Are Unions Important and Necessary

770 Words4 Pages
Unions are by far very important and extremely necessary in the workplace today. Labor unions are groups of workers who organize and take action to improve their lives. In the workplace, workers who join together in unions are able to negotiate on a more equal level with their employers. Unionization not only helps increase wages and benefits for union members but also can set a standard for employers who aren’t working with unions to follow when the amount of workers is substantially high. One of the main reasons why workers formed unions was so that they could have some say over wages, hours, working conditions, and the many other problems that arise in the relationship between a worker and an employer. Unions are important because they help set the standards for education, skill levels, wages, working conditions, and quality of life for workers. It also can have a huge impact on the middle class which in return can help boost the economy. One reason why unions are important is because of the fact they help increase wages and benefits for its members. Training programs and apprenticeships help ensure that working men and women have a voice in the workplace. Statistics show that the labor movement trains more than 450,000 workers every year. Through union apprenticeship programs, individuals gain life-changing skills to do high-quality work and get stable, middle-class jobs. I am only in my second year of the plumbers’ apprenticeship program and already have seen a dramatic change in my life for the better. I’m getting the education that I need to become a much more skilled worker which in the long run will make me more valuable than a nonunion worker. Every four years we renew our contract. We are able to do this because we are a union. We try to negotiate our wages, the journeyman/apprentice ratio, and even our benefits package for our pension, our
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