions make it hard to fire workers who can’t perform. A regular employee can be fired at will in most states. This is not true with unions. With a union employee, the employer must go to the union and file paperwork, go to arbitration, and follow a long list of rules in order to fire an employee. While most employees think of this as a good thing, employers have a different view point. An employer would rarely want to fire a competent employee, but they would want to fire a worker who can’t do their job. Under union rules, this can be difficult. The stronger the union, the harder it is to fire a poor employee. In some extreme circumstances such as Teachers Unions in cites like NYC—it can be impossible.
- Union Workers Often Require Multiple Roles
In a regular corporate setting, a single employee might be tasked with multiple responsibilities. This is not the case with union work. In many union settings, roles that might be filled by a single person are instead filled by multiple union members. This can double, triple, or even quadruple the cost of hiring an employee.
- Unions Require High Salaries for Simple Jobs
Most employers who work with Unions know that the cost of a union employee is extremely high. In many areas such as NYC and Chicago and Boston Union employees make 4 or 5 times the salary of a non-union employee. This includes pensions, health benefits, and other perks that people working in the private sector do not enjoy.
It’s an obvious statement that most employers—private employers who are allowed to hire non-union workers—will always have a preference for non-union workers.
Blue collar workers are protected by unions, which is why union support is so strong amongst blue collar and other non-professional workers. They have jobs which can easily be filled by replacement candidates. They have certifications, at most, and few skill sets that make them valuable employees. For instance, see the battles over Charter Schools vs Public Schools in cities like NYC. Where Public School teachers are pay six figures the Charter Schools pay ¼ the salary and the teacher is actually superior. The unions protect teachers from having to work for small, not livable wages.
Two Reasons Employee’s Don’t Like Union Jobs
While most people who are emoployees woould love to work in a union, there are some reasons why people would choose not to. The two most common reasons are:
- Trouble With Co-Workers
- Difficulty Getting into The Union
The main problem with unions is that you might have co-workers who do not carry their own weight. This can be terribly frustrating for the average person. Unions make it very difficult to fire people, so you might end up working with co-workers who simply do not do their jobs. In many unions, there are issues such as nepotism and favoritism. The people who play union political games tend to get the promotions and the highest pay.
Then there is also the problem of getting into a union. You can’t use a recruiter to get into a union.
In order to get into a union, you must get your name on a list. Large unions such as the Teachers and NYPD are open enrollment, so as long as you meet the minimum requirements you only have to wait on a government list for a very short time. Other unions that are designed for skilled tradesman (carpenter unions, electrical unions, for instance) are much more difficult to get into. In thos unions, sometimes it is a question of who you know more than what you know.
Hey I’m Chris . 20+ years in the industry. I’ve worked every role from Executive recrutier to Agency founder and consultant. If you want to learn more or reach me,vist the about page or use my contact form.