Unions In The Early 1900s

The creation of unions has impacted Americans lives for many years. Unions were created in the late 1800‘s focused on protecting workers. Later they began to help workers by providing them with rights and benefits. As unions became popular in the 1900s their powers grew enormously. Throughout the years, unions have gained a lot of power due to their high association with political activities. As unions grew, they began to require dues that were supposed to protected members in many ways. Some Modern day unions have an insane amount of power that forces members to pay dues that are not fully used for member benefits. Unions have a disproportionate amount of political power as they use mandatory union dues to fund non benefit related activities

Unions were originally formed to protect and benefit members. Union workers in the early 1900’s worked hard and long days that became unsafe. Later on, work space safety became a problem because many people were getting injured due to unsafe working conditions. Many early union members worked at saw mills and factories. Most factories and sawmills were dangerous because they put workers lives at risk. According to the article, “Effective Health And Safety Program Tips”, unions are required to inspect work areas for unsafe objects and substances that may harm workers every month ( “The Members para 12-14 ”.) Most Unions are required to hold meetings regarding safety, especially labor unions. As early unions began to gain more control they began to provide safer work hours for the members. In the article (“Union Plus para 2”), it summarizes that employers came to an agreement that members should not work no more that eight hours a days and must receive vacation options. When unions first started they did not provide any sort of pension for their members, creating a conflict. Pensions are important to obtain because they

Over time, organized labor has shifted its core function away from serving and protecting its members, to consolidating its political power. According to ( Reitz Michael para 7) it states that unions have shifted to government politics because unions are motivated to grow, and being involved in the government will help them gain more members that will pay dues, which means the more money unions will have to be involved in politics. This is important to understand because unions are using politics incorrectly and are using members dues to support politics, instead of using it for the benefit of the member. This proves that unions being highly enrolled in politics affects people from receiving full benefits from their dues. A quote from an article reads “ The National Education Association contributed $29.8 million to political campaigns and causes during the 2016 election cycle (Gantert para 1).” This information is very important to comprehend because it shows that unions are using millions of dollars on political purposes that are coming out of members dues.The “TA” is one of the most powerful unions in America that uses members dues for political leverage instead of member benefit. Referring to (Senik para 5) it summarizes that the CTA’S have a fat bank account fed by all the mandatory dues members pay which can be over a thousand dollars a