Labor Unions in the 21st Century
We are living in a world where secure jobs for a lifetime are a myth. We may have to change jobs every few years. Hence as employees we need to ensure that some basic safety and stability factors are taken care of. Employers are mostly profit and bottom line driven. Therefore employees must be organized under one umbrella so that their basic rights and privileges are not trampled upon. This is where the role of labor unions becomes extremely important and significant. We will learn more about it over the next few lines.
What Is A Labor Union?
Labor unions are nothing but groups of employees who have come together under one umbrella. They have joined together so that their overall financial interests are taken care and also they get better working conditions. As we read this article it is quite possible that there could be thousands of trade unions in the country.
What Are The Benefits Of Being A Member?
When you become the member of a union you will be entitled to the various benefits which the union is able to negotiate with the employers. When a salary increase is negotiated, it is not restricted to a few select few alone based on whims and fancies of the immediate managers. These unions will ensure that the benefits are equally shared amongst the employees. When it comes to safety measures there is no doubt that having a union by your side always gives you a much larger bargaining power. They will be able to put effective pressure on the employers when it comes to insurance coverage and other such things in case of unforeseen accidents.
Collective Bargaining Has Its Own Benefits
It would also be pertinent to mention here that collective bargaining with the help of labor unions could also have its own benefits. There is no lack of money or profits for most employers to share with their employees. It is more of a mindset and in such situations there is no doubt that collective bargaining does help quite a bit. There are research studies to prove that wages of union members are at least 30% higher than those who are not covered under such benefits. Further unionized staffs are assured of better health and medical benefits. This number is 93% in case of unionized staff against 69% of non-unionized staff. In case of retirement benefits like pension, it has been found that unionized staffs get a much better deal when compared to those who are not under any labor union.
Bottom Line
At the end of the day, you must get in touch with groups and organizations like UELG and avail their services. UELG stands for United Employees Law Group. They could come in very handy when it comes to entire gamut of employee well being. It could pertain to overtime benefits, wrongful termination, discrimination on various parameters, sexual harassment and much more.