013 Noviembre 2021

Benefits and disadvantages of union membership

Are you interested in joining your company’s union but don’t know how convenient it might be for you? With this information, you can make a good decision.

That trade unions end up inside companies that they do not fight for the employees but their personal benefits, that they eventually “sell-out” to the company to make more money, that they are opportunistic or just the opposite that they are of great help to improve the quality of life of workers in a company. Do any of these clichés hold true? In this article, we want to check the integrity or otherwise of these claims.

The truth is that ILO Conventions 87 and 98, the International Labour Organisation, the Labour Code, jurisprudence, some decrees and the Constitution protect the right to establish a trade union. In other words, any worker has the freedom to join, create or organise a trade union without interference from the state or the employer.

A trade union is an association of workers, whether in public or private enterprises. It aims to defend and promote the social, economic and professional interests related to the work activity. The task then is to negotiate on inconsistencies or problems in the company to provide welfare for the employees.

Maria del Carmen Vivas, president of the board of Ansemitra, the trade union of public workers of the Ministry of Transport (Colombia), says that the most important thing about such an association is the working relationship between employer and employee because both parties have the possibility to sit down and work together for the quality of life of the organisation.

“Togetherness is strength; teamwork is the best,” Vivas says. He points to the change of the Ministry’s headquarters, whose deterioration had been ignored by several administrations in recent years, as an achievement. “The building was falling, and we all fought together to get this new headquarters,” he said.    

What you should be aware of

People who join a trade union must have the capacity to negotiate because, in the end, it is about maintaining a dialogue between both parties to reach a consensus. A workers’ union should have no fewer than 25 members, and an employers’ union should have at least five employers as independents.

In addition, there are four types of trade unions: company unions, industrial unions, trade unions and trade unions for various trades. On the other hand, the board of directors is the main spokesperson of the union. They are the leaders who represent all employees and look after the needs of the employees.

Benefits

Vivas has been with Ansemitra for 21 years and considers that the best thing about belonging to a union is the personal satisfaction of doing something good for others, being of service and seeing that there are people who are happy with a proactive action that benefits the whole. He also stresses that being involved in these associations allows one to know the problems more closely to work on them and find a solution.

According to Iván Jaramillo, a researcher at the Labour Observatory of the University of Rosario, another benefit is to be part of a democratic mechanism of workers’ representation and the right to strike to be able to pressure through legal channels the agreements for labour improvement.

Another advantage is the protection by entities such as the Attorney General’s Office, the Prosecutor General’s Office, and the public. In addition, you have a union privilege, which means that you have special protection that prevents your employer from dismissing you without authorisation. For that to happen, you must have the consent of the Ministry of Labour.

According to Adriana Montoya, founder of the firm Am Grupo Jurídico S.A.S., there is union protection, which is for people who are part of the association as managers or people appointed in commissions, and circumstantial protection, which covers people who are linked at the time of the negotiation of a list of demands. The former is protected for two years, which is usually the duration of the board of directors plus six months, and the latter is according to the discussion of the list of demands plus six months.

Permits: according to articles 57 and 59 of the Substantive Labour Code, the company is obliged to provide the necessary permits so that the union member can carry out the activities or functions.

Disadvantages

It is a double job because you have to fulfil your activities as an employee of the company and your commitments to the association. Vivas, for example, in addition to being president of Ansemitra, is a lawyer in the legal office.

There are no bonuses, no extra money. The members of the union do not have any financial benefits.

As a member, you may get some kind of discount on your monthly salary. For example, in Ansemitra, workers who belong to Ansemitra are deducted 1%. Although, María del Carmen believes that the contribution should be compulsory for all workers, even if they are not members, “in the end it is a benefit for everyone”.

She has to deal with controversial issues such as parallel payrolls, which have to do with the freezing of direct links with the state, while the number of service contracts for independent workers is increasing so that fewer people could belong to the union and contribute to it.

Jaramillo explains that the importance of a company having a trade union is the possibility of dialogue or collective bargaining so that there is no need to sit down with each worker, as well as the possibility of “having a direct conduit of information on the issue of working capital for production”, which has to do with the comfort of the employees when carrying out their work activities to have a better result in production.