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Will a union bring Athletic Trainers together, or disrupt our progress?
The athletic training profession is at a tipping point. What are the next steps to enhance our industry and ensure our profession will continue profitably into pay in the future, a union or self-reliance as professionals.
A union might take care of the "group," in that everyone would receive a similar wage for similar work. However, when regulations are applied to salary by an outside union, it discounts our individual innovation and hard work replacing individual effort with mediocracy. It also restricts opportunities for individuals to negotiate higher salaries through innovation, and higher value efforts.
There are a lot of capable ATs in our industry that are going to catapult our profession through thought leadership, individual example and professional development. Unions cap innovation, dismiss the individual, and thrive on groupthink. Unions can make it harder to promote great workers and get rid of slackers. Unions focus a lot of importance on seniority which may improve the predictability of a career path, but dilute individuals’ ability to rise to the top.
Unions purport to represent the interests of the workers by resolving workplace issues. Claiming organized labor can better voice employee grievances and act as the bargaining representative during negotiations than individuals. However, unionizing will also show employers that ATs are just labor, unfitted for leadership/decision making positions such as managers, supervisors, or independent practitioners.
There are group requirements of being in a union. First, giving up money to pay dues. Also, members are obligated to participate in strikes, whether they agree with the strike or not. Union groupthink stifles individual agency, originality, and drive. Unions provide a closed culture that makes it hard to diversify the workforce. Unions can lead to an adversarial relationship between AT’s and management.
Oh, and did I mention the 10% reduction in income to pay union membership dues?
Yes, the Athletic Training profession is at a tipping point. Our next steps enhance our industry and ensure our profession will have lifelong career ramifications. Let us cast aside the hollow promises of organized labor and pursue fulfilling, profitable careers providing high value care to our athletes as capable professionals into the future.
Will a group bring us together? No, and it will most likely cost more.
Shelby 5/2024
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