Labor union organization and working conditions in Pacific Northwest canneries

Labor and Union Studies in Washington and Oregon States

The United States labor movement has its roots in the complex trappings of the industrial revolution. Laborers were just starting to come to the United States from foreign countries because they had learned that there were many jobs available for even the most unskilled worker. People were also moving from rural areas in America to the cities in an attempt ti have a better life also without the uncertainties that governed farm profits. The growth in many industries was a result of new technologies that allowed people to purchase items that had previously been made by hand far cheaper because the products could now be mass produced in the factories. The problem was that the owners of these factories did not care how the workers were treated because there were many more begging to have a low-paying job in a factory filled with dangerous machinery and unsafe working conditions. This led people who were not afraid of the thugs the owners hired to organize into unions that could change the working conditions for the better, and collectively demand higher pay for the dangerous jobs that the people did.

Some of the most difficult conditions existed in the canneries of the Pacific Northwest. All along the coasts of Washington and Oregon, canneries were built that could handle the amount of fish and produce that were daily brought to their doors. People were forced to work long hours cleaning and processing the different products for low pay. This led to union organization for the people who worked in the factories, but there were other industries that required some changes also. The migrant workers who gathered in the crops were paid a wage that could barely sustain them, and children worked long hours in the fields. Longshoreman unloaded a large variety of cargo at the various docks up and down the coast, but they were faced with very dangerous conditions and pay that could not support their families.

The labor environment in the Pacific Northwest has changed in the last few decades with the advent of high tech and premium products, and the workers are well cared for largely due to the efforts of labor organizations. Some of the best run and most profitable companies in the world now occupy the shores of Washington state and Oregon, but the dock workers still have their union protecting them. This essay looks at the internal and external work environment that has influenced the productivity of labor in both the public and the private sector of the west coast economy in Washington - Oregon State.

Purpose of the Research

This is a research paper that seeks to examine the relationship between the work environment and worker productivity. The work environment itself can be defined in many ways. A person lives in a certain environment, and they are either satisfied with it and that enhances their general productivity or they have problems that affect how they complete their job. This includes factors such as family life, how good or bad their commute from work is, and whether the individual is satisfied with the region that they live in. Many researchers have looked into the factors that affect a person's personal environment and how that either aids or detracts from their productivity. Those factors will be examined.

However, study's on work environment have also examined the more micro world of the job itself. The station a worker conducts their daily activities at has to be comfortable whether it is a cubicle, dock or has the worker standing at a lathe machining parts. The air temperature is important to comfort and can greatly affect whether a worker is satisfies and thus works harder or is uncomfortable and has lower production. At this point all of this is speculation. The point is that many factors affect how a person completes the work that they are assigned to, and an employer wants to maximize productivity. This benefits both the worker and the employer because they both make more money the more productively engaged the worker is.

Part of the equation is also how satisfied the employee is with the reward they are receiving for their work. Rewards such as pay and benefits (actually these are better qualified as just compensation) can determine how well a person will perform their job. How big a factor is job satisfaction in productivity? Does research demonstrate a positive correlation between satisfying work environment and productivity? There are many variables involved in how an employer can best aid their employees in completing the tasks assigned to them with the maximum possible productivity, and these will all be examined. Also, one needs to look at whether labor unions play a part in productivity, and, if they do, what industries are currently best served by these unions? Would more workers benefit if labor unions came to their aid as a representative body between them and their employer? These are all intriguing questions that research and analysis are capable of answering, at least in part.

Explanation of the Research Paper

The main thrust of the research conducted in this paper has been how workplace environment effects an employee's productivity, and there are many studies that indicate that labor unions have been very effective vehicles toward this goal. In the Pacific Northwest, particularly Washington state and Oregon, there have been many years of labor unrest followed by a strong period of labor ease. Of course, most companies have seen at least a small decline over the past few years because of the economy, but the area has four mega companies which employ thousands of workers in very strong industries. However, even in companies that seem well run on the outside, there is sometimes the need for organization. Microsoft and Nike have not been unionized for a lot of reasons but mainly because they have so far resisted any need for a union. Despite the efforts of some employees, unions have not been able to penetrate these two giants. Boeing has used union labor almost since the company was founded. The two sides have had an amicable relationship most of the time, and the workers have seen conditions improve dramatically thanks to the labor movement. Starbucks employees are being denied a union by the company mainly because of possible cost overruns (according to the company), but employees are taking the matter to court. Even in these four largest Pacific Northwest employers that seem to be pristine examples of their various industries, there are labor disputes that can only be handled by the organization of the workers.

Two of the companies in question were researched to determine what level, if any, of labor dispute exists. Microsoft is a workplace that requires creativity from its employees, so it needed to create and environment that fostered that need. The company has worked hard to give its employees the tools that they need to do their individual jobs (Brundage). The reality at Microsoft is that there is probably little cause for labor dispute because the company pays exorbitant salaries to its employees (even the support workers), and gives them a level of benefits that is not seen anywhere else in the industry (Brundage). On the other end of the spectrum is Boeing. Like many manufacturing facilities, Boeing has had an organized shop for most of its company life. Different labor unions provide much of personnel for Boeings plants and they have generally gotten along with management (Graves). The two companies are very different as far as the type of labor support they need because they are two very different types of companies. Microsoft is involved in manufacturing, but the company has been able to provide a work environment that nurtures employees without the need of union organization (Sequeira). Boeing, like many of the automobile manufacturers, needed the push of a labor organization to ensure fair and safe treatment of employees.

Despite the fact that the Pacific Northwest home to four of the largest companies in the world, the major employers in the region, much like everywhere else in the United States, are much smaller. The history of labor unions in the region comes mainly from a few industries that employed people in harsh environments and took advantage of the fact that employee group were far away from each other geographically, so it was not easy for them to organize.

The United Farm Workers (UFW) is now one of the largest labor organizations in the Northwest. Tons of produce is harvested in the area yearly, and most of it is picked by migrant farm workers. Because of the transient nature of these workers, they have had a poor history of labor organization, but many of the workers have eventually joined the union which has greatly benefitted them ((Rosales-Castaneda, Quintana & Gregory). In the 1970's and 1980's, unionized workers went through several times of turmoil when workers who joined the union were not allowed to work in many of the fields. However, farmers began to see that if they treated the workers better, they had less lost product and more profits. The workers became more productive because of the benefits of the union.

This is also true of another unionized group along the Pacific coast, the longshoremen and warehouse workers. The union, called the International Longshore & Warehouse Union (ILWU), was formed in 1937 as an independent union, but they quickly affiliated with the CIO which was trying a new form of organization. According to ILWU information, the CIO "sought to unionize all the workers in an industry, skilled and unskilled, into one union for maximum unity and strength" (ILWU). The process worked well because the ILWU was able to quickly organize many of the workers in these fields from Los Angeles to Vancouver (ILWU). The main strength of the union has always been the longshore dock workers who have tried to improve the plight of these workers throughout its history.

One of the issues that was quickly resolved was the fact that managers at certain docks were trying to put in place new unskilled workers to work the docks to reduce pay. But, the ILWU was an organization of all workers, so when the unskilled dock labor was told they would be replaced, the highly skilled crane operators threatened to strike. The problem here was that the crane operators could not be easily replaced. The union won the concessions it needed to keep all of its employees working. This is an example of the method of the leverage that unions can give to workers (Page, Hernandez & Petrosky).

Today, Washington and Oregon have among the highest percentages of organized labor in the United States. In Oregon, more than 17% of the workforce belongs to a union, and in Washington the figure is greater than 25% (Bureau of Labor Statistics). The reason for these high percentages is that these areas have long supported union workers at a higher rate than most other regions of the country. Also, the types of industry in this area, agriculture and manufacturing, are areas that have traditionally required unions. The unions in this region have historically made the workplace a safer environment, and that has kept productivity high. This research has indicated throughout, that a major factor in worker productivity is work environment satisfaction, and unions have ben a large part of this in the Pacific Northwest for many decades.