Unions Are About Respect

It’s a common refrain among employees across the US: management doesn’t show any respect, empathy, or understanding. Decisions come down that don’t take into account that employees are human beings. Whether it’s the expectation of inhuman perfection in performance reviews, or telling you “It’s just not a good time for you to take PTO,” employees are expected to perform like machines.

But is that really just a necessary evil that goes with earning a living? Business owners, CEOs, and upper management have profit as their number one motive, but does that mean that they can’t take the humanity of their employees into account? And is dealing with profit-above-all bosses just the cost of earning a paycheck?

Of course not!

Unions exist in no small part to help employees get the respect and consideration they deserve. Collective bargaining and cooperation among employees means that upper management can’t just ignore the wishes of the workforce.

Corporations Use “Divide and Conquer Tactics”, Unions Unite Workers

One of the most common tactics that people in power use to maintain their hold on those they lead is “Divide and Conquer.” Don’t think that managers don’t know this tactic, and don’t use it to their benefit. It’s practically codified in leadership books, seminars, and training programs.

Ask yourself if this sounds familiar:

• Management discourages workers from discussing conditions at the office
• Management discourages workers from talking about pay—whether that’s salary or bonuses
• Managers single out individual employees for public criticism
• Managers hint that you shouldn’t talk about this or that upcoming policy with your workmates
• Managers insist on keeping things “offline” when it comes to criticisms of company issues, requiring you to “let me handle it privately.”

These are just a few ways in which management works to keep problems contained, by making them seem like an individual issue rather than a collective one.

Unions, on the other hand, encourage transparency and openness. Unions encourage members and non-members alike to discuss wages, bonuses, performance initiatives, or issues with company policies. Unions give employees the power of working as a group, instead of every employee for themselves.

A cornerstone of unions is the collective bargaining agreement . This is a contract that spells out the terms and conditions of employment, including measures like how disciplinary action can proceed, how new policies can be adopted, and just about everything else pertaining to the relationship between employer and employee. These agreements are public, and discussed and negotiated until all parties are as satisfied as possible, instead of being decided and enforced by a few people up top.

Corporations Treat Employees Like Objects, Unions Keep a Human Touch

Think about the fact that the department of a company that usually functions as a go-between for employees and management is called “Human Resources.”

The term was coined in 1893 , so perhaps it should come as no surprise that it has a certain…inhumanity to it.

Baked into the concept of “Human Resources” is that each employee is effectively a line item, almost an object, like a ream of paper for the printer or a desk. The managerial concept reduces employees to little more than a profit/loss figure: how much money is spent on compensation versus how much revenue a given employee generates.

To a degree, from a business standpoint, this makes sense. After all: the goal of the big bosses is to keep increasing profits. They can’t think about their employees as people, or they wouldn’t be able to make the “tough calls.”

But it makes for a world in which employees and upper management are alienated from each other completely.

This is where unions come in: the whole point of the union is to remember that employees are human. They have bad days, they have lives outside of the office, they have needs. Collective bargaining agreements and the process of creating them brings the human element back into the equation.

A Union Grants Workers The Respect They Need to do Their Jobs Effectively

If you’ve found that your workplace has become a series of disrespectful, inconsiderate policies from on high and demands for perfection that no human can actually live up to, it can be exhausting, stressful, and demoralizing. It becomes even more difficult to live with when you believe that you’re the only one suffering.

Unionizing is the solution to that feeling of alienation and lonely suffering. Unions help workers gain respect from upper management, by encouraging transparency about employees’ experiences, and bringing the concerns of individuals together into a group setting. They force the decision makers to take notice and take account of the needs of employees, instead of treating them like just another line item on a profit/loss sheet.

If you want more respect in the workplace, unionize your job!