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Unions and the Democratic Vision
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19644 |
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Section : |
MODERN THOUGHT
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| Issue
Date : |
10 / 1991 |
3,222 Words |
| Author
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Michael Maccoby
Michael Maccoby is director of the Project on Technology,
Work, and Character in Washington, D.C. His most recent book
is Sweden at the Edge: Lessons for American and Swedish
Managers, University of Pennsylvania Press, (1991). |
Most Americans support unions in principle, but fewer do so in practice. Unions affirm the democratic vision in authoritarian companies by balancing the power of management and strengthening the relatively powerless employee. They guarantee due process in the workplace. They protect free speech. They try to achieve a more equitable distribution of rewards. They stand for the rights and dignity of individuals.
Yet unions have been losing their clout since the early 1960s. Membership is down to 12 percent of the private sector. Only in government do unions remain healthy with 37 percent of workers organized. Unions lost 2.6 million members between 1980 and 1985. Why has this happened? Can unions do anything about it?
The decline in union membership results from a loss of unionized jobs in traditional manufacturing. Global competition has caused U.S. industry to close down plants and export work to lower-wage countries. However entrepreneurial companies have created new jobs, and traditional industry has increased the number of knowledge workers. Why have unions failed to organize a growing American work force?
Two reasons are commonly offered. The first is that employees see less need to join a union then they did in the past. Managers have learned to be more responsive to employee needs. Furthermore, government, prodded by organized labor, has taken over some of the protective functions of unions such as safety inspection. And it is government rather than unions that has fought discrimination in the workplace.
The second reason is that employees have become more emboldened to resist unionization. They have been motivated to do so because of global competition, which makes it more urgent to cut costs and gain flexibility in work rules. The demand for quality and customer service requires employees who care about the company. A we-they, company versus union, culture can be disastrous for competitiveness.
Given that most of the new jobs are in small entrepreneurial firms that are at best costly for unions to organize and service employer opposition makes organizing even less attractive for unions to undertake.
A changing public attitude to unions has also strengthened the resolve of antiunion management. The public has blamed unions for inflation, for lining their members' pockets at the expense of the consumer. Unions are seen as backward,
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