Protecting jobs in Alabama
Mar 11, 2010 | 1071 views | 3 
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Influenced by industry, manufacturing and business interests — some of the biggest of the so-called “big mules” — the state’s history is dotted with examples. Alabama has sent in troops to protect strike-breakers, allowed company agents to harass union organizers and, under provisions of the anti-labor Taft-Hartley Act, became a “right-to-work” state. That meant workers did not have to join a union in order to hold a job.
That hostility, coupled with aggressive anti-union activity by companies where unions might have gained members, has left Alabama a state where less than 10 percent of workers in 2008 belonged to a union.
The advantages and disadvantages of unions — for the worker and the industry — have been debated long and hard. The differences will not be resolved on this page. However, both sides agree that workers who belong to unions generally enjoy more job security than those who do not — assuming there is a job in which to be secure. That’s no insignificant side item in the aftermath of the Great Recession.
Job security may be why union membership in Alabama is on the rise for the first time in a long time.
According to recently released Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of the state work force belonging to unions increased from 9.8 percent in 2008 to 10.9 percent in 2009. That’s notable considering the economy remains weak and many jobs have gone overseas or disappeared. At the same time, the number of Alabamians whose place of employment has unions — regardless of whether they are union members — rose by 12 percent.
Labor and management were caught by surprise when these figures were released recently. In the coming months, the increase is sure to shape the strategies of both sides.
When economists and historians assess the impact of the Great Recession, how workers sought to protect their jobs will be one of the more significant aspects of that story. Just how significant remains to be seen.
Michigan is an excellent example of how unions can provide job security. Sorry, strong unions simply won't provide job security.
I was born into a family several decades ago where coal mining and truck driving was the best a man could hope for. In the early part of the last century, unions were about the only labor & safety representatives there was, then along came the Department of Labor with their OSHA dept. To establish health & safety rules as federal law. They also established Laws pertaining to how
compensation would be accomplished. These two things made unions redundant! All you get by joining a union now is the opportunity to pay for the privilege of being a union man/woman.
It is useless.
Somehow in certain cases the Unions have changed to become the streetcorner bully that fights management to keep a marginal worker that keeps laying out doing meth, Anniston Army Depot, or keep a teacher that has sex with a student, Alabama Education Association.
There are still some pretty good Union folks and I hope they get back to their roots. Their mantra should be that they will provide the best trained, best qualified best mannered workers, Bar None, and that will justify increased wages and hiring preferences.
I have managed to find excellent Union construction locals from time to time that stress good work ethic and believe me, they get hired and stay on the job.