Assignment:
Introduction
Working behind the counter of a fast-food restaurant has been commonly thought of as the domain of teenagers looking for a temporary job to make "pocket money." However, the economic downturn found many older workers seeking employment in the fast-food industry. In 2013, protests in New York City and Los Angeles by fast-food workers demanding higher wages highlighted this shift and its impact. At a Los Angeles protest, one 26-year-old worker said she earned $7.25 an hour and worked 19 hours "on a good week." A 36-year-old mother of four working at a hamburger fast-food restaurant said
she was grateful to have a job, but uses her wages to pay rent, with no money left over to pay for school clothes for her children. Critics viewed the protests, which were supported by a labor union, as evidence that unions are focused on recruiting new groups of workers to bolster their declining membership. Global economic shifts have split America's private-sector unions in two pieces: one, the old-line manufacturing organizations represented by the United Auto Workers (UAW), for example; the other, the emerging service sector organized most notably by the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), which represents approximately 2 million nurses, security guards, janitors, and others.
Traditional union power in manufacturing has been deeply undercut by the outsourcing of jobs abroad to take advantage of cheaper wages. Substantial decreases in private consumption and investment in recent years, leading to declines in manufacturing and construction, have also significantly impacted union membership. In 2013, the union membership rate remained at 11.3 percent as in 2012; since 1983, union membership has fallen nearly 50 percent. The union membership rate in the private sector is roughly 6 percent, whereas over two-thirds of public-sector workers are unionized.
Auto Industry and Unions Union problems in the manufacturing sector were vividly illustrated by the 2007 settlements of new labor agreements between the UAW and the Big Three American automobile manufacturers: General Motors (GM), Ford, and Chrysler. In return for automakers' promises of investments to maintain manufacturing jobs in the United States, UAW members agreed to dramatic contract changes, allowing the Big Three to compete more effectively with their nonunion competitors, Toyota, Honda, and others. The UAW's efforts to unionize auto workers in foreign-owned auto plants such as Nissan and Volkswagen in Mississippi have, at this writing, been generally unsuccessful. Workers at these plants who are opposed to unionizing point to high wages in a relatively poor state, while pro-union workers at Nissan are concerned about job security, as temporary help can cut Nissan's labor costs. With approximately half of U.S.-manufactured autos being made by nonunionized workers, GM, Ford, and Chrysler may be able to pressure UAW to allow the lowering of labor costs to the level of nonunion plants.
Union Support According to a 2013 Pew poll, over half of Americans have a favorable view of labor unions, having rebounded nearly 10 percent from 2011. However, laws curtailing the power of unions have been passed in state legislatures. For example, in 2011, Wisconsin passed a law restricting public-sector employees' collective-bargaining rights. In 2012, Michigan, known as the home of the unionized auto worker, became a "right to work" state, discussed later in this chapter. A shift away from traditional unionized industries along with union corruption have certainly played big roles in union struggles, but union supporters say corporate resistance has made organizing very difficult. Working America, an organization allied with the AFL-CIO, seeks to engage nonunion members in unions' political causes, which may help increase workplace activism. [For more on Working America, see www . workingamerica.org/]
Questions
1. Do we need labor unions to counterbalance the power of big corporations? Explain.
2. In the 2013 protests described at the beginning of the chapter, fast-food workers asked for higher wages; protesters in Los Angeles asked for a $15 an hour minimum wage. Supporters of a wage increase for fast-food workers point to the fast-food industry's large profits and generous executive salaries. What are the arguments both for and against a wage increase for fast-food workers? Explain.
Does the Union Have a Fight Song?