Are these statements true?

 

 

   The Bureau of Labor Statistics says they are:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

So, ON AVERAGE, union workers do make more.   But there's much, much more to the story.

 

In fact, several researchers have studied the wage difference between union workers and non-union workers in depth, and found, in one person's words:  

 

                  "These findings indicate that the perceived union wage advantage is generally a myth." 

 

Remember, less than 7% of all workers in private industry (non-government) are unionized.  In several important ways, this 7% is different than the 93% against which they are being compared.  Here's what the research showed.

 

1. Unionized workers are found in some of the highest paid industries - but being unionized has nothing to do with how well those workers are paid.

 

Who are some of the highest-paid workers in the United States?  Professional athletes (who in many cases make millions of dollars every year), actors/actresses in movies and on television (who similarly may make millions per movie or episode), and chart-topping musicians.  Unions that represent these workers include:

 

• Major League Baseball Players Association

• Major League Soccer Players Union

• National Football League Players Association

• National Hockey League Players Association

• NBA Players Association

• WNBA Players Association

• Screen Actors Guild

• American Federation of Musicians

 

There's an important difference between these highly-paid workers and other workers in unions:  their unions do not negotiate pay for individual players or performers.  These unions negotiate base pay rates, but each worker is free to bargain the best deal he or she can get.  

 

Other unionized workers can't do that.  In fact, unions recently defeated a bill in Congress that would have allowed companies to give individual raises to unionized workers.  

 

The RAISE Act (Rewarding Achievement and Incentivizing Successful Employees), introduced in 2012, would have lifted the ceiling on unionized workers’ wages by allowing employers to pay individual workers more — but not less — than the union contract specifies. Some researchers found that if Congress had passed the RAISE act, the average union member’s pay could have risen between $2,700 and $4,500 a year.  But unions strongly opposed the RAISE act, and it was defeated in a 45-54 vote along party lines.  

 

According to unions, paying everyone the same amount (regardless of how well they do their jobs) is fair.   As the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers Local 45 says on their web site:  "Through collective bargaining wages are taken out of competition and employment conditions are standardized."

 

Historically, some employers have tried, but the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) has struck down attempts to raise wages without union permission.  The Brooklyn Hospital Center rewarded its best nurses with $100 gift cards; when the nurses' union protested, the NLRB told the hospital to cease and desist.  The Register Guard Publishing Company gave a bonus commission to employees who sold advertising contracts that the company wanted to promote.  Their union protested; the NLRB also ordered it to stop.

 

To read more about the RAISE Act, click here 

 

 

  2.  Unionized workers are concentrated in parts of the country that have a higher cost of living.  According to the Bureau of Labor

        Statistics: 

 

            States with the highest concentration                                              States with the lowest concentration 

                   of union workers include:                                                                           of union workers include:

 

New York             24.6%                                                                           North Carolina        3.2%

Alaska                   22.8%                                                                           South Carolina       3.2%

Hawaii                   21.8%                                                                           Mississippi             4.5%

Washington        16.8%                                                                           Utah                          4.6%

New Jersey          16.5%                                                                           Georgia                    4.9%

California              16.3%                                                                          Arkansas                  5.4%

 

In each of these states, union and non-union workers make about the same.  But the percentage of all union workers nationwide who live in high cost of living states is greater than the percentage of all non-union workers nationwide who live in those states.  The result is that the average pay for union workers nationwide is higher than the average pay for nonunion workers.

 

 

  3.  Since the amount of dues members pay is determined by the amount of money they make, it's the highest-paid workers that

        unions often target for organizing.

 

You might think that unions would try to organize small and weak companies.  In fact, they target larger and more profitable companies for unionizing drives - companies that tend to pay higher wages with or without a union. 

 

 

Recent studies have made some important discoveries: 

 

• Some researchers compared wage changes at newly organized plants with wage changes at plants where organizing drives failed.  Looking at the same workers and same plants over time, these studies concluded that forming a union does not raise workers' wages.  Wages did not rise more in plants that unionized than they did in plants that voted against unionizing -- but workers in the unionized plants did have to start paying union dues in many instances.  To learn more, click here. 

 

• One researcher, a Professor of Economics at Brigham Young University, found that ON AVERAGE, pay in newly-unionized organizations actually goes down.  The reason:  "Higher-paid workers were more likely to leave after a union victory, and younger, lower-paid workers were relatively more likely to come."  He concluded that experienced, high-performing workers apparently did not want to work in an environment where everyone was paid the same, and so many of them found jobs elsewhere.  To see this study, click here.

 

 

In some parts of the country, unions are actively promoting LOWER pay for union members. 

 

For example, the Seattle Times reported in June 2015 that unions, who say they are trying to get mandatory paid sick leave and a $15 minimum wage for workers, actually specifically exempting unionized organizations from these requirements.  This would allow unionized companies to pay workers less than $15 per hour and not pay for sick leave. 

 

Why are unions doing this?  So non-union organizations will allow the unions to organize their workers.  After all, with a union, those organizations could pay their workers less -- and the unions would start getting dues from new union members.  

 

A Seattle Times editor wrote:

 

"Paradoxically, left out of the “win-win” are the workers who are forced to pay union dues for the union to represent them — workers exempted from the benefits of the higher wage or paid sick leave because they are a union member.

 

Isn’t joining a union supposed to be about better pay and benefits and protecting powerless workers from being exploited by greedy and unethical employers?  Today it is the union workers who are exploited, by the union executives who are supposed to represent them."

 

To see the entire article, click here.

 

 

There's another side to union wages and benefits that's playing out in several industries today.  It's what sometimes is referred to as "crippling legacy costs" — costs mostly related to union contracts from long ago, including pension and health care — that due to market and profitability changes an organization no longer can afford.

 

Many state, county and municipal governments have found themselves in this situation; the State of Illinois is in particuarly bad shape and can no longer afford the contracts politicians gave unions in years past.  But many private companies also are in the same situation.  For example:

 

• The grocery chain A&P found itself burning through almost $15 million in cash a month, much of it in labor costs.  The company had no choice but to close stores and lay off workers.  At its peak, A&P had 14,000 stores; today, it has just 260 and hopes it can sell 120 of them.  The United Food and Commercial Workers Union, which represents A&P's workers, lost thousands of members and millions in annual dues.

 

• Automobile manufacturers and suppliers have had similar experiences.  General Motors, for example, found they no longer could afford some of the contracts they had bargained years ago during better times, and sold or closed plants in Big City, Texas; Livonia, Michigan; Vandalia, Ohio; Columbus, Ohio; Janesville, Wisconsin; Mansfield, Ohio and Moraine, Ohio, among others.     

 

• The steel industry also been hit by these market pressures.  In Northwestern Indiana, both US Steel and ArcelorMittal are closing plants, and across the country thousands of unionized workers have been laid off.  US Steel also has frozen wages for many of its unionzed workers.    

 

 

Some unions have been so inflexible regarding pay that they are destroying themselves.  

 

Zodiac Elastomer is a plant in Arkansas with 300 employees.  The plant produces a variety of fuel cells for the aerospace industry and is owned by French-based company, Zodiac Aerospace.  The plant has been losing money for some time, with losses totalling $30 million. 

 

The 300 employees are represented by the United Steelworkers union, but only a few of those employees have become members. 

 

During contract negotiations in February 2015, plant management proposed a wage cut of $1.80 per hour.  However, they offered both a bonus plan and a profit-sharing program for employees.

 

According to a company official:  “In return, we offered a profit-sharing plan because we feel that moving forward, we could actually make money.  We also offered a bonus program where if employees worked at better than 85 percent efficiency, we had a sliding scale that would allow them to recoup any of the concessions that they gave us.  The recouping would be at roughly 100 percent.”

 

By helping the company work more efficiently, employees would have earned back everything they would lose through the hourly wage concession.  “And there was no cap on this.  If they were working at the 120 percent level, they would be making like $1.50 more than they currently make,” the company official said.  The proposed contract also would have allowed a private investor to move forward with the purchase of Zodiac Elastomer from its parent company.

 

United Steelworkers Local 607L was against the proposal, since taking a wage cut could make the union look bad.  According to the company official, “But they didn’t want to do that ... They just wanted to get paid the same amount.”  On their union's recommendation, a slim majority of the small number of union members voted against the contract.  

 

Now, the company official concluded, “We’re going to have to close the company.”

 

Workers now are trying to decertify the union.

 

To read more about this situation, click here. 

 

 

When all the facts are considered, it's clear that becoming union-represented DOES NOT

guarantee workers better wages.  

 

Instead, three factors seem to drive higher pay:

 

1.  Having the ability to earn individual pay increases

       (just as unionized professional athletes and celebrity entertainers do).

 

2.  Performing your job well. 

 

3.  Working in a successful organization.