Posted: Monday, 1 March 2004

What Are Unions and What Do They Do?

Unions reduce wage inequality, increase industrial democracy and often raise productivity... in the political sphere, unions are an important voice for some of society’s weakest and most vulnerable groups, as well as for their own members.
(Freeman and Medoff, 1984. p.5)

Unions come in many forms around the world, but they have much in common. They are organizations which define, promote and fight for the collective interests and rights of workers or a group of workers, especially in relation to employers, but also in relation to the state and civil society. Unions emerge from and are a product of the difference of interests which exists between workers and employers.

The key-defining feature of all capitalist societies — including today’s ‘post-industrial’ societies — is that working people gain their livelihood through paid work, that is, by selling their labour to employers. The basic terms of any employment relationship are that workers agree to work under the direction of an employer (with respect to place of work, hours of work, methods of work, etc.) in return for a wage. If it were not for unions, workers would have to negotiate the terms and conditions of their employment (wages, benefits, hours of work, work schedules, conditions of work, etc.) as individuals, protected only by minimum legal standards. And, if it were not for unions, individual workers would be on their own when it came to dealing with arbitrary and unfair treatment by employers, such as dismissal without just cause, harassment, discrimination in hiring, promotion and layoffs, favouritism by employers and managers in setting pay, assigning jobs, and so on.
 

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