Instead of changing their organizing strategies to reflect where the new jobs are today and coming up with creative ways to weave their way into our changing society, unions chose to maintain the status quo. Recently, they began to realize they have to change if they want to survive. Dworkin says it's unfortunate that the public has such a poor opinion of unions. Much of our work force is made up of younger workers who aren't unionized and aren't aware that many of the benefits they enjoy are the result of battles won by unions in previous generations. They forget all of the good things unions did for labor in this country and all of things they continue to do.
Unions play significant roles in assuring better wages, benefits and working conditions.
For example, studies show that unionized workers earn more per hour than nonunionized workers. Unions also provide valuable assistance in negotiating grievance procedures where employees may challenge management decisions they see as arbitrary or discriminatory. Although they're down, Dworkin says, unions are definitely not out and will continue to provide a valuable service to workers in the future. I disagree with that completely. Even if union membership falls to 10 percent of the labor force by the year 2050, this still could represent almost 30 million workers.