Labor Unions Rebirth
Labor unions have been an essential part of American worker culturesince their beginnings in the late 1800's. In the beginning, these unionswere essential because of the most horrendous circumstances under whichworkers were kept -- dangerous factories, unlivable wages, and abusivesupervisors were the norm for many hard working Americans. Some of theseconcepts were touched on in Chapter One of Rekindling the Movement.Originally unions were craft-based like guilds had been, and were socialmovements more than the business agreements that they have become over theyears. Recently, for many unions at least, there has been a trend ofreturning to that social movement style union. Unions gained strength inthe 1930s when working class protest shaped the world, and the wars madethe labor unions even stronger as they bonded together in a mutual goal ofcreating a better American workforce. However, after the wars, new lawsrestricted what unions could do and people thought they simply weren'tnecessary like they had once been, and support for the unions seriouslyfaded. While unions have returned to a degree to being political/socialorganizations, many unions today are still suffering from the negative
It is proposed that what unions and workers must do is toaccept the fact that the businesses work like this, and to learn how towork within this system. It seemed like a whole newbeginning for us. Instead,unions should be working hard to make temporary work less common. The laborers were unhappy in theworkplace and beginning to voice that opinion loudly. We all want better working conditionsand higher pay and job stability. Companies no longer want to supply job security or otherbenefits to workers because it is an inconvenience to the way that bigbusinesses work. However, focusing unions on a mobile work environment and shiftingaway from the traditional union is, in my opinion, a mistake. Themajor failing of my union, I believe, is that while we realize that thegame was created by the other team, somehow we have become resigned to thefact that the other team will win this game. The change must begin somewhere,and that somewhere must be among the workers who should be taking advantageof the strength in numbers and creating a unified revolution. Some mention was made about getting involved insome local protests of the World Trade Organization to help protect jobs,but this did very little for those of us in such a sudden and currentsituation. Those laid off as well as those whostill remained active employees were distressed. The workers would have suggestion after suggestion on howto improve things within the company. As a union,my fellow workers and myself feel quite isolated and alone in ourstruggles, and all attempts to improve our situation are spearheaded byindividual workers with little to no support from our union managers, whichleaves the attempts with very little support and quickly diminishinginterest.
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Acceptance Essays
