There are many arguments surrounding unions nowadays. Many believe unions are good because the people that work in unions get great benefits, while others believe that they are bad because the benefits are too good for the work being done. In this essay, I will be stating the importance of unions, their downsides and, and talk about the controversy surrounding the topic.

        An argument that is often used to defend unions is that unions protect the workers and give them great benefits. Unions can be seen in many places and can ensure that middle class citizens have secure jobs without the fear of getting fired.  By putting money in the middle class citizens hand, they are able to spend that money on plenty of things that can help companies grow, boosting the economy. Other pro-union speakers say that unions are a great source of income for people that did not go to college or university and gives them a fair chance at life that they would not have if not for unions.

        On the other side of the spectrum, there are those who believe that unions are ruining our economy and are nothing but bad. Unions pay their employees too much for the work that they actually do. For example, in the United States, the average salary of a garbage man is 43,000-60,000 annually. Many believe that this is too much for the work that they do. People put up the argument that many union workers are uneducated and getting paid more than many people that went to college or university and worked harder and are smarter. Unions also tend to make promises that they cannot keep. For example, if a company that is unionized promises a pension to workers and it fails, they are no longer able to pay the pensions of those they promised, and leave the retired workers with little to no money to live the rest of their lives with.

        In the 1960s, the life as a steel miller was not a good one. The pay was low, there was hard labor, and there were awful working conditions.  The workers at one steel mill went on strike demanding a union so that they could feel safer at work. They were granted a union, and almost instantly they were working harder because they were being treated better. After seeing the results that unions could have, many other mills across the United States began to unionize. For many years these steel mills thrived. Later that decade, a new steel mill company surfaced, called “Nucor”. The one part of Nucor that set them so far apart was that they were not unionized. Everyone thought they would fail because of this; they took a different approach. They did things that set them apart from any non unionized steel mill before them, they introduced equality at the workplace. This meant that there was no reserved parking for those higher up in command, as well as only one lunchroom making the executives work with all of the normal workers. The one thing that they did that lead to their success more than anything else, was they gave their workers pieces of the company so that if the company did well, the workers then made more money. This incentivized people to work harder, and think of new ideas. This catapulted them ahead of their competition, forcing some other steel mills to shut down. The retired workers from the other steel mills were left without a pension and without any money. Nucor is now the largest steel company in all of North America and continue to thrive, thinking of better ideas and new ways to improve.

In conclusion, unions are both bad and good at some times. They are great for people that work for them because of the security that they are given. They are also viewed as the worst possible thing for our country to those who do not work in them, because they do not believe uneducated people should earn as much as they do in unions. As seen in Nucor’s story we can see that Unions are great for everyone until there is competition. This is because in unions, there are guarantees in regards to pay, pension and some other things, whereas when there is no union, people face risks so they work harder to avoid the risks that union workers do not have to face.