Status Labor Movement? Make Include Viewpoint. Reference

¶ … status labor movement? Make include viewpoint. Reference the current state of the labor movement in contemporary times is somewhat tenuous. Although there are noticeable signs of progress and success within this movement, labor forces, and labor unions in particular, face a number of challenges that they have never had to face before. The primary difficulty that the labor movement faces is how to incorporate white collar workers into labor unions in a substantial manner so that union memberships can be at the levels that they once were at.

To that extent, it is important to discuss the difficulties encountered by labor unions when attempting to recruit white collar workers. These difficulties certainly include media perceptions, as is denoted in Labor Relations. The media, which is always ready to vilify its subjects and to shape public perception by scaring it about the current events taking place, has routinely depicted unions and their strikes as criminal, greedy, and in a manner that is not at all salubrious to fostering new membership -- especially when such membership comes from non-traditional industries which are where most white-collar employees work (Sloane & Whitney 11).

But the difficulties exceed even this rather obvious point. The true reason why there are not substantial numbers of white-collar workers in labor unions is due to the very nature of these positions. Most truly white-collar jobs encourage and foster a degree of autonomy that is both adhered to and celebrated by the candidate working the position. Lawyers, for example, are revered for and attain their position by thinking critically and autonomously to encounter problems. These professionals do not necessarily have the group mentality that blue-collar workers have. Autonomy is a fairly taboo word for blue-collar workers; many engage in daily activities in which the definition of such a word is not even known. The opposite is true for white-collar employees. They often work hard to obtain levels where they have some say in whether or not they can do what they want -- which is why joining a labor union is not at the top of their list of priorities.

The crux of this situation that the potential development of white-collar employees could represent to labor unions and the labor movement itself is the fact that most jobs are opening up in white-collar markets. Getting these employees to enlist in labor unions would not only swell their memberships, but accordingly increase the amount of political authority and the amount of change produced by such unions. What only serves to exacerbate this point is the fact that while white-collar positions are growing in proportion to blue-collar ones, most of the layoffs and down-sizing is directly affecting blue-collar employees. Furthermore, these negative economic occurrences are directly affecting blue-collar employees who are unionized. This fact is far from coincidence. Since labor unions do collectively bargain and preserve standards of working and living for their employees, it is oftentimes more advantageous for employers to simply outsource their labor overseas, pay much less for foreign workers, and be able to sell their products for less and gain more sales in such a way. This process is merely a fact of life associated with the efficacy of labor unions in simply doing their jobs -- to protect the livelihoods of their workers.