Final answer:
Labor unions benefit employees by negotiating higher wages, improving working conditions, and potentially increasing productivity through long-term employment and training programs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Labor unions benefit employees in various ways by leveraging the collective power of the workers. The key advantages include:
- Negotiating wages: Unions can act like a monopoly when they are the sole supplier of labor and negotiate for higher wage rates for their members.
- Improving working conditions: Through collective bargaining and sometimes strikes, unions work towards enhancing the safety and policies of the workplace.
- Increasing productivity: Higher wages from union negotiations may lead to higher productivity, and as union workers tend to have longer tenures, this reduces the employer's need for training new employees, thereby saving on operating expenses.
While unions focus on workers' interest, it's notable that they do not guarantee higher wages for all employees, cannot lower an employer's operating costs directly, and cannot universally require every employee in an industry to join them.