Low-Wage Workers Need Unions

"Class warfare." That's the phrase that social conservatives use to heap scorn on any talk about income inequality in America. But the political environment may be changing. Even President Bush admits that income inequality has been rising for the past 25 years.

The gap between rich and poor is at an all-time high in New York City. Most new jobs created in the city's labor market these days are either very high-wage or very low-wage. Historically, the way out of low-wage work was through unionized labor. But today only 7.4 percent of America's workforce is unionized.

Right to Unionize

In 1935, the right of most American workers to organize into labor unions was established in law with the passage of the National Labor Relations Act. Unionization has brought great benefits to workers, but some are still denied the right to organize through employer intimidation, endless litigation, or governmental disregard of labor laws.

More than any other sector of the workforce, low-wage workers need to be unionized. Employers are providing fewer benefits for their workers, especially in the areas of health insurance and pensions, and this trend especially hurts low-wage employees.

In the latest Community Service Society (CSS) survey of low-income New Yorkers, only 45 percent of low-wage workers say they receive health insurance on the job, 35 percent have prescription drug coverage, 37 percent have a pension plan, and 46 percent get paid sick leave. These are the sort of job-related benefits that most of us take for granted.

But individual low-wage workers have little bargaining power. Many non-union employers threaten reprisals against employees who try to unionize their work place. Most low-wage workers are easily replaced if they insist on higher wages, better working conditions, or good benefits.

Many new jobs
are low-wage

Union workers enjoy a higher standard of living than non-union workers -- a 30 percent difference between union and non-union earnings on average. For Blacks, women, and immigrants, average earnings are even higher above non-union levels. Union workers are more likely to have health insurance, a decent pension, and other benefits.

A recent report produced by CSS and commissioned by Local 32BJ of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), illustrates the vast difference a unionized workforce can make in the lives of its workers. The report spotlights New York City's 63,000 private security guards. These workers provide the first line of defense for tenants and visitors in many of the city's largest and most famous commercial buildings.

The report, called Shortchanging Security, includes feedback from five focus groups of guards describing their work environment and training. It is available online on our website at www.cssny.org.

Almost 95 percent of the security guard workforce is non-union. Over eight in ten are male and mostly men of color. A majority (56 percent) are Black. Another 21 percent are Latino.

Most security guards are poorly paid. The median hourly wage for guards in the New York City area is $10.14, only 55 percent of the median for all workers in the metropolitan area, $18.39. Few guards receive benefits on the job. Most non-union guards labor without a single day of paid sick leave. Given their economic situation, this means they have no choice but to come to work sick.

The result is a workforce with low morale and high turnover. And because they are being shortchanged, so is public safety.

These guards are part of the city's working poor. They live from paycheck to paycheck. They cannot afford the health care they need. Yet they often earn too much to qualify for public benefits such as Food Stamps or Medicaid.

In sharp contrast, unionized guards report that their wages, health benefits, and pensions are sufficient to give them a sense that they can support their families. They received adequate training and enjoyed sufficient job security to allow them to approach their work with confidence and professionalism.

Living Wage Jobs

While globalization has hurt the low-wage sector, many low-wage jobs, such as security guards, restaurant employees, and health care workers cannot be outsourced overseas. If these jobs were unionized, they could help to fill a significant gap in the city, particularly for less educated men of color who today experience high rates of unemployment. The existence of living wage jobs for security guards in the unionized sector demonstrates that this is an achievable goal.

History has shown that low-wage jobs need not remain low-wage forever. Auto workers had jobs with low pay and little benefits that became good, family-sustaining jobs because of unionization. The same was true of many workers in heavy manufacturing and factory jobs. But today most low-wage jobs are no longer the traditional pathway to the middle class.

Low-wage jobs should be unionized, just as the jobs created out of the industrial revolution were eventually unionized in the last century. Those unionized sectors of the economy built a strong middle class, a keystone to our strength as a nation.

From the New York Amsterdam News
May 3 - 9, 2007