Freeman: Where Have All the Unions Gone

Freeman takes an in-depth look at the unions of today and compares them to other countries and to the past trends the union has gone through. The first question is why unions in the U.S. are decreasing? Secondly, why do we care and why should we fix it? Freeman does a good job in the article but it doesn’t seem to apply to today’s world with fewer jobs than in 2005 when his studies where concluded.

The first question, where are the unions going? It can be equally blamed on three people Freeman thinks; the three major players in the battle for union are the workers, management, and the unions themselves. First off in today’s world jobs are harder to come by and it seems that most everyone knows someone who is laid off or unemployed; this could be the first reason for decline. When businesses are closing there is no need for a union and with most of Detroit’s auto industry quickly spiraling downward many union jobs have been cut. When jobs are diminished and there are so many people looking for work getting any job is better than not having a job. Although it would be nice to have a union to stand up for ones rights it preferably better to have a job when there is a line of people waiting to replace them. The Unions gain less strength when there is less dependence on them.
Second, Management doesn’t usually want unions that is in America, as Freeman states the European countries promote unions, “ by negotiating wages and conditions throughout the economy, unions reduced the need for small firms to worry about those issues” (Freeman pg. 848). Management in America strongly dislikes the unions because of their power. Having worked for a company that is unionized it is easy to see why unions are harmful to big business. There are more rights everyone gets 3 breaks, equal pensions, overtime pay, the list is extensive but it is also harder to fire those who are in the union when they aren’t performing their duties. In the text Wal-Mart is mentioned as not welcoming unions this is true if unions are allowed they have to pay a better wage holiday pay ad who knows what else might get added to the list. Look up reasons why Wal-Mart needs to unionize and the list is extensive. They can cut hours to nearly nothing, if overtime is earned it is often placed on next weeks paycheck, mandatory cleanup off clock; why is Wal-Mart allowed to get away with this? Like mentioned above there is a line of people wanting that job so complaining will only get you fired.
Finally the unions are to blame. Spending much of their budgets on political endeavors they did little in the way of increasing membership size. They need to work on new was of converting big businesses into seeing how they can be helpful. By allowing unions to move into businesses we can decrease the sex/race pay gaps and make everyone one equal this is Freeman’s idea it seems, will it work? It surely wont work if there are no unions operating 20 years from now.