tag:theconversation.com,2011:/uk/topics/labor-union-74371/articlesLabor union – The Conversation2022-11-10T13:41:59Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1923892022-11-10T13:41:59Z2022-11-10T13:41:59ZAmerican workers feel alienated, helpless and overwhelmed – here’s one way to alleviate their malaise<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494273/original/file-20221108-26-saqnnb.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=306%2C0%2C7450%2C4558&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Labor-saving technologies have not afforded workers more leisure time.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/competing-men-race-for-power-by-climbing-royalty-free-illustration/1372359166?phrase=work exploitation illustration&adppopup=true">Pict Rider/iStock via Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>First it was the “<a href="https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20220817-why-workers-just-wont-stop-quitting">Great Resignation</a>.” Then it was “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/business/2021/may/07/truth-behind-unemployment-benefits-myth">nobody wants to work anymore</a>.” Now it’s “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/if-your-gen-z-co-workers-are-quiet-quitting-heres-what-that-means-11660260608">quiet quitting</a>.”</p>
<p>Yet it seems like no one wants to talk about what I see as the root cause of America’s economic malaise – work under contemporary capitalism is fundamentally flawed.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.alecstubbs.info">As a political philosopher</a> studying the effects of contemporary capitalism on the future of work, I believe that the inability to dictate and meaningfully control one’s own working life is the problem.</p>
<p>Democratizing work is the solution.</p>
<h2>The problem of work</h2>
<p>What can be said about the malaise surrounding work under capitalism today?</p>
<p>There are at least four major problems:</p>
<p>First, work can be alienating. Workers are often <a href="https://rowman.com/ISBN/9780742564985/After-Capitalism-2nd-Edition">not in control</a> of how they work, when they work, what is done with the goods and services they produce, and what is done with the profits made from their work.</p>
<p>This is particularly evident in the rise of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jvb.2020.103481">precarious forms of work</a>, like those that are found in the gig economy.</p>
<p>According to the Pew Research Center, there’s been <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/18/where-americans-find-meaning-in-life-has-changed-over-the-past-four-years/">a decline in people finding meaning in their work</a>. <a href="https://www.mckinsey.com/capabilities/people-and-organizational-performance/our-insights/help-your-employees-find-purpose-or-watch-them-leave">Nearly half</a> of front-line managers and employees do not think that they can “live their purpose” through their jobs.</p>
<p>Second, workers are not paid the full value of their labor. <a href="https://www.epi.org/productivity-pay-gap/">Real wages have not kept pace with productivity</a>, driving economic inequality and a <a href="https://www.bls.gov/opub/btn/volume-6/pdf/understanding-the-labor-productivity-and-compensation-gap.pdf">decline in labor’s share of income</a>.</p>
<p>Third, people are time poor. In the U.S., <a href="https://www.bls.gov/charts/american-time-use/activity-by-work.htm">full-time employed workers work an average of 8.72 hours per day</a> despite productivity increases. Long working hours, along with a number of other factors, contribute to the feeling of “<a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41562-020-0920-z">time poverty</a>,” which has a negative impact on psychological well-being.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man tied up by hands." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494274/original/file-20221108-24-63bkj3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=528&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Constrained by the demands of work, many people find they have little time to pursue their own interests.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/businessman-tied-to-the-air-by-giants-royalty-free-illustration/983370842?phrase=work%2Bexploitation%2Billustration">z_wei/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Fourth, automation puts jobs and wages at risk. While technological innovation could in theory liberate people from the 40-hour workweek, as long as changes aren’t made to the structure of work, automation will simply continue to exert <a href="https://www.nber.org/papers/w23285">downward pressure on wages</a> and contribute to <a href="https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---dgreports/---cabinet/documents/publication/wcms_591502.pdf">increases in precarious employment</a>. </p>
<p>Ultimately, the potential of automation to reduce working hours is inconsistent with the profit motives of capitalist companies.</p>
<h2>Humanize work or reduce it?</h2>
<p>On the one hand, many people lack work that is personally meaningful. On the other hand, many are also <a href="https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2021/11/18/where-americans-find-meaning-in-life-has-changed-over-the-past-four-years/">desperate for a more complete life</a> – one that allows for creative self-expression and community-building outside of work.</p>
<p>So, what is to be done with the problem of work? </p>
<p>There are two competing visions of the best way to arrive at a solution.</p>
<p>The first is what Kathi Weeks, author of “<a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/the-problem-with-work">The Problem with Work</a>,” calls the “socialist humanist” position. According to socialist humanists, work “is understood as an individual creative capacity, a human essence, from which we are now estranged and to which we should be restored.” </p>
<p>In other words, jobs often make workers feel less human. The way to remedy this problem is by re-imagining work so that it is self-determined and people are better compensated for the work they do. </p>
<p>The second is what’s known as the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/news/2018/jan/19/post-work-the-radical-idea-of-a-world-without-jobs">“post-work” position</a>. The post-work theorists believe that while doing some work might be necessary, the work ethic, as a prerequisite for social value, can be corrosive to humanity; they argue that meaning, purpose and social value are not necessarily found in work <a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9781501748448/undoing-work-rethinking-community/">but instead reside</a> in the communities and relationships built and sustained outside of the workplace.</p>
<p>So people should be liberated from the requirement of work in order to have the free time to do as they please, and embrace <a href="https://www.versobooks.com/books/509-critique-of-economic-reason">what French-Austrian philosopher André Gorz called</a> “life as an end in itself.” </p>
<p>While both positions might stem from theoretical disagreements, is it possible to have the best of both worlds? Can work be humanized and play a less central role in our lives?</p>
<h2>Democratic worker control</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.alecstubbs.info/research">My own research</a> has focused on what I see as a critical answer to the above question: democratic worker control.</p>
<p>Democratic worker control – where companies are owned and controlled by the workers themselves – is not a new concept. Worker cooperatives are already found in <a href="https://institute.coop/resources/2021-worker-cooperative-state-sector-report">many sectors throughout the U.S.</a> and <a href="https://www.cicopa.coop/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Cooperatives-and-Employment-Second-Global-Report-2017.pdf">elsewhere around the globe</a>. </p>
<p>In contrast to how work is currently organized under capitalism, democratic worker control humanizes work by allowing workers to determine their own working conditions, to own the full value of their labor, to dictate the structure and nature of their jobs and, crucially, to determine their own working hours. </p>
<p>This perspective recognizes that the problems people face in their working lives are not merely the result of an unjust distribution of resources. Rather, they result from power differentials in the workplace. Being told what to do, when to do it and how much you will earn is an alienating experience that leads to <a href="https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s00406-008-5024-0.pdf">depression</a>, <a href="http://cup.columbia.edu/book/capitalism-on-edge/9780231195379">precarity</a> and <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674979857">economic inequality</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Man works at computer while being controlled by a puppet master." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/494271/original/file-20221108-15046-cew9ga.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=533&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Being told what to do and when to do it can make you feel helpless and dispirited.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/illustration/businessman-working-and-being-controlled-by-royalty-free-illustration/1357724096?phrase=work%20exploitation%20illustration&adppopup=true">rudall30/iStock via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>On the other hand, having a democratic say over your working life means the ability to make work less alienating. If people have democratic control over the work they do, they are unlikely to choose work that feels meaningless. They can also find their niche and figure out what’s fulfilling to them <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1057/9781137370587">within a community of equals</a>.</p>
<p>Democratizing work also leads to an increase in labor’s share of income and a reduction in economic inequality. It has been shown that unionized workers earn an average of <a href="https://files.epi.org/pdf/204014.pdf">11.2% more in wages than nonunionized workers in similar industries</a>. Income inequality is also <a href="http://ejce.liuc.it/18242979201702/182429792017140207.pdf">much lower in worker cooperatives compared with capitalist companies</a>.</p>
<p>But work should not be confused with the whole of life. Nor should it be assumed that a sense of purpose, a sense of belonging and the acquisition of new skills can’t occur outside of work. <a href="https://www.nifplay.org/books/play-how-it-shapes-the-brain-opens-the-imagination-and-invigorates-the-soul/">Playing</a>, volunteering and worshipping can all do the same.</p>
<p>However, in capitalist companies, labor-saving technologies do not afford workers with more leisure time. Instead, labor-saving technologies mean workers are more likely to face <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/705716">unemployment and downward pressure on wages</a>.</p>
<p>Under democratic worker control, workers can choose to prioritize values that are consistent with themselves rather than the dictates of profit-seeking shareholders. Labor-saving technologies make it more likely that leisure time can become a choice. Workers are free to assert their own values, including that of less work and more play.</p>
<h2>A mosaic approach</h2>
<p>Of course, democratic worker control is not a silver bullet to economic discontent, and these changes to the workplace can’t occur in a vacuum. </p>
<p>For instance, trials of a four-day workweek without a reduction in pay are increasingly popular, and they have had resounding success in both the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/22/business/four-day-work-week-uk.html">United Kingdom</a> and <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-57724779">Iceland</a>. <a href="https://autonomy.work/wp-content/uploads/2021/06/ICELAND_4DW.pdf">Workers report feeling</a> less stressed and less burned out. They have a better work-life balance and report being just as productive, if not more so. Federal legislation to reduce working hours without a reduction in pay, such as through the implementation of a four-day workweek, could accompany a movement for democratic worker control.</p>
<p>The expansion of social services, the development of <a href="https://thenextsystem.org/node/204">a public banking system</a> and the provision of a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177/0032329203261100">universal basic income</a> may also be important components of meaningful change. A broader movement to democratize the U.S. economy is needed if society is going to take the challenges of work in the 21st century seriously. In short, I believe a mosaic of approaches is necessary.</p>
<p>But one thing is clear: As long as work remains the dictates of shareholders rather than the workers themselves, much work will remain a source of alienation and will persist as an organizing feature of American life.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/192389/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Alec Stubbs does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>What if the best parts of two competing visions for a solution were brought together?Alec Stubbs, Postdoctoral Fellow of Philosophy, UMass BostonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1832052022-06-06T20:03:43Z2022-06-06T20:03:43ZCollectivism — not individualism — is the path to reducing social and economic inequality<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466675/original/file-20220601-49293-4dat9n.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C6309%2C4200&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Ontario Federation of Labour rallies in May called for improving workers’ rights and repairing deep inequalities that have been highlighted and deepened by the pandemic. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Cole Burston</span></span></figcaption></figure><iframe style="width: 100%; height: 100px; border: none; position: relative; z-index: 1;" allowtransparency="" allow="clipboard-read; clipboard-write" src="https://narrations.ad-auris.com/widget/the-conversation-canada/collectivism-—-not-individualism-—-is-the-path-to-reducing-social-and-economic-inequality" width="100%" height="400"></iframe>
<p>Last month, two large demonstrations took place in Ontario: the <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/rolling-thunder-day-2-1.6436591">Rolling Thunder biker rally in Ottawa</a> and a series of rallies across Ontario <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8801583/may-day-rally-queens-park-toronto/">organized by the Ontario Federation of Labour</a>.</p>
<p>While both aimed to appeal to the frustration and anxiety of the average working person during this period of turbulence and uncertainty, the demonstrations couldn’t have been more different.</p>
<p>The bike rally <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PzRJfBQGhU">emphasized individual freedom over all else</a>, arguing that social obligations, like wearing masks to protect vulnerable people from disease, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oDk1v5stVmg">restricted freedom to an unreasonable extent</a>. The labour rallies, in contrast, <a href="https://ofl.ca/event/may-1/">called for collective action and better government standards</a>.</p>
<h2>The appeal of individualism</h2>
<p>The Rolling Thunder biker rally took up where the so-called <a href="https://theconversation.com/whose-freedom-is-the-freedom-convoy-fighting-for-not-everyones-176336">freedom convoy left off</a>. It appealed to people’s rage and frustration and directed these emotions toward pandemic protections, and the experts and politicians who put them in place. Catharsis and disparagement were the dominant tone and <a href="https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-rolling-thunder-motorcycle-convoy-ottawa-live-updates/">few coherent goals for change were expressed</a>. </p>
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<img alt="A man holding a protest sign in a crowd of people" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=361&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466679/original/file-20220601-49499-7sneb7.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=453&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">A People’s Party of Canada supporter holds a sign during the convoy-style protest that participants called ‘Rolling Thunder,’ in Ottawa on April 30, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">THE CANADIAN PRESS/Sean Kilpatrick</span></span>
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<p>There is much to be <a href="https://hbr.org/2022/03/sustaining-hope-in-uncertain-times">genuinely angry and scared about</a>. Pandemic lockdowns, and the economic and social disruption they bring, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1177%2F00113921211050116">are frustrating</a>. There is still <a href="https://theconversation.com/not-in-the-past-colonialism-is-rooted-in-the-present-157395">ongoing colonialism</a>, <a href="https://theconversation.com/as-an-indigenous-doctor-i-see-the-legacy-of-residential-schools-and-ongoing-racism-in-todays-health-care-162048">systemic racism</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/overturning-roe-v-wade-would-have-wide-reaching-implications-beyond-u-s-borders-183192">sexism</a>. Climate change is <a href="https://www.ipcc.ch/2021/08/09/ar6-wg1-20210809-pr/">widespread and only getting worse</a>. <a href="https://theconversation.com/canadas-fiscal-update-falls-short-in-facing-climate-change-and-income-inequality-150995">Wealth inequality is ever-growing</a>. Young people <a href="https://theconversation.com/home-sweet-home-is-a-dying-dream-federal-election-promises-wont-solve-affordable-housing-crisis-166300">can’t afford homes</a>. Jobs provide <a href="https://doi.org/10.25318/36280001202100600004-eng">less stability</a>.</p>
<p>These challenges feel truly daunting. It’s not surprising that some have turned to individualistic solutions for broader social problems. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/books/2016/apr/15/neoliberalism-ideology-problem-george-monbiot">Over 40 years of government policy</a> has explicitly undermined the generosity and effectiveness of public services and our <a href="https://socialeurope.eu/public-services-and-the-common-good">collective commitment to the common good</a>.</p>
<p>We’ve been hammered with the message that <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps-nonsense_n_5b1ed024e4b0bbb7a0e037d4">there is no alternative to individual striving</a>, and many have lost hope that something better is possible. But another way is possible, and we can look to the labour rallies as inspiration.</p>
<h2>Collectivism is the way forward</h2>
<p>Instead of succumbing to toxic individualism in the face of profound anger and grief, the labour protesters rallied around a clear, hopeful set of goals — a plan to improve workers’ rights and repair the deep inequalities both highlighted and deepened by the pandemic. </p>
<p>Among other things, <a href="https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2022/05/01/2433079/0/en/Ontario-Federation-of-Labour-demands-a-workers-first-agenda-ahead-of-June-2-provincial-election.html">the labour federation’s Workers First Agenda</a> calls for a $20 minimum wage, affordable housing and permanent paid sick days.</p>
<p>This alternate path of solidarity means joining with others to provide mutual support on the premise that small individual sacrifices result in <a href="https://equalitytrust.org.uk/resources/the-spirit-level">bigger collective gains that make everyone better off</a>. </p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1520819164964954113"}"></div></p>
<p>Collectivism means engaging in the difficult work of negotiating for our <a href="https://pressprogress.ca/here-is-what-everyone-in-canada-needs-to-know-about-how-collective-bargaining-really-works/">collective needs</a>, which is a more complex task than simply tearing things down. It means providing people with hope, even if the answers aren’t simple.</p>
<h2>Signs of hope in new organizing</h2>
<p>For decades, unions in Canada have been in a holding pattern. As Statistics Canada reported recently, while the overall percentage of workers in unions has remained fairly stable <a href="https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/14-28-0001/2020001/article/00015-eng.htm">at about 30 per cent since the 1990s</a>, private sector union membership has declined significantly and now stands at 15.3 per cent. </p>
<p>Despite some <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2021/01/16/unions-say-more-workers-looking-to-organize-during-the-pandemic.html">important</a> <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8386793/nb-public-sector-ratify-contract/">exceptions</a>, most unions have not had great success with new organizing. Many have struggled to make <a href="https://www.canada.ca/en/employment-social-development/services/collective-bargaining-data/wages/wages-year-sector.html">significant progress in collective bargaining</a>. Part of what’s needed to increase union bargaining success is building more critical mass in the private sector.</p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-advantages-of-unionization-are-obvious-so-why-dont-more-workers-join-unions-164475">The advantages of unionization are obvious, so why don't more workers join unions?</a>
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<p>Our neighbour to the south shows us what an economy with few unions looks like. In the U.S., <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/money/2015/02/23/385843576/50-years-of-shrinking-union-membership-in-one-map">the percentage of workers in unions has collapsed since the 1960s</a>, while the gap between rich and poor and <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2019/09/26/income-inequality-highest-over-50-years-census-bureau-shows/3772919002/">a host of related social, political and economic ills</a> have expanded. </p>
<p>However, there is renewed interest in union organizing. Major efforts are underway at notoriously anti-union companies like <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/02/amazon-workers-just-voted-to-join-a-union-heres-what-happens-next-.html">Amazon</a>, <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22993509/starbucks-successful-union-drive">Starbucks</a> and now <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/29/technology/apple-store-union.html">Apple</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people standing with their hands in the air and smiles on their faces" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/466678/original/file-20220601-70867-x5hnjw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amazon workers in Staten Island, N.Y., voted to unionize in April 2022, marking the first successful U.S. organizing effort in the company’s history.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>As of this writing, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/05/29/organizers-herald-100th-win-starbucks-unionization-wave-continues">100 Starbucks locations have won certification</a> and many more are in the middle of union drives. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-did-amazon-workers-win-the-fight-to-form-a-union-in-staten-island-but-not-in-alberta-181042">historic victory of Amazon workers at a warehouse in Staten Island</a> in early April has inspired many, although workers at a second nearby Amazon location voted against unionizing on April 25. </p>
<p>Union efforts are also underway at Amazon locations in Alberta, Ontario and Québec, <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/hamilton/amazon-hamilton-teamsters-union-effort-1.6449036">but none have succeeded yet</a>. A Starbucks <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2020/10/08/workers-are-looking-to-unions-for-pandemic-protections.html">successfully unionized in Victoria, B.C., in August 2020</a>. More breakthroughs could reignite hope for many private sector workers in Canada.</p>
<h2>The new face of labour</h2>
<p>Amid all this, a new generation of labour leaders are coming to the forefront in Canada. The <a href="https://canadianlabour.ca/who-we-are/officers/bea-bruske/">Canadian Labour Congress</a>, the <a href="https://ofl.ca/about/staff/">Ontario Federation of Labour</a> and the <a href="https://www.labourcouncil.ca/staff">Toronto and York Region Labour Council</a> are all headed by women, reflecting the fact that <a href="https://cupe.ca/union-membership-trends-and-challenges">53 per cent of union members are now women</a>.</p>
<p>More women and racialized people now lead central labour bodies’ executives: large unions like the <a href="https://www.cupw.ca/en/about-us/president%E2%80%99s-blog">Canadian Union of Postal Workers</a> and the <a href="https://www.etfo.ca/about-us/who-we-are/provincial-executive">Elementary Teachers Federation of Ontario</a> are headed by Black women. For the first time, <a href="https://www.thestar.com/business/2022/04/12/unifor-secretary-treasurer-lana-payne-running-for-national-president-to-replace-dias.html">a woman is running for president of UNIFOR</a>, the country’s largest private sector union.</p>
<p>Research shows that, when union leadership reflects the demographics of its workers, <a href="https://ecommons.cornell.edu/handle/1813/75931">membership engagement and organizing success</a> improve. Workers believe their interests will be better met <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/apr/27/amazon-union-drive-us-labor-future">by leaders who understand and relate to their experiences</a>. These lessons are important if Canadian unions are to connect with workers seeking better lives.</p>
<p>Beyond this, workers are aware that union leaders must be able to meet the urgent calls to address the ongoing systemic racism and discrimination in schools, workplaces, unions and beyond. As <a href="https://policyoptions.irpp.org/magazines/february-2021/what-role-do-unions-have-in-addressing-systemic-racism/">community and labour researcher Maya Bhullar notes</a>, structural injustices are often normalized in collective bargaining agreements, grievance-handling and other union processes. </p>
<p>In order to address these issues, union directives must reflect the needs of the racially and gender diverse communities they serve, and leaders who understand and relate to these experiences are the best ones for the job.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183205/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Peggy Nash is a member of the New Democratic Party and is a board member of the Broadbent Institute and Canadians for Tax Fairness. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephanie Ross receives funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council. She is a member of the Board of the Workers’ Arts and Heritage Centre.</span></em></p>In this time of unrest, insecurity and fear, unions and their new, more diverse leadership offer a path to improving workers’ rights and repairing deep social and economic inequalities.Peggy Nash, Senior Advisor to the Dean of the Faculty of Arts + Labour Management Relations, Toronto Metropolitan UniversityStephanie Ross, Associate Professor and Director, School of Labour Studies, McMaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1825492022-05-10T12:04:18Z2022-05-10T12:04:18ZStarbucks’ caffeinated anti-union efforts may leave a bitter taste – but are they legal?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461638/original/file-20220505-1367-ilvqwc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=52%2C0%2C5808%2C3860&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A long-brewing dispute?</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/people-hold-signs-while-protesting-in-front-of-starbucks-on-news-photo/1391508710?adppopup=true">Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Good news greeted Starbucks workers on May 3, 2022, in the shape of a promise of new pay increases. But there was a catch: Employees at unionized stores – or those planning to unionize – <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/business/economy/starbucks-howard-schultz-union-pay.html">shouldn’t expect to see a dime</a> of this hike.</p>
<p>As far as efforts to discourage workers from supporting union drives go, the move by Starbucks appears pretty blatant. And it comes as the coffee chain sees a <a href="https://perfectunion.us/map-where-are-starbucks-workers-unionizing/">massive surge of union activity</a>.</p>
<p>Since its first victory at two stores in Buffalo in December 2021, Starbucks Workers United has now filed for union elections <a href="https://abc7ny.com/starbucks-union-labor-workers-united/11825879/#:%7E:text=As%20of%20this%20week%2C%20workers,the%20Service%20Employees%20International%20Union.">at over 250 stores</a> – comprising over 6,600 employees – in over 30 states, according to the National Labor Relations Board. Moreover, the union has won 54 of the 64 elections conducted to date, many by overwhelming margins. </p>
<p>As a <a href="https://cob.sfsu.edu/directory/john-logan">scholar of organized labor</a>, I find the growth of the union movement at Starbucks remarkable. But it has also prompted what I would characterize as a remarkably aggressive stance against unions among executives at the coffee chain. Starbucks management appears intent on halting unionizing momentum among employees – even if that means risking sanction from the federal watchdog. Indeed, on May 6, a regional director of the NLRB <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/starbucks-firings-threats-store-closures-labor-board_n_6275802ce4b009a811c39513">issued a complaint against the coffee chain</a> over prior instances of anti-union tactics that the labor official deemed to have strayed across the line of what is legal.</p>
<h2>Anti-union or pro-Starbucks?</h2>
<p>In announcing the promised pay raise to nonunionized workers, Howard Schultz, who returned to Starbucks as interim CEO in March 2022, suggested that federal law prohibits Starbucks “from promising new wages and benefits at stores involved in union organizing.” Union representatives counter that nothing in law stops Starbucks from offering such benefits to workers at unionized stores.</p>
<p>Moreover, they say that threatening to withhold wage increases amounts to an <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2022/05/03/business/economy/starbucks-howard-schultz-union-pay.html">illegal attempt to coerce workers</a> and have <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/02/starbucks-union-files-nlrb-complaint-citing-ceo-schultzs-benefits-comments.html">filed a formal complaint</a> with the NLRB.</p>
<p>It is not the first time Schultz, who says he is not “<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/04/09/starbucks-ceo-howard-schultz-has-history-of-opposing-unions.html">anti-union” but “pro-Starbucks</a>,” has picked a fight with workers looking to unionize. In April, he told workers at a public forum that if they are unhappy working at Starbucks, they <a href="https://nypost.com/2022/04/11/starbucks-ceo-lashes-out-at-unionizing-baristas/">should seek employment elsewhere</a> and claimed that American corporations nationwide are “under assault” by unions.</p>
<p>The CEO also blamed organizing at Starbucks stores on “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/starbucks-union-fight-intensifies-under-ceo-howard-schultz-11651483981">so-called workers” and an “outside force</a>” – comments that appear at odds with the reality of what is going on at his stores. A quirk of the recent spate of unionizing efforts at Starbucks is that it is <a href="https://theconversation.com/amazon-starbucks-and-the-sparking-of-a-new-american-union-movement-180293">worker-driven</a>, in that it is young employees spearheading the drive and spreading the word to other stores.</p>
<p>This grassroots approach is nullifying many of the traditional anti-union tactics. Not only does it counter the claim that unionizing is being forced on workers from outsiders who may not have their best interests in mind, it also makes it harder for anti-union messages to go unchallenged. For example, <a href="https://cwad1.org/banning-captive-audience-meetings#:%7E:text=Captive%20audience%20meetings%20are%20mandatory,materials%20like%20videos%20and%20flyers.">group captive audience meetings</a> – in which employees are mandated to attend sessions at which they are urged not to join a union – have proved less effective in part because pro-union workers have ensured that at least one activist is present to counter what is being said. And I have been told by organizers that at several Starbucks stores, workers have made a <a href="https://inthesetimes.com/article/starbucks-organizing-union-labor-coffee-historic-campaign">collective decision to refuse to attend</a> such meetings.</p>
<h2>Reputational risk</h2>
<p>In the face of diminishing returns for traditional efforts to persuade workers against unionizing, Starbucks appears to be upping the intensity. But going to war with its pro-union workers involves significant reputation risk for Starbucks – something the company itself has seemingly acknowledged. In a recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company <a href="https://www.levernews.com/starbucks-stunning-admission-about-its-union-busting/">warned investors</a>: “Our responses to any union organizing efforts could negatively impact how our brand is perceived and have adverse effects on our business, including on our financial results.”</p>
<p>Starbucks is already facing uncomfortable headlines over its anti-union practices and the mounting number of complaints that they have prompted.</p>
<p>Since the union campaign started in August 2021, Starbucks Workers United has filed 112 separate unfair labor practices charges against the company, prompting former NLRB chair William Gould <a href="https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/starbucks-store-unionizing-surge-tests-cash-strapped-labor-board">to note</a>, “I can’t think of anything that has generated this many cases.” </p>
<p>Then on May 6, 2022, a director for the NLRB’s Buffalo region issued <a href="https://www.huffpost.com/entry/starbucks-firings-threats-store-closures-labor-board_n_6275802ce4b009a811c39513">a sweeping complaint against Starbucks</a>. It covered over 200 instances of what it claims to be unlawful anti-union behavior. They included allegations of terminating, disciplining and surveilling pro-union workers; closing pro-union stores for several months and promising increased benefits to staff who refuse to unionize.</p>
<p>Such NLRB complaints follow an investigation into claims of labor violations and indicate that the board has found merit in the complaints.</p>
<p>To provide relief, the<a href="https://docs.google.com/viewerng/viewer?url=https://big.assets.huffingtonpost.com/athena/files/2022/05/06/62759426e4b009a811c3ad5f.pdf"> complaint requires Starbucks</a> to put in place what amounts to a laundry list of remedies, including reinstating fired workers, providing training for Starbucks managers on workers’ rights and allowing equal time for unions to address employees.</p>
<p>It also calls on Schultz or Starbucks’ executive vice president Rossann Williams – who ran the anti-union campaign in Buffalo last year – to record themselves reading a notice explaining to staff that they have a right to form a union, and for that recording to be distributed to every store in the U.S.</p>
<p>Starbucks has indicated that it will contest the regional NLRB complaint. In a statement, <a href="https://www.bloomberglaw.com/product/labor/bloomberglawnews/daily-labor-report/BNA%2000000180a525d12ea5cfe767d9100003?bna_news_filter=daily-labor-report">the company said</a>, “We believe the allegations contained in the complaint are false, and we look forward to presenting our evidence.”</p>
<h2>An NLRB with more bite?</h2>
<p>Regardless of what the NLRB complaint says, or what the board rules in regard to the denial of promised pay increases, Starbucks’ apparent efforts to slow union momentum may have some success.</p>
<p>The Starbucks union recently suffered <a href="https://www.staradvertiser.com/2022/05/03/breaking-news/effort-to-unionize-first-starbucks-store-in-hawaii-fails/">unexpected losses in Hawaii</a> <a href="https://www.tag24.com/justice/activism/starbucks-union-organizers-see-mixed-results-in-pittsburgh-estero-and-oklahoma-city-2445581">and Florida</a>.</p>
<p>Part of the problem facing worker-organizers is that it can take time to make charges of unfair anti-union practices stick.</p>
<p>The NLRB has for decades been hampered by delays in its processes. It can take months for a ruling to come down, and if a company appeals the board’s decision to a federal court, it can take years – by which time the <a href="https://www.jwj.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/UROCUEDcompressedfullreport.pdf">damage to a union campaign may have already been done</a>. </p>
<p>Labor organizers will be hoping that the recent complaint against Starbucks will portend a decisiveness and desire to move more quickly at the NLRB under the Biden administration.</p>
<p>President Joe Biden likes to tout his pro-union credentials. Indeed, he recently welcomed a <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/starbucks-criticizes-biden-visit-with-union-leaders-requests-white-house-meeting.html">pro-union Starbucks worker</a> to the White House, prompting the company to <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2022/05/06/starbucks-criticizes-biden-visit-with-union-leaders-requests-white-house-meeting.html">demand that it get a similar invitation</a>. </p>
<p>But Biden’s <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2021/09/08/remarks-by-president-biden-in-honor-of-labor-unions/">credentials as the self-proclaimed</a> “most pro-union president in American history” may hang on how his administration, through the NLRB, is able to crack down on anti-union practices when they cross over the line.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182549/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>John Logan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A regional director of the National Labor Relations Board has issued a complaint over instances of anti-union practices at Starbucks. And that was before the company’s boss threatened to withhold wages.John Logan, Professor and Director of Labor and Employment Studies, San Francisco State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1820162022-05-05T16:33:32Z2022-05-05T16:33:32ZIf Amazon wants to be the ‘Earth’s best employer’ it needs to listen to employees<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461086/original/file-20220503-24-g6watl.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=15%2C7%2C4555%2C2583&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Amazon has historically opposed trade union recognition by engaging in union suppression practices, like resisting trade union recognition through coercion. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In his <a href="https://www.vox.com/recode/22385644/jeff-bezos-amazon-warehouse-work-union-shareholder-letter-2021">farewell letter to shareholders last year</a>, Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos announced a new mission for his company: “Earth’s best employer and Earth’s safest place to work.” The company has since <a href="https://www.aboutamazon.com/news/operations/update-on-our-vision-to-be-earths-best-employer-and-earths-safest-place-to-work">added these goals to its list of corporate values</a>.</p>
<p>As the <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/business/business-news/amazon-now-employs-almost-1-million-people-u-s-or-n1275539">second largest employer in the United States</a> (behind Walmart) and an employer of increasing scale in Canada and around the world, this declaration is good news. Amazon has the potential to positively impact the lives of over a million employees.</p>
<p>But the company still has a lot of work to do. Amazon has been dogged by negative reports about working for the organization, including <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/work-at-amazon-jobs-performance-reviews-hiring-firing-interviews-warehouses-delivery-drivers">gender and racial bias toward workers and “abusive mistreatment”</a> by managers, an intensive pace of work leading to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/dec/30/amazon-employees-climate-fear-high-rates-injuries">high incidence of worker injury</a> and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/10/25/a-hard-hitting-investigative-report-into-amazon-shows-that-workers-needs-were-neglected-in-favor-of-getting-goods-delivered-quickly/?sh=cdaa5451f500">workers being underpaid</a>.</p>
<p>If Amazon truly wants to be the “Earth’s best employer,” it needs to start by listening to its employees and prioritizing their needs.</p>
<h2>Amazon’s anti-union history</h2>
<p>So far, Amazon has vehemently opposed trade union recognition, engaging in union suppression practices, like resisting trade union recognition through coercion. </p>
<p>For example, Amazon has been <a href="https://theconversation.com/whats-at-stake-in-amazons-bessemer-alabama-union-vote-5-questions-answered-157498">holding mandatory meetings with workers and distributing written information</a> in a bid to influence union votes and situating <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/fe944609-7c9f-4e73-ae96-4102427cb49d">mailboxes for ballots</a> in parking lots that are near security cameras. There have even been accusations of Amazon using former <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/technology/amazon-unions-virginia.html">FBI agents to disrupt organizing efforts</a>.</p>
<p>At the same time, <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-advantages-of-unionization-are-obvious-so-why-dont-more-workers-join-unions-164475">Amazon employs union substitution practices</a> to reduce the perceived need for a union among workers, such as <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/8185628/amazon-new-workers-hourly-wage-increase/">raising wages</a> in response to the campaigns for union recognition. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People lining up on a sidewalk outside an Amazon building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=349&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461083/original/file-20220503-18-hsto87.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=438&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amazon workers line up outside the company’s Staten Island warehouse to vote on unionization, on March 25, 2022, in New York.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Robert Bumsted)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Amazon’s vehement opposition to trade unions reflects a view of organized labour known as the <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w0364/w0364.pdf">monopoly face of trade unions</a>. Trade unions are understood to have a negative economic impact on companies by restricting the options available to management. Unions are believed to increase the wages and improve the terms and conditions of its members beyond levels that are economically beneficial for firms.</p>
<p>From another perspective, trade unions are the <a href="https://www.nber.org/system/files/working_papers/w0364/w0364.pdf">collective voice</a> of workers and provide the company with economic value. For instance, without trade unions to give workers an effective voice, workers might leave their firms and take invaluable tacit knowledge with them — knowledge that is difficult and expensive, if not impossible to replace.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, employee retention isn’t a benefit that would sell trade union recognition to Amazon, where efforts have been made to <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/jackkelly/2021/06/17/amazon-prime-day-offers-great-sales-heres-what-workers-suffer-through-to-make-this-happen/?sh=ee674c91519f">encourage workers to leave the organization as their productivity diminishes</a> and desire for better terms and conditions grow.</p>
<h2>Benefits of trade unions</h2>
<p>Employee retention aside, trade unions play an important role in identifying operational problems and forcing management to resolve them, rather than to seek cost effective and ultimately counterproductive “fixes.” </p>
<p>In this way, trade unions impose <a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095458551">beneficial constraints</a> on firms through which they constrain managerial activity. For instance, unions force management to invest, rather than reduce costs, for the long term benefit of the company and its workers.</p>
<p>The use of <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2021-06-28/fired-by-bot-amazon-turns-to-machine-managers-and-workers-are-losing-out">algorithmic management</a> rather than human managers at Amazon means that there is limited human supervisory oversight and day-to-day managerial insight into operations. In this vacuum, trade unions provide an important means of ensuring effective and safe working practices to the benefit of employees and the company. </p>
<p>Whereas the impact of trade unions on productivity is mixed, <a href="https://theconversation.com/unions-do-hurt-profits-but-not-productivity-and-they-remain-a-bulwark-against-a-widening-wealth-gap-107139">the results are often positive, and rarely negative</a>. It’s safe to say that they have an overall positive impact on productivity.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A group of people hugging and smiling" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/461084/original/file-20220503-24-kyyfrk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Amazon Labour Union members celebrate after an update during the voting results to unionize Amazon warehouse on Staten Island, N.Y., on April 1, 2022.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(AP Photo/Eduardo Munoz Alvarez)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>However, there is a value in Amazon engaging with workers through trade unions and collective voice that has less to do with its own competitive advantage and more to do with its broader symbolism. </p>
<h2>Meaningful work</h2>
<p>If Amazon provides its employees with a meaningful involvement in the organization and a voice at work, there are implications for the nature of work elsewhere. </p>
<p>Amazon is symbolic of success — what it does, other firms copy, a process known as <a href="https://faculty.babson.edu/krollag/org_site/org_theory/scott_articles/dimag_powel.html">mimetic isomorphism</a>, where firms imitate the market leader in the hopes of replicating its success. Amazon could set an important precedent for other companies to follow and fundamentally change the nature of work in North American and beyond.</p>
<p>In a time of <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2022/4/28/the-perfect-storm">growing inequality, insecurity, vulnerability and destitution for many</a>, coupled with worsening <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2022/05/02/us-china-summer-ukraine-trade-biden-xi/">political turmoil</a> and social unrest because of the ongoing pandemic and the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/live/2022/may/02/russia-ukraine-war-mariupol-evacuations-set-to-continue-explosions-reported-in-russian-city-of-belgorod-live">Russian invasion of Ukraine</a>, Amazon can be a beacon of hope. </p>
<p>It has the financial resources and market dominance to be an employer of choice: a destination of aspiration, not degradation. In short, Amazon can become the Earth’s best employer, but this must involve democratizing the workplace, recognizing the legitimate right of employees to organize and cooperating with labour representatives.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/182016/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Geraint Harvey does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Amazon can become the Earth’s best employer, but this must involve democratizing the workplace, recognizing the legitimate right of employees to organize and cooperating with labour representatives.Geraint Harvey, DANCAP Private Equity Chair in Human Organization, Western UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1621432021-06-08T14:15:01Z2021-06-08T14:15:01ZPilates, fruit and Amazon’s zen booths: why workplace wellbeing efforts can fall short<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405040/original/file-20210608-27-3jiiwm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=1007%2C81%2C3940%2C3555&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/man-medical-mask-sits-lotus-position-1729572361">Serrgey75/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Corporate giant Amazon is taking heat over reports of its <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jun/02/amazon-workers-stress-mindfulness-training">WorkingWell</a> initiative, a physical and mental health programme intended to improve employee health in the retail giant’s fulfilment centres.</p>
<p>A <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnvp7/amazon-calls-warehouse-workers-industrial-athletes-in-leaked-wellness-pamphlet">leaked pamphlet</a>, which Amazon has <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/epnvp7/amazon-calls-warehouse-workers-industrial-athletes-in-leaked-wellness-pamphlet">claimed</a> was created in error and is not being circulated, encourages workers to invest in their own fitness and become “<a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9653309/Amazon-describes-workers-industrial-athletes-leaked-wellness-pamphlet.html">industrial athletes</a>”.
One aspect attracting particular attention is a plan for “<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57287151">AmaZen Booths</a>”. Also called Mindful Practice Rooms, these kiosks are intended for employees to take breaks from work, experience periods of calm, and access mental health resources. Amazon <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-57287151">deleted a social media post</a> about the booths after being mocked on Twitter. </p>
<p>The details paint an unflattering picture of the company in light of its unprecedented rise in <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/greatspeculations/2021/06/01/amazons-stock-to-continue-rallying/?sh=6fc61f8d4651">revenues, profits and stock value</a> during the pandemic. Critics of Amazon say the company’s unparalleled financial success is on the backs of its <a href="https://www.geekwire.com/2021/amazon-now-employs-nearly-1-3-million-people-worldwide-adding-500000-workers-2020/">1.3 million employees</a> who are subject to precarious employment contracts – issues that came to a head after an <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-55927024">unsuccessful campaign</a> among some US-based Amazon workers to gain trade union recognition. </p>
<p>Commentators are also saying that these workers experience higher than average rates of <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2021/06/01/amazon-osha-injury-rate/">workplace injuries</a> and are treated like “<a href="https://www.verdict.co.uk/amazon-work-galley-slave/">galley slaves</a>”. In such conditions, it is argued, a wellbeing initiative is beside the point. </p>
<p>These programmes are gaining in popularity: COVID-19 has raised “wellness” up the agendas of corporations like never before – and not always in a good way. Many companies have introduced exercise classes, fruit and other sticking-plaster solutions rather than measures which assess risk, focus on prevention and prioritise “decent work” as a driver of both wellbeing and productivity. </p>
<p>Having been a judge for the <a href="https://www.globalhealthyworkplace.org/">Global Healthy Workplace Awards</a> since 2014, I have run a critical eye over many corporate wellness programmes. Like other big companies, Amazon faces the challenging balance of promoting employee wellbeing without being accused of tokenism. </p>
<p>In trying to improve worker wellness, companies often miss the mark. Here are some things they should keep in mind:</p>
<p><strong>1. Health and productivity can and must coexist</strong></p>
<p>To imply that there should be a binary choice between health and productivity is facile and misleading. One of the more breathtaking things I heard from a senior executive of a large UK organisation during the pandemic was this: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Frankly, I think that job stress is a more effective driver of productivity for us than wellbeing programmes. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Far from being a niche or outdated opinion, this thinking is representative of a significant proportion of business leaders around the world. As it happens, this large organisation is also very keen to tell anyone who will listen that “employee health, safety and wellbeing is their biggest priority” – though when I checked their latest report to shareholders and prospective investors, the words “revenue” and “profits” outnumbered mentions of “safety” by a ratio of 25 to 1. </p>
<p><strong>2. Lifestyle evangelism is no substitute for decent work</strong></p>
<p>The former chief medical officer of UK telecoms giant BT, <a href="https://www.ioshmagazine.com/health-and-wellbeing-work-2018">Dr Paul Litchfield</a>, famously derided what he called the “fruit and pilates” approach to workplace wellbeing. He argued that no amount of healthy snacks in canteens, “step challenges” or company fun runs can compensate for jobs with impossible deadlines or targets, or the stress of reporting to a manager who is a bully. </p>
<p>One of the founding fathers of modern motivation theory, <a href="https://www.toolshero.com/toolsheroes/frederick-herzberg/">Frederick Herzberg</a>, once said: “if you want someone to do a good job, give them a good job to do.” Wellness programmes that ignore this simple idea are unlikely to have an enduring impact.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A close-up of an apple and two bananas on an office desk." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/405045/original/file-20210608-130350-14kz6so.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The ‘fruit and pilates’ approach to employee wellness cannot make up for a stressful job or toxic work environment.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/close-bananas-green-apple-on-office-1401011384">Andrey_Popov/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><strong>3. Context is everything</strong></p>
<p>The AmaZen Booths are no more than a contemporary take on many successful community and workplace mental health programmes such as the “<a href="https://bmcpublichealth.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12889-021-10585-3">Men’s Shed</a>” movement, which originated among working men in Australia in the 1990s. It targeted older men, who can often find being open about mental health very difficult, by offering resources and support which encouraged reflection and “help-seeking”. </p>
<p>Similar booths have been used successfully by some UK employers. Electricity supplier E.ON created a “Head Shed” to encourage employees to find out more about mental wellbeing, for instance. </p>
<p>The real test of Amazon’s version is whether it is part of a genuinely coherent programme of initiatives which assess and reduce exposure to risk, and convince employees that the company really is prioritising their wellbeing over the long term. Having a well-branded initiative on wellbeing is never enough by itself, especially if many employees’ everyday experience of work is that it is intense, strenuous and toxic. </p>
<p><strong>4. Employers: beware of ‘fool’s gold’</strong></p>
<p>Employers need to be more critical consumers of wellbeing “miracle cures” offered by commercial providers. I have seen too many employers divert resources from unglamorous but evidence-based interventions (like having access to a good occupational health nurse) towards those meant to “showcase” their commitment to health and wellbeing. </p>
<p>Used by themselves, <a href="https://www.activfirst.co.uk/importance-laughter-work">laughter coaches</a> and <a href="https://onsitewellbeing.co.uk/blog/indian-head-office-massage/">head massages</a> are really no more than perks, with little or no direct impact on health or productivity. Even very popular initiatives such as <a href="https://www.employment-studies.co.uk/news/mental-health-training-managers-case-caveat-emptor">Mental Health First Aid</a> have very little strong evidence of any long-term benefit.</p>
<p>Sadly, in the drive for more productivity, the health and wellbeing of employees can be among the first casualties. Reports of Amazon’s WorkingWell programme have, so far, not been flattering. Its challenge – like many other corporations – is to sweep aside the cynicism and demonstrate that its efforts will have tangible benefits for all of its employees and are not just PR spin.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/162143/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Stephen Bevan receives funding from the Department of Work and Pensions and NHS England for resaerch on mental health at work, and from the Medical Research Council and Versus Arthritis for research on musculoskeletal disorders at work. </span></em></p>Amazon is being criticised for its worker wellbeing efforts, including private mental health chambers. Can corporate wellness initiatives actually work? Or is it all PR spin?Stephen Bevan, Head of HR Research Development, Institute for Employment Studies, Lancaster UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1425382020-08-25T19:18:13Z2020-08-25T19:18:13ZWhy police unions are not part of the American labor movement<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351761/original/file-20200807-22-13k8xdm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=111%2C296%2C4762%2C3051&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Minneapolis Police create a blockade after a campaign rally for President Donald Trump on October 10, 2019.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/minneapolis-police-create-a-blockade-after-a-campaign-rally-news-photo/1175240291?adppopup=true">Stephen Maturen/Getty Images</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer, news reports have suggested that <a href="https://www.salon.com/2020/06/27/police-unions-blamed-for-rise-in-fatal-shootings-even-as-crime-plummeted/">police unions bear some of the responsibility</a> for the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html">violence perpetrated against African Americans</a>.</p>
<p>Critics have assailed these unions for <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/06/09/limits-when-police-can-use-force-is-better-solution-than-banning-police-unions/">protecting officers who have abused their authority</a>. Derek Chauvin, the former police officer facing <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/06/03/868910542/chauvin-and-3-former-officers-face-new-charges-over-george-floyds-death">second-degree murder charges for Floyd’s death</a>, had nearly <a href="https://www.mercurynews.com/2020/05/30/minneapolis-officers-work-personal-background-detailed-2/">20 complaints filed against him during his career</a> but only received two letters of reprimand.</p>
<p>Many people who support labor unions in principle, who view them as a countervailing force against the power of employers, have only recently <a href="https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2020-06-15/police-unions-george-floyd-reform">come to view police unions as problematic</a> – as entities that <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/how-police-union-power-helped-increase-abuses">perpetuate a culture of racism and violence</a>.</p>
<p>But this sentiment reverberates through the history of the U.S. labor movement. As a <a href="https://ler.la.psu.edu/people/pfc2">labor scholar</a> who has <a href="https://theconversation.com/essential-us-workers-often-lack-sick-leave-and-health-care-benefits-taken-for-granted-in-most-other-countries-136802">written about unions</a> for <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/bjir.12526">decades</a>, I think this viewpoint can be explained by the fact that police unions differ fundamentally from almost all trade unions in America.</p>
<h2>Foot soldiers for the status quo</h2>
<p>For many veterans of the labor movement, <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-3">police have been on the wrong side</a> of the centuries-old struggle between workers and employers. <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/mayhem-in-madison-police-remove-protesters-lockdown-capitol-2011-3">Rather than side with other members of the working class</a>, police have used their legal authority to protect businesses and private property, enforcing laws viewed by many as anti-union. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351762/original/file-20200807-14-1ftxpa0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Washington State Police use tear gas to disperse a crowd in Seattle on May 30, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/washington-state-police-uses-tear-gas-to-disperse-a-crowd-news-photo/1216441447?adppopup=true">Jason Redmond/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The strain between law enforcement and labor goes back to the origins of <a href="https://plsonline.eku.edu/insidelook/history-policing-united-states-part-3">American unions in the mid 19th century</a>. Workers formed unions to fight for wage increases, reduced working hours and humane working conditions. </p>
<p>For employers, this was an attack on the existing societal power structure. They enlisted the government as the defender of capital and property rights, and <a href="http://america.aljazeera.com/articles/2014/12/22/police-unions-havealwaysbeenalabormovementapart.html">police officers were the foot soldiers</a> who defended the status quo.</p>
<p>When workers managed to form unions, companies called on local police to disperse union gatherings, marches and picket lines, using <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-1897-massacre-pennsylvania-coal-miners-morphed-galvanizing-crisis-forgotten-history-180971695/">violence and mass arrests to break the will of strikers</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=459&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/353650/original/file-20200819-42970-1xypttm.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=577&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mounted New York City police officers battle with striking members of the International Longshoremen’s Association, March 24, 1954.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>A narrow focus</h2>
<p>Police work is a fundamentally conservative act. And police officers tend to be politically conservative and Republican.</p>
<p>A poll of police <a href="https://www.policemag.com/342098/the-2016-police-presidential-poll">conducted in September 2016 by POLICE Magazine</a> found that 84% of officers intended to vote for Donald Trump that November. And law enforcement unions like the Fraternal Order of Police, the International Union of Police Associations and the National Border Patrol Council <a href="https://theintercept.com/2016/10/09/police-unions-reject-charges-of-bias-find-a-hero-in-donald-trump/">all endorsed Trump’s candidacy in 2016</a>. </p>
<p>This contrasts sharply with the 39% share of all <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/democrats-labor-to-stem-flow-of-union-voters-to-trump-11567422002">union voters who voted for Trump</a> and the fact that every other union which made an <a href="https://justfacts.votesmart.org/candidate/evaluations/55463/hillary-clinton">endorsement supported Hillary Clinton</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=399&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/351765/original/file-20200807-14-1nkoc2z.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=502&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Police surround a protester in Boston, Massachusetts on May 31, 2020.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/police-surround-a-protester-during-clashes-after-a-news-photo/1216621057?adppopup=true">Joseph Prezioso/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
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<p>Exclusively protecting the interests of their members, without consideration for other workers, also sets police unions apart from other labor groups. Yes, the first priority of any union is to fight for their members, but most other unions see that fight in the context of a <a href="https://aflcio.org/what-unions-do/social-economic-justice">larger movement that fights for all workers</a>.</p>
<p>Police unions do not see themselves as <a href="https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-to-know-police-unions-labor-movement">part of this movement</a>. With one exception – the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/11/police-unions-american-labor-movement-protest">International Union of Police Associations</a>, which represents just <a href="https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ftelea9716.pdf">2.7% of American police</a> – law enforcement unions are not affiliated with the AFL-CIO, the U.S. labor body that unites all unions.</p>
<h2>Alternative justice system</h2>
<p>A central concern with police unions is that they use collective bargaining to negotiate contracts that reduce police transparency and accountability. This allows officers who engage in excessive violence to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/06/10/police-unions-violence-research-george-floyd/">avoid the consequences of their actions</a> and remain on the job.</p>
<p>In a way, some police unions have created an <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/06/restorative-justice-police-violence/489221/">alternative justice system</a> that prevents police departments and municipalities from disciplining or discharging officers who have committed crimes against the people they are sworn to serve. </p>
<p>In Minneapolis, residents filed more than <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-problem-with-police-unions-11591830984">2,600 misconduct complaints</a> against police officers between 2012 and 2020. But only 12 of those grievances resulted in discipline. The most significant <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html">punishment any officer received was a 40-hour suspension</a>.</p>
<p>Besides collective bargaining, police have used the political process – including <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/jun/23/police-unions-spending-policy-reform-chicago-new-york-la">candidate endorsements and lobbying</a> – to secure local and state legislation that protects their members and quells efforts to provide greater police accountability. </p>
<p>Police officers are a formidable political force because they represent <a href="https://www.thedailybeast.com/the-gop-and-police-unions-a-love-story">the principle of law and order</a>. Candidates endorsed by the police unions can claim they are the law and order candidate. Once these candidates win office, police unions have <a href="https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2020/06/george-floyd-protests-police-abuse-reform-qualified-immunity-polls.html">significant leverage to lobby for policies</a> they support or block those they oppose. </p>
<p>Because of this power, critics claim that police unions don’t feel accountable to the citizens they serve. An attorney who sued the Minneapolis Police Department on behalf of a Black resident who was <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/05/30/us/derek-chauvin-george-floyd.html">severely beaten by police officers</a> said that he is convinced that Minneapolis “officers think they don’t have to abide by their own training and rules when dealing with the public.” </p>
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<p>George Floyd’s death has raised serious concerns about the current role of police and police unions in our society. Several unions have demanded that the International Union of Police Associations be expelled from the U.S. labor federation. Other <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/politics-news/national-labor-groups-mostly-close-ranks-defend-police-unions-n1231573">unions oppose expulsion</a>. They argue that the labor movement can have a greater impact on a police union that is inside the “House of Labor.”</p>
<p>In any case, there is a growing recognition that police unions differ significantly from other unions. And there is a growing acceptance that they are not part of the larger American labor movement but rather a narrowly focused group pursuing their own self-interests, often to the detriment of the nation at large.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/142538/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Paul F. Clark does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>George Floyd’s death has thrust police unions into the spotlight amid a growing recognition that they are not part of the U.S. labor movement but a narrow interest group pursuing their self-interests.Paul F. Clark, School Director and Professor of Labor and Employment Relations, Penn StateLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/1197222019-07-31T11:41:48Z2019-07-31T11:41:48ZHow organized labor can reverse decades of decline<p>Collective bargaining has long been one of organized labor’s most attractive selling points. </p>
<p>In its simplest form, collective bargaining involves an organized body of employees negotiating wages and other conditions of employment. In other words, unions are saying: Join us, and we’ll bargain with your boss for better pay.</p>
<p>Unfortunately, traditional collective bargaining is no longer an effective strategy for labor union growth. That’s because <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/bp235/">employers</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-americas-labor-unions-are-about-to-die-69575">many states</a> have made it incredibly hard for workers to form a union, which is necessary for workers to bargain collectively. </p>
<p><a href="https://hbr.org/2019/01/the-tactics-media-unions-are-using-to-build-membership">My own research</a> suggests unions should pursue alternative ways to organize, such as by focusing on more forceful worker advocacy and offering benefits like health care. Doing so would help unions swell in size, putting them in a stronger position to secure and defend the collective bargaining rights that <a href="https://theconversation.com/the-rise-and-fall-of-us-labor-unions-and-why-they-still-matter-38263">helped build America’s middle class</a>.</p>
<h2>Why unions still matter</h2>
<p>Unions <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/37157281_Union_Membership_Trends_in_the_United_States">reached their pinnacle</a> in the mid-1950s when a third of American workers belonged to one. Today, <a href="https://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.t01.htm">that figure stands at</a> just 10.5%.</p>
<p>A big part of the problem is that employers have used heavy-handed <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/bp235/">legal and managerial tactics</a> to block organizing and the elections necessary to form a union. And <a href="https://employment.findlaw.com/wages-and-benefits/what-are-right-to-work-laws.html">more than half of U.S. states</a> have passed so-called right to work laws, which allow workers at a unionized company to avoid paying dues. </p>
<p>The stakes of this challenge are high – not just for unions but for most workers in the U.S. That’s because weaker <a href="https://www.epi.org/publication/how-todays-unions-help-working-people-giving-workers-the-power-to-improve-their-jobs-and-unrig-the-economy/">unions correlate</a> with lower wages, reduced benefits and greater economic inequality. </p>
<p>Millions stand to gain from a strengthened labor movement, from <a href="https://workersolidarity.net/2019/05/15/uber-stock-sales-flop-as-global-rideshare-workers-strike/">Uber and Lyft drivers</a> in the gig economy to low-wage employees in retail and hospitality. And surveys show nearly half of nonunion workers in the U.S. <a href="https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/a-new-survey-takes-pulse-worker-voice-america">say they would join one</a> if they could. </p>
<p>I believe there are three models traditional unions could pursue to add members without relying on workplace certification and collective bargaining. </p>
<h2>Advocating for workers</h2>
<p>One approach is to build on the success of worker advocacy groups like <a href="https://fightfor15.org/">Fight for $15</a> and the <a href="https://www.domesticworkers.org/">National Domestic Workers Alliance</a>. </p>
<p>Fight for $15, for example, played a leading role advocating increases in the minimum wage in several states, most recently <a href="https://fightfor15.org/connecticut-victory/">Connecticut</a>, while the National Domestic Workers Alliance <a href="https://www.domesticworkers.org/bill-of-rights/new-york">helped secure the passage</a> of the domestic workers bill of rights in New York.</p>
<p>What they all have in common is that they engage in protests and strikes to call public attention to the plight of exploited workers while advocating for economic and social justice. Unions, which used to engage in more of this kind of activism, need to recapture some of that militant spirit. </p>
<h2>Establishing minimum standards</h2>
<p>A second model involves pushing employers to agree to a minimum set of standards for benefits and pay to provide workers.</p>
<p>The Writers Guild of America, which represent screenwriters and others in television, theater and Hollywood, exemplify this model. For example, they establish <a href="https://www.wgaeast.org/guild-contracts/mba/">minimum levels of compensation</a> for specific jobs and duties and then require members – both employers and workers – to adhere to them. It’s a collective bargaining agreement with a potentially much wider reach. </p>
<p>That’s because these agreements are negotiated with employers but also cover independent contractors who sign on as well. Their strength comes from the aggressive organizing and advocacy plus the strategic importance of the workers they represent, which puts pressure on employers to take part and meet the minimum standards.</p>
<p>Other unions could expand this approach to encourage workers throughout industries that have little or no labor representation to join their ranks as affiliated members, which should pressure employers to follow suit.</p>
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<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=477&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/286319/original/file-20190730-186814-c6metd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Unions peaked in the 1950s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.apimages.com/metadata/Index/Watchf-AP-A-NJ-USA-APHS384972-Labor-Unions-Unit-/4f3c09caec404b409dec31cc37b982eb/153/0">AP Photo/Sam Myers</a></span>
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<h2>Unions with benefits</h2>
<p>Another approach involves focusing on offering special benefits to independent workers in exchange for fees. </p>
<p>Some labor groups already do this, but the workers would benefit from unions combining their collective power to offer more heavily discounted goods and services, such as health care, disability benefits and legal representation.</p>
<p>For example, although the 375,000-strong <a href="https://www.freelancersunion.org/">Freelancers Union</a> can’t negotiate over pay, it offers independent contractors these sorts of discounted benefits. Instead of charging dues, it charges fees for its benefits, essentially operating as its own insurance company. It also advocates for public policy changes that safeguard freelancers from exploitation, such as New York’s <a href="http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/nyc-passes-law-forcing-employers-pay-freelancers-time-article-1.2847980">Freelance Wage Protection Act of 2010</a>. </p>
<p>This model is probably the approach most likely to succeed in attracting large numbers of new members. The growing gig economy and low-wage industries like fast food are two areas that could receive benefits from these types of collective entities.</p>
<h2>The endgame</h2>
<p>Ideally, unions would embrace all three of these models, offering discounted benefits to any worker interested in signing on, fighting for minimum standards across industries and putting worker advocacy front and center. By broadening the ways in which workers can join and what they offer, unions will become stronger and closer to the people and communities that they are meant to represent. </p>
<p>But by no means are these models meant to supplant organized labor’s traditional collective bargaining role. My point is that unions should break the straightjacket fixation on traditional bargaining and use alternative models as intermediate steps to the ultimate goal of unionizing more workplaces in order to negotiate collective bargaining agreements on behalf of workers. </p>
<p>To get there, though, unions must mobilize a critical mass of workers. Only then will they break the dynamic of labor’s decline.</p>
<p>[ <em>Deep knowledge, daily.</em> <a href="https://theconversation.com/us/newsletters?utm_source=TCUS&utm_medium=inline-link&utm_campaign=newsletter-text&utm_content=deepknowledge">Sign up for The Conversation’s newsletter</a>. ]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/119722/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marick Masters receives funding from various government and nonprofit organizations and is a senior partner with AIM Consulting. </span></em></p>Unions should move their focus away from traditional collective bargaining and instead embrace new ways to attract new members, such as by offering discounted benefits and engaging in more advocacy.Marick Masters, Professor of Business and Adjunct Professor of Political Science, Wayne State UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.