What Workers Are Doing In Face Of Declining Unions

They’re forming works councils, a European idea that is catching on in the States.

Unlike unions, which handle negotiations over wages and benefits, works councils are a formal structure that facilitates dialogue between workers and management about the company’s finances and business plans, as well as perspectives from the shop floor on how to improve safety and productivity. Every VW assembly plant has works councils that include worker representation – except in Tennessee.

Employers see a big benefit. A paper from the 1990s by Richard Freeman and Edward Lazear found that works councils where management really shares information can produce new solutions to problems facing a company, increase workers’ willingness to communicate with management, and push workers to take a longer view of company decisions that means they invest more in their job skills while granting concessions that boost investment.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.