Study: Families Benefit from Unionization

A recent report highlights how union membership positively affects working families.

The study released by the University of California Berkeley Center for Labor Research and Education, in conjunction with the Labor Project for Working Families, found unionization offers workers quality family health insurance, paid family leave and other incentives frequently absent in the nonunion sector.

The report – “Family Friendly Workplaces: Do Unions Make a Difference?” – champions union employers for:

• Greater compliance with the Family and Medical Leave Act, including often giving workers paid and partially paid leaves

• Allowing employees wider latitude when caring for an ill child; unionized workers are 50 percent more likely than their nonunion counterparts to have paid personal leave that can be applied to caring for sick children

• Paying a greater share of workers’ insurance premiums; companies with at least 30 percent union employees are five times as likely to pay the entire premium for their workers when compared to nonunion employers.

Union workplaces also trump the nonunion sector by offering more flexible work arrangements and better childcare benefits, the study said.

Researchers said that these statistics emphasize how passage of the Employee Free Choice Act will positively impact working families.

“[P]olicy makers should understand that unions have helped improve workplace policies for thousands of working families and could do the same things for millions of families if EFCA becomes the law of the land,” said report co-author Netsy Firestein, executive director of the nonprofit Labor Project for Working Families.

To read the report, visit www.working-families.org.

Photo used under a Creative Commons license from Flickr user .Dianna.