Participation in labor unions has decreased by over 50% in the last forty years
Labor and Collective Efforts
The overwhelming majority of the global population are in engaged in some form of labor. Labor is also defined as work, a job, a profession, or a career. These descriptors often stratify us along socio-economic lines. Serving a wide variety of functions, work provides meaning and purpose which can often indicates identity and status. Caregiving or parental work are also functions which usually entails uncompensated care and nurturance; a degree of intimacy not associated with most work. Work is social. If we spend a third of our lives on the job then we are engaging with co-workers often for more time than we spend with family and other intimates.
Work is tedious, burdensome, repetitive, imprisoning, demanding, backbreaking, stressful, necessary, demeaning but also satisfying. But ultimately work is survival. Whatever the compensation, it pays at least some of the bills; a necessary vehicle to the acquisition of a wide
array of consumer needs and goods. And for those higher up the socio-economic ladder it is a vehicle for more and better-quality goods. It is a means to an end. Many use their job as a stepping-stone to for other opportunities. A professional career pathway and trajectory is
preserved for a minority of the population. And for some individuals, work is often power. Certain jobs and its compensation can buy influence which may be used to effect dynamics in the social, economic, and political spheres.
Work can also be exploitative. Karl Marx would suggest that work is always an exercise in exploitation, asserting that capitalism is predicated on exploited labor. The concept of “surplus value” essentially defines the amount of profit minus the cost of labor. Free marketers claim that workers are free to choose for whom to offer their labor. That rarified concept eludes the overwhelming majority of workers. Few have the ability to individually negotiate their salary or working conditions. Economic boom and bust cycles are normal but it is those at the lower ends of the pay scale who become collateral damage in the pursuit of profit. Measuring worker productivity is itself an industry. Henry Ford famously created the assembly line as a means for more efficient production. Few would argue against productivity and greater labor efficiency. The issue is who benefits most from greater efficiency. Between the late 1970s and 2020,
worker productivity increased by 64.7% while hourly wage increased by 14.8%.
Collective action in the way of labor unions has been a hedge against the excesses of the profit motive. Many experts suggest that the heyday of unionization occurred following the great depression up to the 70s. Wealth and income disparity was at its lowest. Class mobility was on the rise. More individuals could own homes. Shorter work weeks, fewer hours and safer working conditions characterized labor unions’ victories. Unions for better or worse enabled the marriage of health insurance to employment. It is important to acknowledge that unions were not immune to racism. The history of discrimination in unions is well documented. Some suggest that Ronald Reagan’s termination of over 11,000 air traffic controllers after they walked off the job was a seminal event in the decline of labor unions. Many suggested that this action ushered in a more hostile attitude toward unions and decreased interest collective union
action. The cultural zeitgeist in the 1980s turned toward a more individualist approach to work and the relation between individuals and management. The neo-liberal ideal of a “free” and equal exchange between the individual worker and the manager was heralded. The economy moved away from manufacturing and increasingly toward technology. Opportunities to acquire new and skills occurred outside of the more usual union shops. Union membership decreased by 50% over the following four decades.
A glimmer of hope...
Prices for essential goods continually rise and in some time periods they rise faster creating an inflationary spiral. There are a multitude of factors that contribute to inflation, e.g., a genuine shortage of certain goods. However, not everyone equally suffers the consequence of inflation. In fact, Fortune magazine (December, 2023) reported a joint study by two British think tanks (IPPR and Common Wealth) which found profiteering by some of the world's biggest companies forced prices up significantly higher than costs during 2022. Inflation, the pandemic, continuing and growing inequality as well as public sentiment appear to be boosting interest and defacto
union activity and membership. The bureau of Labor Statistics documents that union membership grew by over 273,000 in this last year. Recent United Auto Workers and Screen Actors Guild victories is hopefully a sign of the new momentum for collective action.
Check out the following on our Resources link:
Cooperative Working
An alternative to unions but also an example of a collective effort are worker coops. The Mondragon “experience” as they prefer to describe it, is a work in progress and perhaps a beacon in the worker coop landscape. Over 70 plus years in the making, worker coops in the Basque region of Spain are alleged to be the most extensive network of worker coops on the globe. At 80 plus coops comprising over 69,000 members, the range of businesses range from agricultural to a university. The effort was given birth by Jose Maria Arizmendieta, a Catholic priest assigned to Mondragon in the Basque region following the Spanish civil war. The area was hurting economically and Arizmendieta was full of ideas and drive. About 10 years following his arrival, the first coop was born. It has thrived and evolved since and clearly has been an inspiration to many globally. The complexity in the arrangement can seem a bit overwhelming or even contradictory, e.g., not all workers are members, but the ten governing principles are often boiled down to a critical two: a democratic work environment and equality in reward. Prospective members are required to make a cash investment in the coop. All
worker members have a vote in the annual general assembly as well as input into the governing councils and daily management. The second most oft mentioned principle is that no one receives more than 6 times the lowest paid worker and, in most businesses the disparity is not more than four and a half. The more interesting aspect of the Mondragon experience is that it exists in the “free market.” Hence, the Mondragon research division studies and plans. It is constantly changing and adapting. These are not utopian seekers of a Marxist model; the coops expand, contract, die and are given birth. The businesses operate with managers and administrators whose roles mirror what happens in a conventional business. The coop education division is consistent in noting that the coops are normalized. There is no flag waving about the coop model. One of the staff in the education division is clear to note that workers still complain. There is no idealization of the model. Most workers are not immersed in any ideological fervor about what they are doing. It is a job but also an opportunity for a humane working environment.
Then so what? Is this a better model than the more hierarchical, more disparate monetary rewards that characterize the reality for most workers globally? Does this more egalitarian model rob entrepreneurial efforts of individual incentive and the fruits found in widespread
economic growth? Hasn’t the neoliberal ethos provided us with incredible products and services largely owed to individuals who have taken the risks and facilitated our reward of their efforts?
One distinguishing characteristic and perhaps one that favors the model is that member workers and not the business are the priority. While it can occur, there are rarely layoffs. There is unemployment compensation and re-training. There is a pension, contribution to health care insurance, and profit sharing.
In other parts of this website, you will find a chorus of literature documenting the growing disparity in the U.S. The Basque region has one of the lowest unemployment, poverty, and disparity rates globally. It is not the only model, but it appears to make an important
contribution. From the perspective of individual member workers in the Mondragon coops, their motives are material. They need jobs, housing, health care and education. But perhaps the broader and deeper question is whether this model contributes to greater gains within any social ecology. Do coop members actually have a better quality of life? Do they experience more equitable access to resources? Are they more satisfied in their work life? And then perhaps the question, does it matter? If the majority of people are mostly satisfied in the current system and do not suffer the fact that CEO wages and discrepancies for those lower down the food chain, then maybe neoliberal model is not so bad. Is there and what it the morality of the current system? Does it come down to a value and therefore commitment to a more progressive equity in the work sphere? But perhaps most important, are Americans aware of coops? Do we know to what extent they exist in our communities?
You will find a number of resources about coops (links below) particularly in the U.S which we invite you to explore. Those of you in the San Francisco Bay area may be familiar with the baker coops, some of whom are named after the Mondragon founder. It is also important to note that while there is similarity in coops, there are differences in structure, governance, and compensation. Some coops like these bakeries in San Francisco Bay area are committed to total wage equality for all those involved in the respective bakery. One resource to note is the International Coop Alliance (https://www.ica.coop/en) which claims up to a billion global workers involved in coops.
Check out the following on our Resources link:
How Mondragon Became the World
Massachusetts: A Hotbed for Employee Ownership
Wealth and Income Inequality in the Basque Region
Landscape of California Cooperatives
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