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Labor agreements made between unions and businesses have been the way that workers have gained every protection and benefit that they have today. There is a reason why businesses fight so hard to keep unions out of their stores and factories—it is because people who are united in a cause will be able to achieve fairer agreements that individuals who negotiate their contracts as lone people. Before unions, Karl Marx predicted an uprising of workers who would overthrow the employers that were taking advantage of them and create a utopia where everyone worked and contributed to a life that was comfortable for all and not just the few rich people who had gotten their on the backs of the workers. Following are some of the important improvements in working conditions that labor agreements have fostered. Minimum Wage Johnny Cash fans will know about working 16 hours and being deeper in debt. The song was written about a time when companies built towns near mines and owned everything in them. Employees had to pay rent and the general store was relatively more expensive than in cities that were public rather than private. Because of low wages, these arrangements allowed the companies to keep their employees close and work them until they were no longer useful. Employees became little more than indentured servants with no time frame as to when they would fulfill their contracts. They may not have literally owed their souls to the company store, but they owed everything else to it. Unions worked to create a minimum wage that required employers to pay a better rate than what employers may otherwise choose. As is evidenced by the strikes against McDonald's and the fight for restaurant employees to earn more than the $2 that goes to pay taxes, the unions still have their work cut out for them. Even with minimum wage, just 80 people own as much capital as half the world, meaning they own the same amount of money as the lower 3.5 billion people on the planet. Work Safety Before unions, when a worker got injured on the job, he was discarded like trash and replaced by an able person who could do the job. Even if the boss was kind and found a way for the employee to go on, there were no safety regulations to protect employees against long-term exposure to hazardous materials. Diseases like black lung caused by exposure to coal dust could have been prevented with the right investment in safety equipment and proper ventilation. However, that was expensive and cut into profits while labor was cheap to employ and cheap to replace. Now construction workers have hard hats and harnesses, and employers pay into Workers' Compensation insurance to cover employees hurt on the job. Though both employers and insurance companies often try to find ways to undermine an employee's claim of injury, at least the structure is in place for people to use when they need it. Other Benefits Unions have also led to the creation of sick leave and vacation time—as well as to the idea of the 40-hour week (and even though sometimes people are asked or required to work more hours today, they are getting paid overtime if they are not on salary). Health insurance, retirement plans, and other benefits have also come from union efforts. Businesses are mandated to make the greatest profits possible, and even today some have questionable practices when it comes to the people they employ. However, being in the workforce would be much more terrible if there had been no unions formed. While businesses will claim that unions and labor agreements lead to an increase in prices, it is important to remind them that an increase in costs of production does not necessarily mean an increase in prices because capitalism follows the law of supply and demand.
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