Unions Make Life Better at Work and Beyond, New Report Shows

[douglas9]

While it is well-established that unions strengthen worker power on the job and reduce inequality, a new report out Wednesday shows that higher unionization rates are also associated with improved conditions outside of the workplace, including better access to healthcare, paid leave, and the ballot box.

"Unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions," said Asha Banerjee, economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and co-author of the report. "But the benefits of unions extend far beyond the workplace. The data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities and political representation."

To document the correlation between organized labor and various indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being, researchers at EPI compared Census Bureau data on minimum wages, median annual incomes, access to unemployment insurance, lack of health insurance, Medicaid expansion, paid sick and family leave laws, and voter suppression laws in states with "high" (13.5% to 24.7%), "medium" (8.3% to 13/3%), and "low" (3.2% to 7.7%) levels of union density.

All 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia were sorted into three equally sized categories based on their average level of union density—defined as the percentage of workers in a state who are members of a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement—from 2015 to 2019. The past two years were excluded "to avoid any potential distortions related to the... Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing recession."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/16/unions-make-life-better-work-and-beyond-new-report-shows

[multigraincracker]

1. Also a positive correlation with

Union made products in quality of goods.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

2. Deserves wider posting in General Discussion. . . nt

[Lovie777]

3. Yes it does . ..

majority of my family members are in Unions. But alas, GQP can't stand people besides the extremely rich to have such.

[twodogsbarking]

4. Unions are great but watch out for corrupt union leaders.

There is a history.

[Sherman A1]

5. Even with that I would far prefer a Union to not having one

I am retired enjoying a good Union pension and happy to have paid my dues both literally and figuratively over the many decades of membership. We had some good leaders and some that took advantage of the situation they found themselves in. Nevertheless Union is better in any case in my opinion.

[bluecollar2]

7. The ratio of corrupt Union Leaders to Union members

Is probably much lower than corrupt politicians to population...

[halfulglas]

8. The answer to that is the same as with politics - participation.

My grandfather was a lifelong steelworker and union member (once they had unions at J&L) and my dad during WWII worked in an airplane propeller factory as he was too old for the army and was a union steward). Their answer to the corruption charge was not just vote, but pay attention to what was going on. Don't just vote for the contract and hang around the union hall, pay attention who your local leaders are and what they are doing, where your dues are going. Watch what they say they are doing and what actually gets done.

For instance, in the 50s and 60s their pension was pretty good as they went, but when my grandfather died in the mid 60s, his pension completely stopped. There was no widow's benefit for my grandmother and as she only had half of my grandfather's Social Security, she didn't have enough to live on and had to move in with us. Well, that eventually was changed for future retiree widows, but not until things like that were brought to the attention of future union leaders.

[Sherman A1]

6. K&R