What do unions do? - book reviews

AFL-CIO American Federationist, The, Oct 13, 1984 by Murray Seeger

What Do Unions Do?

At a time when the labor movement is facing challenges of historic dimensions, Richard B. Freeman and James L. Medoff have produced one of the most important books about unions to be published in the post-war era.

The two Harvard economists have done original research that the labor movement has long needed to prove that it is a positive force in American society. Writing in clear language, Freeman and Medoff have produced a book every trade union activist should read.

They have gathered in one place the most valuable information available on the impact of unions on productivity, wage scales, corporate profits and the political process. They look with objective eyes at the factors of seniority, membership participation, corruption and nonunion workers.

Unlike many other academic observers of unions, Freeman and Medoff analyze the social and democratizing role performed by unions as well as the purely economic.

They put all these factors--positive and negative--on their scholarly scales and conclude that unions are a force for good.

In summing up their research, the economists find that for organized workers unions provide "higher wages and benefits, as well as a voice at the bargaining table and on the shop floor.'

Many non-union workers realize that because of the threat of union organizing "their wages and working conditions are better then they might have been, although generally not as good as they would be under collective bargaining, while others will find that their economic position is worse as a result of unionism.'

Employers at organized establishments "will see that while unionism is associated with a lower rate of return on capital and less managerial flexibility, the extent to which a union is a liability or an asset depends crucially on how management responds to it.'

The authors also conclude that "non-union employers will learn that while the benefits of being union-free generally exceed the costs of union avoidance, the former are often overstated and the latter are often understated.'

"Finally,' Freeman and Medoff write, "the general public will see that in the economic sphere, unions reduce wage inequality, increase industrial democracy, and often raise productivity, while in the political sphere, unions are an important voice for some of our society's weakest and most vulnerable groups, as well as for their own members.'

In the current blizzard of anti-unionism encouraged by a hostile, retrogressive Republican Administration, it is especially important to have this book.

Freeman and Medoff approach labor as friendly critics They have analyzed all the anti-labor propaganda; they have looked at labor's failings and errors; they have looked at the inauspicious future. Still, they offer hopeful, sound evidence that the labor movement will survive the era of Reagan as it survived earlier periods of stress and strain.