Why Join A Union?

Over the past year, we have seen a sharp increase in unionization struggles and interest by workers in unionizing. This represents the acceleration of a trend that has existed for several years. An MIT study published in 2018 found that 48% of workers at the time would vote to join a union, a far greater percentage than the 33% of workers who expressed an interest in unionizing in 1977, when union density was much higher.

Unions are essential for unifying workers in the struggle to defend our interests against the profit-hungry business owners. Our weakness as workers, and thus the need for unions, has been particularly apparent in moments of crisis, including the current pandemic. As profitability sharply fell for companies during COVID lockdowns, employers increased pressure on their workers in order to control labor costs. Only through the collective efforts of the working class can we build a stronger union movement that can reverse the losses we sustained during the pandemic and gain new ground.

Unions are the form that the collective economic struggle of workers must take in capitalist society. Outside of collective struggle, workers are mere individuals, without the force necessary to leverage a significant improvement in our living standards and labor conditions. When unions are strong, workers gain a higher share of the value they produce, and when unions are weak, workers struggle to make ends meet. The following graphic from the Economic Policy Institute starkly illustrates this relationship between social inequality and trade union membership:

As we advance our project for a new independent and democratic trade union for all workers in the restaurant industry, it is important to remind ourselves what it is that trade unions concretely provide to workers through struggle.

Collective Bargaining

In the face of militant labor struggles, the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) of 1935 established collective bargaining rights for workers. While the NLRA was originally passed as a kind of truce in the class struggle between labor and capital, collective bargaining is an essential right we must use to our advantage.

Collective bargaining allows legally-recognized unions to negotiate with capitalists in order to reach contractual agreements regulating working hours, wages, working conditions, benefits, safety protocols, grievance procedures, and other aspects of our life as workers. Collective bargaining power not only means that we do not have to fight battles alone, but that our victories must be recognized and followed by the bosses.

Higher Pay

One of the main benefits of a union to workers is high wages. A good union can ensure that we earn what we deserve, fixing a high wage and fighting for substantial increases on a regular basis.

While unions allow workers to force the owners to agree to a high wage, non-union workers do not have this force. According the US Bureau of Labor Statistics 2020 Report, the average union worker earned 19% more than the average non-unionized worker, while among certain categories of workers, the difference was much greater. For example, among Latino workers, the wage gap between unionized and nonunionized workers was 33%. This wage advantage is known as the “union wage premium.”

During the pandemic, when non-unionized restaurant workers were laid off by the tens of thousands, unionized workers won pay increases. For example, workers at Campbell’s Soup, organized with United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW), won $2/hour premium pay, while workers at Danone North America – organized in the same union – won a 15% pay increase.

The contrast with our own, non-unionized industry could not be more apparent.

Pensions and Health Care Benefits

In fact, the wage gap between non-unionized and unionized workers is even greater than statistics suggest, because those of us who are not in unions spend a sizeable portion of our wages on healthcare and retirement.

Only a small minority of non-unionized workers are covered by a pension, which means that most workers will be forced to work later in life, delaying retirement – particularly given the low savings rate. As for healthcare, the vast majority of restaurant workers who kept their jobs during the pandemic had to face the prospect of contracting a potentially-fatal disease without adequate health insurance.

The facts speak for themselves. According to an EPI Report:

“The most sweeping advantage for unionized workers is in fringe benefits. Unionized workers are more likely than their nonunionized counterparts to receive paid leave, are approximately 18% to 28% more likely to have employer-provided health insurance, and are 23% to 54% more likely to be in employer-provided pension plans.

“Unionized workers receive more generous health benefits than nonunionized workers. They also pay 18% lower health care deductibles and a smaller share of the costs for family coverage. In retirement, unionized workers are 24% more likely to be covered by health insurance paid for by their employer.

“Unionized workers receive better pension plans. Not only are they more likely to have a guaranteed benefit in retirement, their employers contribute 28% more toward pensions.”

A good union will be able to secure good pensions and healthcare benefits on top of higher wages.

Health and Safety at Work

For restaurant owners, the restaurant is ultimately a means by which they can exploit the workers whose labor is the source of their profit. The question of how workers are to be protected with regard to safety and health barely enters into their calculations. During downturns in business, including the economic crisis that accompanied the pandemic, even the best-intentioned owner was forced to do everything possible to maximize profit, including packing in customers as closely as possible.

In the face of such conditions, unions have the capacity to force employers to develop labor protection regarding health and safety, ensuring that all workers are protected and given the right equipment and resources to avoid possible disease and injury. This has been of the utmost importance during the period of COVID-19.

For example, the Communications Workers of America (CWA) secured additional paid sick and family leave for unionized Verizon workers during the pandemic. The agreement included 26 weeks of paid sick leave for individuals diagnosed with COVID-19 and eight weeks of paid leave for those caring for an individual medically diagnosed with COVID-19.

Another example: the United Auto Workers (UAW) persuaded General Motors, Ford, and Fiat Chrysler to shut down operations for two weeks to slow the spread of the virus, and they negotiated with the companies to provide all workers with protective gear, including masks.

From the perspective of the union, one of the most important tasks we face as workers is the continuous improvement of working conditions and the protection of the workers’ safety and health.

Job Security

Every restaurant worker knows how precarious their position is in the restaurant. In the restaurant industry, workers are fired on a continuous basis. The result is a climate of fear, in which workers dare not fight for their own interests. If, for example, a friend of the owner sexually harasses a worker, the worker may calculate that the best course of action is to remain quiet and try to avoid that customer as best they can.

Against the weapon of the chopping block, unions reinforce job security by ensuring the union worker is not disciplined or fired without a valid and concrete reason. Before an employer disciplines or fires a union worker, the owner must demonstrate merit according to a grievance procedure in which workers play a decisive role.

Moreover, a militant union that refuses “no strike clauses” and “management-prerogative clauses” – the first which prevents workers from striking during the life of a contract, the second which prevents workers from having a say in layoffs or shop closures – can make use of the collective power of workers to strike or picket in order to reinforce job security.

The Fight for Equality

Unions are able support oppressed people in their struggles for economic equality as well as against the vulgarities of racism and sexism. By winning the confidence of broad sections of the working population, unions are able to organize a genuine, combative unity that will fight in the interests of all workers. This includes:

—winning equal pay for underpaid sections of the workforce (female, Black, and Latino workers), according to the principle of “equal wages for equal work”;

—winning severance pay for undocumented workers, in order to compensate for their ineligibility for unemployment insurance (which has been devastating in the pandemic);

—fighting for concrete measures to combat all forms of workplace discrimination, from sexual harassment to racist abuse by customers, the owners, management, and coworkers.

Politically, unions must direct the path forward to enacting the most comprehensive progressive transformations needed in our society, including equality for Black Americans and basic rights for undocumented workers: overturning IRCA (which forces owners to validate citizenship), the Hoffman decision (which makes illegally fired undocumented workers ineligible for backpay and restitution of their jobs), and winning the right of undocumented workers to receive unemployment insurance coverage.

Labor unions create the conditions for a large-scale concentration of power in the hands of workers so we can struggle to win a better life for all of us.

The importance of unions goes beyond workplace issues. As the labor movement revives and increasing numbers of workers are organized in militant unions, workers will have established a firm foundation from which we can fight to reorganize society as a whole in the long-term interests of its great majority, the masses of Americans who work for a wage.