Things unions are responsible for.

The last few weeks have the spotlight on the hot button topic of Unions.  Unions are blamed for a ton of things and are generally reviled by those not in them. I’m not going to argue for or against them (I’m for their right to exisit, but they piss me off when they put their self interests over right and wrong issues.)  Rather I’ll list the things we have due to the work of collectives of working people against capital interests.

The Good
– Health insurance
– The 8 hour work day.
– The 5 day weeks.
– Worker safety laws.
– Workmans compensation.
– Minimum wage.
– Raising stardard of living for all
– Public work projects.
– Child labor laws.
– Building codes
– Certification of skills.
– Public schooling
– Social security or retirement benefits
– Collective bargaining

The Bad
– Rise in racism/nativism
– Restriction personal economic freedom
– Govenment cost
– Cost of business.
– Inconvenience of strikes
– Reduce competition
– Closed shops
– Certification of skills
– Protection of Union member interests
– Bureaucracy
– Ineffieciency
– Nepotism

There are tons more to add to both lists.  I think its important that we all know that some of the great laws we have that govern work were fought for by people in Unions. On the other had we need to acknowledge some of the issues on the other side of the ledger.
They are not perfect and cause tons of problems but our country is better off because of unions. (Hell,  it’s the UNITED states of America! We were formed as a country by a UNION)

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