Systematically Dissecting Unions: Introduction

A creation of the 19th century and industrialization in the Western World, unions in the United States and Europe have been negotiating with business for the rights of workers for over 150 years now. Unions emerged when workers often faced long days (often 12 to 16 hours) and were subject to unsafe work conditions. These collective institutions pushed for major reform in the areas of child labor, workweeks, and vacation time which helped the average worker. While unions did provide an important intermediary between business and labor and were instrumental in lobbying for a number of pieces of legislation, their subsistence has led to interference in the labor and economic markets, a culture of laziness (for certain union members), increased capital mobility, and inherent inefficiency. In an era of increasing technology, soft intellectual labor, and fairly strict government labor laws, the question is whether unions in industrialized nations such as the US have outlived their primary societal functions and need for existence? The quick answer is “yes” which will be reflected in the rest of the series.

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