Professor Daniel H. Kruger is a Distinguished Professor of Industrial Relations at Michigan State University where he has been a faculty member since 1957. He is not only a MSU Distinguished Faculty Award recipient, but he also has a Distinguished Faculty Award from the Michigan Association of Governing Boards of public universities. He has served as a consultant to the U.S. Department of Labor, chaired the Michigan Manpower Program and been member of the Board of Trustees of the National Urban League as well as many other federal and state committees and task forces. In 1982 he received a five year Presidential appointment to the Federal Service Impasse Panel and was given an unprecedented second and third term. Dr. Kruger is a prolific writer and speaker on topics such a collective bargaining, arbitration, dispute resolution procedures and human resource utilization.

The political season is upon us. Television, radio and newspapers present an ongoing stream of articles and ads on the presidential primaries. Candidates for public office seek support from both individual citizens and groups in their efforts to get elected. Business groups, environmental groups, gays and lesbians, pro-abortion, anti-abortion, doctors, lawyers and unions all engage in various types of political action.

As a professor, students ask me why UNIONS engage in political action. Below are ten reasons why I believe unions engage in political action:

· To help shape legislation that supports the individual in his or her dual role as citizen and worker.

· To help shape the role of the federal government and its impact on the job economy through monetary and fiscal policies.

· To influence the appointments by the President of the United States as cabinet members, members of administrative agencies and federal judges.

· To have a voice or help shape U.S. foreign trade policies which affects jobs and therefore the livelihood of American workers.

· To help shape policies of the federal, state and local government as they relate to their employees. Government in the United States employs about 20 million employees nationwide.

· To elect congressmen, senators, state legislators, county commissioners and city officials friendly to workers and their legitimate interests.

· To help elect governors in order to shape the state budget and the allocation of tax revenues for human services. The governor in some states appoints judges to the state courts.

· To serve as a countervailing force to the legislative agenda of business and other special interest groups.

· To expand the institutionalization of collective bargaining which is the only legally mandated system of employee involvement in the United States.

· The work of a democratic society is achieved through a system of negotiated transactions with groups who possess political power. POLITICAL ACTION BY UNIONS GIVES WORKERS A SEAT AT THE SOCIAL NEGOTIATING TABLE.

Through political action, unions seek to enhance their political power. Why is political power so important? In a democratic society the extent or magnitude of political power gives unions their voice and their seat at the great social negotiating table provided by democracy. The work of a democratic society is accomplished through a system of bargaining by those who possess political power. The greater the political power, the greater the bargaining power. And political power is achieved, in the words of Samuel Gompers, one of the founders of the American Federation of Labor, "Elect your friends and defeat your enemies." This statement was made in or about 1881 and applies as well today.

Political action is part and parcel of a free democratic society, and unions, as part of the democratic community not only do engage in political action, but are obligated to do so on behalf of their members and their interests.