News

A trend is forming that unions are crucial in helping people face the changing world of work

Economic commentator Tim Dunlop, the author of the book “Why the Future Is Worthless,” which examines the changing nature of work as more jobs are automated, has concluded that the best way to prepare for the future world of work is to join a union. His editorial in The Guardian spells out the value of unions in the new work place. Dunlop’s words are echoed in another UK daily, The Mirror, where columnist Kevin Maguire writes, “Failing to Join a Union in 2017 is a mug’s game”, which draws inspiration from Unison’s recent landmark victory over the Conservative Government. The Financial Times Global Business Columnist, Rana Foroohar, makes an equally persuasive case for union membership in the United States in her article, “Strong unions will boost America’s economy”.

UNI Global Union’s General Secretary Philip Jennings says the significance of unions in the digital workplace is building momentum, “As the nature of the digital challenge becomes clearer and the lack of preparedness to deal with the consequences is exposed, it is a welcome sign that these commentators recognise the vital role that unions can play to help workers with decent work.

“Union membership will be a way for the worker, often displaced and isolated, to have his or her rights represented. UNISON’s victory, highlighted by Maguire, and the benefits of being a union member today are clear and incontrovertible.

“Foroohar is right when she argues that the power imbalances between business and labour are just as extreme today as in the 1930s.  She cites evidence that we have to go back a century to match today’s inequality in the USA as the middle class is hollowed out of jobs and wage growth.

“Our UNI Breaking Through strategy is geared to union growth around the world -our daily organising push confirms that we do not have a level playing field. The obstacles workers face to organise are rising – the 2017 ITUC Global Rights Index shows how worker rights to join unions are under assault around the world. Another significant publication from the ITUC, the 2017 Global Poll, shows that 85% of people strongly supported union membership and 91% favour collective bargaining.

In his article Dunlop argues, “Unless we equalize the power between workers and employees, between the rich and the poor, the politically connected and the marginal, then the new technologies are simply going to entrench inequality rather do anything about solving it. Historically the only organisation that has ever been able to do this, to give workers a voice in the way employment and society more broadly are organised, is the union movement.

“This is why when asked how Australia had maintained a fairer society than the United States, Nobel Prize-winning economist Joseph Stiglitz, gave a one-word answer: ‘Unions.’ ”

Foroohar writing in the Financial Times concurs with Stiglitz and quotes other sources demonstrating there is growing public support for unions in the United States, including a Pew Foundation report on millennials support for unions and an article from commentator Kashana Cauley in the New York Times. Cauley calls on millennials to fight back against a United States government that “wants to disembowel public and private healthcare” by joining a union.

Jennings adds, “We must do more to get the message out to young people – unions can be their friend in what is already a desperately unequal world of work. This is our duty and responsibility to the current generation of young workers and the next.”

Maguire in The Mirror is equally forthright in his assessment of the power and value of union membership, “TUC research records higher wages, greater job security and even fewer accidents in unionised workplaces…Unison’s glorious victory established you might get justice if you’re part of the union. Failing to join a union in 2017 is a mug’s game.”

Jennings concludes, “The theme of our Congress in Liverpool in 2018 is “Making It Happen” and will feature how unions are innovating to grow numbers and capacity.”