Documents

The Importance of Labor Unions

Many of the benefits American workers now take for granted were gained through the hard work of labor unions in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The 40-hour work week, the right to worker's compensation for on-the-job injuries, safer working conditions, and the minimum wage all came about because labor unions organized workers and, due to the strength of their numbers, were able to force management to acknowledge these fundamental workers' rights. Today, unions still play a vital role in American society, allowing workers to have a voice to balance the interests of corporations who are often focused only on the bottom line.

In my work with the Indiana University Anti-Sweatshop Advisory Committee, I have read about many factories around the world where workers are still struggling for basic rights. In China, the single country which produces the most manufactured goods sold in the US, workers are not allowed to form independent labor unions. As a result, some of the most egregious worker rights violations occur on Chinese soil: hazardous working conditions, forced overtime work, below subsistence-level wages, systematic firing of pregnant employees, and the list goes on. Only through the representation of labor unions can workers in China and other parts of the developing world hope to attain the basic protections we in the US take for granted.

Paid for by Isabel Piedmont-Smith