Unions were originally created to protect workers from being exploited by unscrupulous employers and improve working conditions. They work by allowing the workers to withhold labour en masse if they feel that they are being treated unfairly. This works because every day that a business’ employees are off the job, it costs the business money. Long strikes could cause the business to go under so there is tremendous pressure on the employer to settle a strike quickly.
This, perhaps, is the reason why many public sector strikes have been prolonged and largely unsuccessful. Every day that the workers are off the job, the employer saves money. Not alot of pressure to settle on the employer side. On the workiers’ side, there is still pressure in the form of lost wages. The only possible pressure that the employer might feel in a public sector strike comes from its constituents. And this is where a strike essentially breaks down into a public relations campaign. The employer tries to convince the public that they are being reasonable so as to paint the union greedy, while the union tries to convince the public that they deserve their raises.
Unfortunately in a world where union workers are perceived by many as being overpaid, the battle of public opinion sways in the direction of the employer. Hence the employer has NO urgency to settle, and we end up with long strikes where the union cannot win.
So where does this leave the working man in the 21st century? Is he doomed to descend to minimum wage? Of course not. We will certainly see a shift in the distribution of jobs towards the private sector, but this is not all bad. In fact this is where workers should look for help from unions, and where the union will truly have teeth. One of key points of contention in recent years has been in the employers’ rights to contract out services to the private sector. The unions see this as a threat, and indeed any changes are sure to disrupt the steady flow of things for some workers, but in the long run the unions will still have a prominent role in ensuring fair wages for the working man in the private sector.