The benefits of unions are rarely extolled in our media and political arena, and anti-union mythology pervades our national culture as much as anti-communism—and that’s no coincidence. Just like anti-communism, anti-union ideologies and policies are perpetuated in order to weaken and divide the working class and to distract people from seeking real solutions to the problems created by capitalism. Unfortunately, many people, and many young people in particular, have no first-hand experience with unions to draw upon, so there is little information to counterweight these myths.
So what is a union?
In its most basic form, a union is simply a group of workers who have won the legal right to negotiate over their wages and working conditions—a truly revolutionary idea for those who are used to the “what my boss says goes” conditions of a non-union workplace. Without a binding contract, workers are left at the whim of their supervisors, managers, and CEO’s. A union contract not only guarantees rights and benefits, but it also protects workers who take collective action at the workplace.
For example, last fall while I was student teaching my school was undergoing major construction. Teachers were forced to conduct classes with the noise of jack hammering, which made it extremely difficult for my students to learn in. My mentor walked into his classroom and found a large chunk of plaster had fallen from the ceiling, leaving dust and plaster chunks all over the desks and floor. The administration knew of these unsafe conditions and the fact that our student’s learning was being interrupted, but did nothing about it. The administration only addressed the problem after teachers, being fed up, filed a collective grievance (a formal complaint of a contract violation) and threatened to contact the local newspaper. Without a union to back us up, we would have been left at the whims of the administration to fix the problem.
The real union difference is not just in higher wages and benefits for unionized workers, but in something more intangible that is gained during those struggles—safety, dignity, respect, and a sense of collective power and consciousness—or as Marx wrote “the ever-expanding union of workers.” In the process of struggling for basic rights and improvements, workers develop their sense of being part of a larger movement and the working class, and deepen their understanding of capitalism. Unions are essential because they allow workers to fight for the day-to-day struggles at the workplace and also deepen their own sense of power and consciousness as a class.
What makes unions different from other organizations?
As Marx and Engels famously argued in The Communist Manifesto, workers and unions are uniquely positioned in capitalist production to directly challenge the power of capital, and therefore have the inherent potential to be the leading revolutionary force in a capitalist society. The power of unions comes from the fact that the labor movement is THE organized voice of the working class. Of course, working people participate in many different kinds of organizations--churches, neighborhood groups, community organizations, parent organizations, ethnic and cultural groups, workers centers—and all of these groupings have their place in providing meaning in people’s lives and uniting people around issues, common interests, beliefs, or backgrounds. Yet, unions are different.
Unions are the only institution in our society that can pool the resources and power of workers on a mass-scale to directly challenge the ruling class. Unions unite workers based on their role in production, crossing the lines of race, gender, sexual orientation, immigration status. When the working class is organized, it has the ability to raise standards and win concessions, to halt production and profit-making, and to curb the power of the ruling class.
But, can we truly say that the labor movement is building workers’ power when only 13% of the American workforce is unionized? Yes! The reality is that when unionized workers win victories, they help raise the bar for the entire working class. My friends who work at non-union charter schools are well aware of this—they indirectly benefit from our contract fights because their schools are forced to raise their wages and benefits in order to keep up with the standard set by public school teachers. Even with their current size, unions play a leading role in local contract fights and political initiatives, as well as national and international campaigns for affordable health care, living wage jobs, immigrant rights, and environmental protection. No matter who you are or where you work, the labor movement has won victories that have benefited you: retirement benefits, family leave, sick leave, 8 hour day, domestic partner benefits, and sexual harassment protection, just to name a few.
But my uncle is in a union and he said…
Who hasn’t heard the claim that unions are corrupt, that they protect lazy workers, that they are run by “old, white, men,” or that unions are a relic of the industrial factory? While one can certainly find examples of unions (or any organization, company, school, or workplace) that fit any of these qualities, the reality is that these images are purposely distorted and dishonest. Billions of dollars are spent each year by companies and corporations to fight their employees’ attempts to organize. Republicans have consistently eroded the rights of workers through legislation and conservative labor board appointees.
At the same time, we have to be able to address the concerns that our generation may have about unions and we cannot blame everything on anti-unionism. The labor movement DOES have a history of exclusion, and sometimes leaders or large sections of union membership DO support candidates, contractual agreements, or take positions that seem contrary to building a broader movement.
In Left Wing Communism, An Infantile Disorder, Lenin addressed this long-standing question: should those who consider themselves radical, progressive, or revolutionary participate in reactionary trade unions? His answer was simple: communists must work “wherever the masses are to be found…the trade unions and the workers’ co-operatives are the very organizations in which the masses are to be found.” In fact, he argued that it was even more essential to be involved in reactionary unions, or else risk isolation from the real struggles of large sections of the working class.
The make-up of the leadership and membership in the labor movement is also changing—over the past 20 years there have been significant increases in the leadership and participation of women, people of color, and immigrant workers. Some unions have made this a top priority, while others still have significant work to do. Whatever the case may be, we should be encouraging the leadership and activism of young people, women, people of color, and LGBT activists, rather than isolating ourselves from the arena of major struggles. If we don’t like it, then we need to be a part of changing it.
Some of the criticisms of unions also come from a misunderstanding of the very nature of a union. A union’s most basic responsibility is to represent the membership. Unions represent a broad array of political attitudes—even some Republicans! Unions do not play the same role as political parties, and can set themselves up for disaster by taking positions that are more “left” than the general sentiment of their membership. To be sure, leaders of any organization need to be pushed, but this pushing is often only effective when it comes from the dedicated members or allies of that organization.
I wondered, as I left my job as a union organizer, for a job where I would actually be a member of a union, if I would miss the excitement of organizing. In my first few months, as a teacher, my main union activity was attending the union’s new teacher dinner and the holiday party. In October, my mentor teacher asked me to write an article for the union newspaper about my experiences as a new teacher and why having a union mattered to me. When the article was published, teachers I hadn’t even met before came up to me and told me how much liked the article and how encouraged they were to see a young teacher involved in the union. That was when I realized: this is something I never could have done as a staff organizer. As a member, I can talk to my co-workers about issues at work and politics, and, even though I am new, what I say carries so much more weight because I am “in the trenches” (or at least eating chips next to them at the holiday party). That’s Marxism 101 in real life.
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