Government and Organized Labor

One of the signature political issues that divide the two political parties for a long time and continuing today is the role for government in managing organized labor.  Last year, Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker faced a recall election after he took on public unions in the governmental workforce and received a huge backlash from the public sector.  More recently, Michigan governor Rick Snyder signed into law a bill making Michigan the newest "right to work" state, following in the lead of states such as Indiana by  preventing mandatory deductions from payroll to fund union activities.  Opinions on both sides are charged, so it is important to get the facts right.

First, it is important to make clear the meaning of the law on face value,  The bill does not, as the name might imply, that employees are guaranteed work in any way.  The only thing it guarantees is that individual employees at a business or organization at which a union is present will not be required to join that union as a condition for joining the workforce and are not obligated to make payments to the union.  Pro-business groups see this as allowing a more natural version of capitalism to let loose in the American economy, which will in turn loosen the regulations on corporations and create more jobs.  Opponents to reductions in the power of labor see this as an unnecessary attack on the right of workers to organize and collectively bargain.  If a company that has a union has no means to keep up the membership of the union, the union has the potential to lose members, and when it comes to organizing, the more people, the more power.

The issue of organized labor is complicated in America, since it is both a political and economic issue.  As seen below, the majority of political donations by unions goes to Democratic candidates, and the majority of business donations go to Republican candidates, setting up a constant fight as either side plays politics to their base in order to get support during election season.

There is also an economic side to organized labor.   According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, for all major demographics, unionized workers on average earn more that non-unionized workers.  This has been taken different ways, depending on what economic view economists subscribe to.

One school of thought says that the higher pay workers are and greater job security they have guaranteed by the union, the greater purchasing power they have  and the more likely they are to spend it, since they are not as concerned about saving in the event that they loose their job.  This means that more money is being pumped into the economy as consumer spending, which is approximately 70% of the US Gross Domestic Product (World Bank). Conversely, one can take the argument that unions raise labor costs and thus lower businesses ability to make profits.

I won't debate on what economic model is the most relevant, but consider this:  Unions have had both an extremely beneficial impact in protecting individual workers, akin to protecting the American ideal of individualism, but have also expanded to have great power, which could result in not representing the interests of individual members.  However, just as in elections, not everyone gets their first choice in everything.

I encourage you to look up the range of political views for yourself to be educated on this complicated and relevant issue in American politics today.