Unions create a more stable, productive workforce—where workers have a say in improving their jobs. Statistics bear this out. According to Professor Harley Shaiken of the University of California-Berkeley[1] unions are associated with higher productivity, lower employee turnover, improved workplace communication, and a better-trained workforce. 

There is a substantial amount of academic literature backing Shaiken on the following benefits of unions and unionization to employers and the economy:

• Strong Middle Class Linked to Strong Unions
• Productivity
• Product or service delivery and quality
• Training
• Turnover
• Solvency of the firm
• Workplace health and safety
• Economic development

Economic Growth

Between 1945 and 1973, when a high percentage of workers were in unions, wages kept pace with rising productivity, prosperity was widely shared and economic growth—and America’s middle class—was strong. Since 1973, the number of of people in unions have declined, causing real wages to stagnate, even though workers’ productivity has steadily risen. [2]

Productivity

According to a recent survey of 73 independent studies on unions and productivity: “The available evidence points to a positive and statistically significant association between unions and productivity in the U.S. manufacturing and education sectors, of around 10 and 7 percent, respectively.”[3]

Professors Michael Ash and Jean Ann Seago [5]say heart attack recovery rates are higher in hospitals where nurses are in unions than in hospitals without unions.  According to Professor Paul Clark, nurses, through their unions, improve patient care by negotiating contracts that raise staff-to-patient ratios, limit excessive overtime and improving nurse training. [6]

Training

Several studies in have found a positive link between unionization and the amount and quality of workforce training. Unionized workplaces are more likely to offer formal training[8]and this is especially true for small firms. Workers, through their unions, often negotiate contracts that include training, and unions often hold their own training.

Turnover

Shaiken also finds that unions reduce turnover.  He cites Freeman and Medoff’s finding that “about one-fifth of the union productivity effect stemmed from lower worker turnover.  Unions improve communication channels giving workers the ability to improve their conditions short of ‘exiting.”[9] 

Solvency

Academic research refutes the claim that  unions are detrimental to business. According to Professors Richard Freeman and Morris Kleiner, unionism has a statistically insignificant effect (meaning no effect) on a firm’s solvency[10]  Freeman and Kleiner conclude that “unions do not, on average, drive firms or business lines out of business or produce high displacement rates for unionized workers.”

Workplace Health and Safety

According to an American Rights at Work summary of a study by John E. Baugher and J. Timmons Roberts:

“Only one factor effectively moves workers who are in subordinate positions to actively cope with hazards: membership in an independent labor union.  These findings suggest that union growth could indirectly reduce job stress by giving workers the voice to cope effectively with job hazards. [11]

Economic Development

Unions play a positive role in economic development. One good example is the Wisconsin Regional Training Partnership, “an association of 125 employers and unions dedicated to family-supporting jobs in a competitive business environment. WRTP members have stabilized manufacturing employment in the Milwaukee metro area, and contributed about 6,000 additional industrial jobs to it over the past five years. Among member firms, productivity is way up--exceeding productivity growth in nonmember firms.”[13]