Communization: Lack Of Unionization In The Workforce

Labor Exploitation/Unionization

In discussions of labor exploitation, one controversial issue has been the lack of unionization in the workforce. Schlosser would argue that corporations will go to any lengths to prevent their workers from unionizing, in order to isolate and therefore disempower them. However, many corporations would insist that higher concentrations of unionized employees would slow down the rate of production and result in higher cost for consumers. My own view is that a union is a positive thing employees should have, based on my research and experience with the fact that my father worked as president of I.U.P.P.E local 2 union. I watched how he negotiated hardcore to protect employees, worked long hours to help those
who were just trying to make a living and watched how personal he took each situation when things didn’t work in the employees favor. According to Schlosser “Roughly 90 percent of the nation’s fast food workers are paid an hourly wage, provided no benefits and scheduled to work only as needed.” This is really similar to the security guard industry. Security guards worked hourly, had no benefits and for the most part scheduled only when needed. There were some instances that the security guards had a steady assignment but the hours were long. From reading Fast Food Nation and I was a Warehouse Slave it demonstrates with similarities that no matter what the industry we work in there are injustices everywhere that can be helped with unionizing. When my dad came home from the army he started working as a private armed security officer for a company.
While working my dad went to college and then on to law school. He end up running the security firm legal department. One thing that was a problem was the fact that most of the guards were assigned to work for companies and they were not treated fairly because they were not officially an employee of the company they did security at. My dad was instrumental in working with the different security guard firms to come together and unite them to form one large union. The union grew to over 10,000+ members and once he was voted to president he devoted most of his career in negotiating on behalf of the rights of the armed, unarmed and private security guards. They ranged from working in the smallest of stores, to major corporate contracts to the ones riding in the brinks trucks. The opposition mostly came from the larger corporations that hired the security firms to place the guards within their companies. They did everything in their power not to pay any extra wages because they felt guards did not deserve it. The corporations usually signed an extensive contract with the security firms so they felt they were honoring that contract. My father position was yes you should honor the contract for however many years it states, but things change so if the guards become unionized that benefits everyone involved. The guards are placed in the companies to protect the workers and should be paid accordingly. Why shouldn’t the guards be held to a higher regard for doing so? What started to happen was that the guards were getting more and more complaints for any little things and something’s were just ridiculous. The firms started getting more and more request for replacements. Once a guard was taken off a sight it was harder to find a new assignment fast. So guards just end up looking for a job in a whole new field. Another tactic that the different companies used were to try
and sway some of the security guard firms top executives to come work for them so they can implement their own in-house security. In a story written in the New York Times, according to Steven Greenhouse “The battle between cablevision and organized labor has dragged on for months, punctuated by protests and lawsuits, in a feud that has been particularly nasty even by most labor-management standards. Now the National Labor Relations Board has accused the company of acting illegally to avoid reaching an agreement with several hundred unionized cable installers in Brooklyn.” This is basically saying that the tactics that cablevision is using to avoid becoming unionized are illegal, unethical and more of a stall tactic. Just like the security guards my dad represented even though there was a union in place, the companies were using similar tactics to avoid having to deal with anything to do with labor equality. I definitely encourage workers to fight for rights and have a union to represent them. Unions for the most part are there to make a difference, and make sure equality is at the forefront. Most people think it is an uphill battle, and for the most part it is but in the end it is all worth the fight. I watch my dad do positive things for the union and the members. People usually only see the president and the lawyers, but so many other people collectively fight the fight.