National Labor Union Condition example essay topic

Due to the condition of the United States economy, the national labor union condition can best be described as fluctuating in a downward direction. This fluctuation is more severe because of the corporate trends and escalating efforts to both outsource and export lower paying, blue-collar jobs. This situation is causing extreme difficulties in the U.S. while broadening the global labor position. The U.S. economy has 3.2 million fewer jobs today than it did when President Bush was elected, including 2.5 million fewer manufacturing jobs.

In the past three years, nearly 1 in 5 U.S. workers were laid off from the job according to The Disposable Worker: Living in a Job-Loss Economy, a Rutgers University report released in late July. Among workers laid off from full-time work, roughly one-fourth was earning less than $40,000 annually. To further effect the job market, in July, a total of 15 million workers were unemployed, underemployed or discouraged by the lack of success in their job hunt, according to the Labor Department. While the U.S. labor market was suffering as indicated in the paragraph above, U.S. corporations were sending jobs to the global economy. For example, corporations such as IBM and General Electric were sending thousands of jobs to economy poor countries such as India, China, Mexico and Central America.

This trend has put the national labor union environment and the global labor union climate into extreme losses and gains. The labor picture becomes even more depressing when we realize that multinational corporations are transferring jobs to countries where workers earn low wages and have few or no protections. Also, small U.S. businesses are lying off workers or shutting their doors because they can not meet foreign competitors' prices. The dire condition of the U.S. economy and the job market for both blue and white collar employees has left the national labor union position in a state of extreme loss. Union membership is decreasing at an alarming rate because of the economy and corporate trends toward outsourcing, downsizing and exporting jobs. While the U.S. union picture is grim, the employment picture and the related global union posture are on the upswing.

On the home front, labor unions are unable to prevent corporations from making decisions that impact severely on union members. These members are performing tasks for U.S. corporate giants, at a very expensive rate, due to high salaries, expensive benefits and other costs to the employer. On the other hand, the jobs exported to countries in Central America and Asia can be filled by workers who are low paid and who have very few protections in the global union market. As developing and third world countries become more and more involved in manufacturing products for U.S. corporations, the natural trend will be for U.S. corporations to become more sensitive to the plight of low income workers in these countries. We recently learned that the shoe manufacturing giant, Nike, employed thousands of Asians in what could perhaps be classified as slave labor conditions. This revelation caused a world wide furor because it became known that this manufacturing giant was making billions of dollars in profit as its global employees suffered.

It became apparent that in this case and others, union protections were non-existent and employees were exploited. As we examine the state of global labor unions, we can compare in some ways the working conditions in these countries with that of the working conditions in the early United States Industrial Revolution. In the 1920's and 1930's, U.S. workers were exposed to dismal "sweat shot conditions". Employees were exploited, worked with no protections, were provided no benefits, worked in deplorable conditions, and in general were pawns in the hands of corporate managers. One could draw a comparison to the working conditions in the U.S. during the Industrial Revolution to the working conditions in developing countries that are now becoming rich due to the work they perform for U.S. corporations. As we compare the global and national union climate, the history of the U.S. labor movement brings to mind the formation of labor unions due to the exploitation of workers.

The exploitation of these workers led to the formation of large national labor unions in the U.S. As we compare and contrast past U.S. history with the current labor market in countries such as India and China, we can project the notion of a strong labor union environment being born in these developing countries. As in the U.S. during the Industrial Revolution, labor unions started out under extensive duress and opposition from the government and corporations. The growth of these labor unions was, in the mind of the corporate and government executives, going to decrease the corporate profits due to higher wages and costly benefits. We learned in the U.S. that this was not the case. Instead corporate profits grew because employees were satisfied with their wages and benefits and therefore more willing to work. The comparison between national and global labor union climate is for the moment difficult to predict.

We know about the poor working conditions in many of these countries, but we do not know for sure how their conditions will change due to the influence of U.S. corporations. Due to the human rights accomplishments in the U.S., we must assume that strong economic pressure will be exerted by U.S. corporations to end the exploitation of workers who are on U.S. corporate payrolls. These changes in the working conditions of U.S. global employees will not be easy. We now know that unions in these countries have little clout and power.

According to Unions in a Global Labor Market by Michael Walton of The World Bank Group, "With few exceptions, unionism in these countries is often very restricted and frequently highly linked to state patronage. Not only does this limit the rights of workers, but it encourages a brand of unionism that is oriented more towards getting favors and influence from a state apparatus-which is all too frequently either authoritarian, corrupt or both-than to improving workplace productivity and conditions". Mr. Walton continues, "This, together with the increasing importance of industry in many countries is why there is the potential for beneficial growth of union membership in the world". In conclusion, as we compare and contrast the union environment on a national and global scale, we can see the potential that exists for a global increase in successful union representation of workers which will greatly enhance, not only the economy of these countries, but also the quality of life for citizens who are doing the work of U.S. corporations. By contract, national labor unions will likely continue to lose membership at the manufacturing level and will find it necessary to strengthen its organizing efforts towards workers.

Today, these workers are not represented by a national labor union. This will not be an easy task.