Optimism Continued Union Success. Reference Class: One

¶ … optimism continued union success. reference class:

One of the primary reasons for the relatively current state of optimism about union success is the staying power of unions and their rates of enlistment and membership. In spite of the fact that there are discernible problems regarding today's labor force (most palpably the unstable economy and the widespread layoffs and downsizing responsible for them), there are more employees involved in labor unions than there were in the early 1930's, when unions were fairly prominent in the United States, with well over 15 million people as members (Sloane & Whitney 5).

One of the reasons union membership is so popular today among certain types of workers is the fact that there is an intrinsic power in numbers, particularly when it comes to working with management and traditional bourgeois conceptions of employers. The ability to bargain with such employees as a collective appeals to many laborers who oftentimes depend on the contracts provided by such means to feed and take care of their families. Individually, laborers do not have nearly as much political might and authority to challenge their working conditions as they do when they are united under one organization reflecting a condensed demand of employee needs. Contemporary laborers are well aware of this fact, which attributes to the numbers of people who are part of unions and which is one of the primary reasons why there is continued optimism about the future of unions in the United States.

Another significant factor that attests to a secure future and continued hope for labor unions in the twenty first century is the fact that there is a large variety of laborers who comprise union membership. In addition to government employees at virtually all levels including state, federal and municipal, police officers and administrative officials, there are also private sector and protective service workers. Members of the former include utility and transportation workers. In addition to areas in which there are typically high union membership rates such as manufacturing and construction, other occupations that have a presence in labor unions include real estate workers, and a few finance and agricultural employees (Sloane & Whitney 7).

Despite the fact that not all of these dissonant occupations have an equal statistical rate of union membership, the versatility in the type of employee that participates in labor unions is indicative of the prowess this unions have in negotiating terms between management and with such employees, and is an indication that union success will continue due to the sheer amount of types of workers involved with them. Additionally, it is noteworthy to mention that in the areas of the country that are most important to its economic and even governmental well-being, union members are key. Valued institutions such as transportation, particularly in the form of truckers who transport agricultural and other types of retail products back and forth across state lines -- have high numbers in labor unions. Governmental employees are the ones who provide the human infrastructure which the country is based on at a variety of levels. These workers have been unionized for years, and show no signs of decreasing these numbers. The sheer importance of some of the industries that union workers labor in, then also attests to the fact that there are plenty of reasons to be optimistic about the success of these groups.