As we saw in Chapter 9, Maslow believed that individuals are motivated to satisfy five levels of unmet needs (physiological, safety, social, esteem, and self-actualization). From this perspective, employees hope that full-time work will satisfy at least the two lowest-level needs: they want to be paid wages that are sufficient for them to feed, house, and clothe themselves and their families, and they expect safe working conditions and hope for some degree of job security.

Organizations also have needs: they need to earn profits that will satisfy their owners. They need to keep other stakeholders satisfied as well, which can cost money. Consider a metal-plating business that uses dangerous chemicals in its manufacturing processes; waste-water treatment is essential—and expensive. Sometimes, the needs of employees and employers are consistent: the organization can pay decent wages and provide workers with safe working conditions and job security while still making a satisfactory profit. At other times, there is a conflict—real, perceived, or a little bit of both—between the needs of employees and those of employers. In such cases, workers may be motivated to join a labor union—an organized group of workers that bargains with employers to improve its members’ pay, job security, and working conditions.

Figure 12.1 displays a map of the 2022 annual averages of union membership rates by state. As you can see, a majority of the states have a membership rate below 10% percent. In fact, 30 of the states have membership rates below 10.1%, the U.S. average., and 19 states held membership rates above 10.1% while New Hampshire had a membership rate of 10.1%. States specifically in the East South Central and West South Central regions held membership rates below the national average, while states in the Middle Atlantic and Pacific Divisions had membership rates above the national average.

Why the decline in private sector unionization? Many factors can come into play. For example, the relatively weak economy has reduced the number of workers who have the confidence to go through a union-organizing campaign; many workers are content just to have jobs and do not want to be seen as “rocking the boat.” In addition, the United States has shifted from a manufacturing-based economy characterized by large, historically unionized companies to a service-based economy made up of many small firms that are harder to unionize.^[1]

Union Structure

Unions have a pyramidal structure much like that of large corporations. At the bottom are locals that serve workers in a particular geographical area. Certain members are designated as shop stewards to serve as go-betweens in disputes between workers and supervisors. Locals are usually organized into national unions that assist with local contract negotiations, organize new locals, negotiate contracts for entire industries, and lobby government bodies on issues of importance to organized labor. In turn, national unions may be linked by a labor federation, such as the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL–CIO), which provides assistance to member unions and serves as a principal political organ for organized labor.

Chapter Videos

There are two videos for this chapter, in order to present two opposing points of view as well as some useful history. Pay attention for the historical benefits we take for granted today but that came about as a result of efforts by unions.

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Video Credits: Chapter 12

Thomson Reuters Compliance Learning (2009, November 6). “Managing in a Union Environment.” YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tPqS-HdqnUg

History (2017, September 26). “The Labor Movement in the United States.” YouTube. Retrieved from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewu-v36szlE&amp=&feature=youtu.be