Collective Bargaining: A Positive Force For The Greater Good

This month, CWA News focuses on how the power of collective bargaining and worker organization contribute to the general well-being of all citizens — in the United States and around the world.

Two points are striking from the articles in this special report:

1)  In the United States, many of our most important social gains — from the 40-hour week to the passage of Medicare — came about when worker representation and union influence was much greater than today. And now, as the percentage of workers with bargaining rights has declined from a high of 35 percent to 12 percent, every one of these progressive programs is under attack from business and anti-worker forces.

2)  By contrast, other developed and even emerging nations have seen growth in bargaining rights to levels much higher than ours. And as the chart below demonstrates, the strength and influence of organized workers directly translates into strong social programs and policies — universal health care coverage, strong retirement security systems, extensive family leave programs, and more.

These other nations recognize that workers' rights and collective bargaining are a public good, not an impediment to productivity, as corporate America would have us believe. That's the message behind labor's campaign to strengthen workers' bargaining rights through passage of the Employee Free Choice Act.