Unionization: A Necessary Strategy to Arrest Professional Decline?

Abstract

This article examines contemporary social work and why it is under serious threat, ideologically and economically, in a rapidly changing world that no longer highly values its social mandate, methods, and outcomes. Within this hostile environment we investigate the low salaries and high student debt that beginning social workers experience, which might otherwise drive them into unions. Instead, the profession resists unionization, preferring to remain focused on its ideals rather than the disquieting marketplace realities. We then examine the general elements of a hybrid union model that can assist social workers to organize and thus arrest their long-standing professional and fiscal decline.

KEYWORDS:

• changing market
• social work unionization
• social worker salaries

Notes

Source: Adapted from U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of Labor Statistics (2006b).

^a Generally, every 2 to 3 years. LMSW = Licensed Master Social Worker; LCSW = Licensed Clinical Social Worker.