THE MISSION OF LABOR UNIONS

Happy Labor Day 2007! It’s a well deserved holiday for workers who make things happen that benefit all of us. To quote from my Labor Day 2006 Blog, “Workers have only skill and labor with which to bargain. Business has only a place for skill and labor to be employed, managed in a manner that makes a profit that enables both labor and management to pay the bills, both at home and for the business. It’s a tough but essential balancing act. Compromise is required, or everybody loses.”

The primary mission of a union is (or should be) is to represent their membership in negotiating higher wages, enhanced benefits, job security, and better working conditions, as well as elimination of discrimination in the workplace. It’s more difficult to take advantage of a union than it is for an individual worker. In unity there is strength. That’s why unions are important.

Unfortunately, some unions at the national level tend to wander off into hard core advocacy on issues like pro-choice/pro-abortion, homosexual rights, extreme environmentalism, “ban the bomb,” gun control, and so on. The National Education Association (NEA), the largest union in the United States, is a good example of such counter-productive advocacy. This too often puts a substantial number rank and file union members in the position of having to pay dues to support an issue they may diametrically oppose. There’s no shortage of advocacy organizations on all sides of such controversial issues. That’s their job, not the legitimate mission of unions. Unions need to represent workers on wages, benefits, job security, working conditions, and protection from discrimination - not social issues.

I hope everyone had a tremendous Labor Day weeked!