Some may see these gains as signs of a resurgence in the labor movement. But so far, they have not backed away from union decline. From Labor’s heyday in the mid-1950s, when it accounted for 35 percent of the workforce, union membership has plummeted to an all-time low. By 2023, it will be 10%, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In the private sector, it’s only 6%.
This is the harsh reality of the morning after 2023. And even if the new agreement brings in new union members, relatively few significant collective bargaining sessions at the national level will be held in 2024. A new strategy is needed.
First, let’s look at what unions have been doing right. Over the past few years, organized labor has not only boldly revived strikes; They’re also organizing in areas they’ve been afraid to venture into, such as Starbucks, Amazon, Apple, and Google. In fact, he helped 8,000 workers join the union at an Amazon warehouse on Staten Island. Graduate and undergraduate students conducting research at prestigious universities such as Stanford University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and Worcester Polytechnic Institute were among the newly represented employees. UAW members negotiated the right to strike whenever management tried to shut down a plant, and convinced Stellantis (Chrysler’s parent company) to do the unprecedented thing of keeping a plant scheduled for closure open.
In 2022 and 2023, unions filed 50 percent more petitions for secret ballot elections than the previous year, and their win rate rose to nearly 80 percent of all ballots conducted by the National Labor Relations Board. Still, the number of petitions was less than half the number filed 20 years ago.
The pioneering nature of the 2023 Agreement is likely to pave the way for an expanded trade union presence. After the UAW’s victory, nonunion car companies Honda, Toyota, Hyundai, and Tesla quickly announced pay increases for their employees, a measure aimed at fending off moves in that direction.
Union victories should logically increase union popularity: The rapid rise of union organizing in Las Vegas casinos in the 1990s is often cited as a proposition that a good union contract is a good union. Organizational tools. And the AFL-CIO is currently publishing a list of the best union contracts, which should be a good incentive to join.
So why isn’t the number of union members increasing? Some of the blame can be attributed to deficiencies in the National Labor Relations Act, including complex procedures and weak remedies for illegal anti-union acts. The ability of Starbucks and Amazon to avoid contract negotiations even after their unions are certified greatly highlights the weaknesses of this law. And while the Supreme Court recently agreed to hear the Starbucks case, it does so by using the board’s most effective tool: immediately reinstating illegally fired workers while administrative proceedings proceed. may limit their ability to proceed directly to court. The court’s apparent interest in this case, and its war on the “administrative state,” suggests that more restrictions will be imposed in the future. (The Supreme Court’s decision is Janus vs. AFSCME In 2018, it ruled that “fair share” agreements requiring all public employees to pay dues to financial union representatives were unconstitutional, already hampering union activity in the public sector).
Another legal hurdle is that the concept that many gig economy workers are independent contractors rather than employees is too often accepted.This significantly limited the range of people who might choose to unionize — and was responsible for the nationwide Valentine’s Day strike at Uber and Lyft.
But history shows that laws alone cannot necessarily limit the growth of trade unions. For a full decade after the anti-union Taft-Hartley Act was enacted in 1947, the union gains that began with the Great Depression continued unabated. But the percentage of workers in unions has continued to decline even under the union-friendly eras of Clinton, Obama and Biden. Other factors are clearly at play.
A quarter of a century ago, the labor movement was divided over the refusal of some unions to provide funding to further organize workers. A similar reluctance to utilize resources may be prevalent today. Labor strategist Chris Boehner said Labor’s net worth “has grown 127 percent, or about 11 percent annually, from $14.3 billion in 2010 to $32.7 billion in 2022.”
In other words, while the number of members decreased, resources increased. Leveraging these funds to recruit talented young workers is as vital to labor unions today as it was to the remarkable organizing explosion of the 1930s and his 1940s.
But recruiting doesn’t necessarily help you climb the union leadership ladder. Union members tend to reward those who handle complaints and administer contracts more than those who go out on the ground and try to rally support for nonunion businesses.
But this is the best course of action for building a strong trade union movement. While it is true that Joe Biden’s White House is the most worker-friendly since the Harry S. Truman administration, it is still unlikely to succeed in overhauling the National Labor Relations Act. Regardless of the political composition of Congress.
The main burden therefore lies with trade unions. They have the financial capacity to make changes in their workplaces, and they have to start spending to do so. Only then will you be able to develop more effective organizational campaigns. Correct wage inequality, restore balance to industrial relations, and strengthen social democracy.