Why People Organize into Unions

Why People Organize Into Unions

The right to self-organization is the privilege of every work, along with the freedom of no interference from the employer to form and choosing a union of his or her choice. The reasoning for creating unions is to create a bargaining ground between the employer and his employees. The union is the safety net that allows employee reinsures for their employment. With so many great benefits it is no surprise why people organize into unions. Nevertheless there is still a portion of employees who chose not to participle in the organization of unions.

Some people may not organize into unions because they feel the strength of labor unions is a disadvantage. For example, the strike action which is a right to conducted mutual action of employees through temporary stoppage of work due to labor dispute. This is the strongest weapon that a labor union may have to restore to in order for the employer to give into demands. However, the employer usually looks for other employee to replace employees who are on strike. The employees lose their daily wage with every passing day that the employee goes on strike. In some case, the employers are able to terminate the workers who go on strike.

Unions can create good benefits if people decide the organize one. In every workplace, two challenging interests are involved: the interest of employer’s minimizing their overhead expense and earning a bigger profit. With these two interests, the cost of the employees’ needs is often overlooked. A worker cannot just demand individually that he/she desire a raise because of economic reality that he/she has not bargaining power. If he/she decides to create a union together with his/her coworkers then they will strengthen their bargaining power (strikes/picketing).

Unions do not only help in raising wages but they also help in the improvement of benefits. It becomes stressful for an employee to not only make sure that s/he receives enough wages, but that employee must also be given proper benefits such as payment for overtime work, maternity leave for mother, retirement, and monetary compensation upon separation from the company. The unions have also helped with the workers by negotiating with employees for better non-wage benefits.

It is clear that unions are beneficial for the interests of the employees.