Working Conditions
Some large employers will work the individual 16 hours a day, or more, without lunch or breaks. The worker is pitted against other workers in a competition battle. The result is that a lot of workers are very stressed an unhappy. However, the corporation is making some extra money.
Unions came about to improve working conditions. Unions will require the right number of men to do a job. Unions will also set the pace of the work to be done. The idea behind a union is that you get the work done efficiently, but that “killing yourself” is not necessary. Unions have the idea that employees should be happy at work.
Unions helped workers in many ways. The workweek has been reduced to 40 hours. Most employers give out breaks and lunches. Overtime must be compensated at 1.5 times the regular rate of pay. Unions have made it so you can have a life outside of work. That was a good thing for workers.
Before unions, some employers would hire children and work them so hard that their life expectancy was very short. Children were often forced into dangerous jobs that adults didn't want to do. Entire cities were sometimes covered with black from all the factory smoke. Many people realized that there were some real problems with free capitalism.
The people that fought the fight to make working conditions better were primarily unions and government. The two together have made the working conditions in the United States quite good.
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