Page 354 - Beers With Our Founding Fathers

Beers with our Founding Fathers

 Benefits included vacation and sick days, healthcare and

cost-of-living wage increases;
 Grievances could be brought to unions and addressed with

management;
 Workplace conditions were improved. Employee safety,

including worker compensation programs, were improved;
 Retirement plans were developed by unions. Large pools of

contributing employees gave unions investment clout,

similar to insurance companies, to reduce risk and increase
return on member pensions;
 Unions developed employment programs that helped

members with new employment and benefits, particularly

employment and seniority, that could transfer to new jobs;
 Compensation for wages lost when contract negotiations

failed.
Reviewing this list reveals an impressive history of unions.

Wages for workers represented by unions averaged 10-30% more
than non-union workers. However, those wages came at a price,

and not just in dues. As an example, if a grocery employees union
goes on strike for contract negotiations in one region, workers in

other regions are expected to also strike, and lost wages are not
fully compensated. Yes, even ‘baggers’, of which I was one at a non-

union store, are represented. Even sports became unionized for the
players versus the owners.

Historically, strikes only impacted the employer and some
workers – because the unions were in businesses that did not have

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