The Future of Unions

Introduction

Striking union workers march to a Verizon office in New York City in 2016. While union membership has been declining steadily for years, the movement hopes to make gains during the pro-union Biden administration. (Getty Images/LightRocket/Erik McGregor)

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Overview

“I want you to know I'm a union guy,” Joe Biden, then the president-elect, said after a November meeting with labor and business leaders. “Unions are going to have increased power.”1

That could be welcome news to Unite Here, a union representing hospitality industry workers. Before the pandemic, it was considered a rare success story in an era when union membership has dropped to the lowest level in decades. But at one point last year, 98 percent of the union's members lost their jobs due to COVID-19.2

It could also be welcome news to employees in other industries, especially those rife with dangerous working conditions and hard-hit by the virus. In Greeley, Colo., workers at the JBS meat processing plant held a wildcat strike in July demanding better pay and safety improvements during the pandemic.

Georgia Democratic Senate candidates Jon Ossoff (left) and Raphael Warnock greet each during a “Vote GA Blue” concert in Stonecrest in December. Their victories in runoff elections on Jan. 5 gave the Democratic Party, long considered union-friendly, control over both houses of Congress. (Getty Images/Paras Griffin)

“More workers have died at the JBS Greeley plant than at any other meatpacking plant in the U.S.,” the striking workers said in a statement.3

At one Tyson Foods pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa, the rising infection rate led managers to avoid the plant floor due to fear of contracting the virus, even as they told workers to stay on the job to ensure Americans did not go hungry — and placed bets on how many workers would become infected. The company fired seven managers over the betting pool.4

President Donald Trump had issued a controversial executive order requiring meat plants to stay open during the pandemic, and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), which is tasked with protecting worker safety, later issued entirely voluntary guidelines for how meat producers should keep workers safe during the pandemic.

The election of Biden, a proud union ally, could mark a change in labor's fortunes. His victory spurred predictions that the union movement may gain renewed momentum under his presidency. And the upset victories of two Georgia Democratic senatorial candidates have given the traditionally labor-friendly Democratic Party control of the Senate, along with the White House and the House of Representatives.

But this may prove to be another false dawn for organized labor. When Democrats controlled the White House and Congress nearly a decade ago, the labor movement was unable to get its key legislative goal — the Employee Free Choice Act — enacted. The bill, which would have made it easier for unions to organize, never saw action.

Now, with slim Democratic control of the Senate and with issues such as the pandemic and the need for an economic stimulus dominating the agenda in Washington, politics and policy may be even more stacked against significant labor union achievements than they were 10 years ago.

Still, Biden likely will take some less sweeping pro-labor initiatives through the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), Labor Department, executive orders and other actions. Moreover, many fundamental union goals, such as raising the minimum wage, paid sick leave, safer workplaces and affordable child care, have been adopted by the Democrats' progressive wing. Earlier this month, 400 workers at Google created one of the first white-collar unions in Silicon Valley, a move seen by labor analysts as an important benchmark of labor movement momentum. And in February and March, 6,000 Amazon workers in Bessemer, Ala., will have a chance to vote on unionization. If union supporters win the vote, the warehouse would be the first Amazon facility in the United States to unionize.5

“There is a growing sense that the weakness we have seen in organized labor is the result of social and economic policies that have disproportionately favored the wealthy and corporations, and that is a real problem,” says Kim Phillips-Fein, an associate professor of history at New York University. “Today, there is a greater awareness of the importance of unions and the need for a progressive politics to support the labor movement.”

Union membership has been steadily declining since its heyday during the post-World War II economic boom, when thriving U.S. industries such as steel, rubber and automobiles were producing products exported worldwide. After union representation peaked at nearly 35 percent of the workforce in 1954, it is now only 10.8 percent of the labor force. Most of that is among government employees, where union membership is more than five times higher than in the private sector. In 2020, 34.8 percent of public-sector workers were union members, while 6.3 percent of private-sector workers were unionized.6

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Critics such as lawyer Michael Lotito, co-chair of Littler Mendelson's Workplace Policy Institute, say membership is falling because unions are based on an outmoded model of organization and no longer provide a vital service to workers, who now have many other ways to deal with on-the-job problems. Labor activists say unions are needed now more than ever, and that a variety of factors have depressed membership, including aggressive anti-union actions by businesses.

But government policy can also play an important role in strengthening or weakening unions, which is why political activity has become a major function of labor unions. Unions spent $220 million in the 2016 election cycle and $216 million last year, mostly in support of Democratic candidates seeking federal office.7

The NLRB, the Labor Department and executive orders can be used to implement very significant policies, says Wilma Liebman, who chaired the NLRB under President Barack Obama. “New approaches through legislation, regulation by an array of federal agencies and executive action are crucial to help struggling individuals and communities to recover” from the pandemic and the current economic recession, she says.

The outcome of the presidential election plays a big role in steering policy at the NLRB, a relatively obscure independent federal agency that oversees U.S. labor policy. The agency administers union elections, adjudicates unfair labor practice cases and interprets and enforces labor law. Traditionally, the five-member board is comprised of three members from the president's political party and two from the opposition party, along with a general counsel from the president's party. Hours after becoming president, Biden fired the Trump-appointed general counsel of the NLRB.8

And the federal government can affect labor policy in other ways. For instance, OSHA, which is part of the Labor Department, has considerable leeway in how aggressively it enforces labor and workplace safety regulations.9

Labor faced an unusual dilemma during the Trump administration, one that may persist in the coming years. Union leaders frequently condemned its policies as unfriendly to workers — yet Trump did well among working-class voters in both 2016 and 2020. In fact, Republicans now claim they are the party of the working class — a major turnaround from the days when most blue-collar workers voted heavily Democratic.10

There are more than 60 unions representing over 14 million workers nationwide. The largest represent public school teachers, service workers such as home health care employees, truck drivers, autoworkers, government employees, police and firefighters and grocery store employees.11

Supporters of Republican President Donald Trump demonstrate outside a Democratic election event in Coconut Creek, Fla., in October. According to a recent Gallup Poll, only 45 percent of Republicans back unions, but support for Republican candidates has been rising in recent years among union households. (Getty Images/Joe Raedle)

The main reason people join unions is to win higher pay, along with better benefits and more control over working conditions. And multiple studies show that workers covered by a union contract earn more money than their nonunion peers. Public support for labor unions is the highest it has been since 2003, according to a Gallup Poll released in September. The poll showed that 65 percent of Americans approve of unions, and support has been rising since bottoming out in 2009, during the Great Recession. At that time, fewer than half of Americans approved of unions.12

Despite these studies and polls, the labor movement still faces an existential threat as its decades-long slide in membership continues, even though some economists say unions are an important part of addressing the historically high and widening income gap between the nation's richest and poorest households.13 While the movement hopes the Biden administration will help revive its membership ranks, many of its fundamental goals have also been adopted by the highly vocal progressive wing of the Democratic Party, led by Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y. As a result, some predict, labor's agenda likely will get a big audience in the new Congress and administration.

In the meantime, as membership continues to decline, unions, economists, legislators and companies are debating these questions about the future of the labor movement:

Are labor unions a relic of the past?

To critics, union membership is falling because unions are an outdated concept. The organizations with the motto, “Unions: the folks who brought you the weekend,” are not facing the same egregious workplace abuses they had to battle in the past, they say.

“Their fundamental value proposition has changed dramatically,” says Lotito, the Littler Mendelson lawyer, who handles labor issues. “In the '30s and '40s and '50s, if you had a workplace problem, it was worth the union dues to have a shop steward to handle the issue. But now, people feel they have a voice in their workplace through a politician or a government bureaucrat. There isn't the same impetus to reach out and join a union.”

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In addition, unions' reliance on collective bargaining to hash out workplace solutions makes them even more anachronistic, says F. Vincent Vernuccio, a former labor adviser to the Trump and Bush administrations. “The process of collective bargaining is a relic of the past,” he says. “It was created during the Industrial Revolution with a one-size-fits-all mentality, when manufacturing workers could be subbed in and out of an assembly line. It is not suited for the independent contracting and gig work that is so prevalent in the new economy. People want to be rewarded based on their skills, not how many years they have on the job.”

But Jacob Remes, a professor at New York University who focuses on labor issues, notes that while “the form unions take may change over time, at their heart they are a mutual aid society focused on collective bargaining” — a concept he calls timeless. In the future, unions may not look like they did in their post-World War II heyday, but the issues of solidarity and working for more than one's own gain are always relevant, he says.

“The things that unions do are needed now more than ever,” says Nelson Lichtenstein, director of the Center for the Study of Work, Labor and Democracy at the University of California, Santa Barbara. “Workers need an organization that they control to give voice and potency to what bothers them, from pay to protection of the planet. Call it a club, union, association, consciousness raising circle, whatever, it has to be a collective vehicle, and it has to give voice. That is what unions do, from 1821 to 2021, regardless of how the law applies or how the enterprise — public or private — is run.”

Yet conservative and pro-business think tanks spend millions of dollars each year lobbying state and federal policymakers and running anti-union advertisements, he says, and they are winning. Companies also routinely engage in strategic campaigns to keep unions out of their workplaces, he says. (See Short Feature.)

“Businesses' antipathy to unions is grounded in the loss of flexibility that comes with restrictive collective bargaining agreements,” Lotito explains. In addition, union pension funds are generally “in serious trouble, imposing potentially enormous [costs] on companies.”

In Europe, Lotito says, labor and management representatives participate jointly in works councils that hash out disputes, and these councils “are dedicated to the company and only the company.” In contrast, he says, in America “the union is fundamentally focused on the union's interest and is often not a trusted partner. Of course, there are exceptions, but at its root the union cares more about its own interests than any company.”

“When a union comes in, the dynamic in the workplace often changes,” says David Pryzbylski, a labor and employment attorney in Indianapolis at Barnes & Thornburg LLP who represents management. “Employers start having to go through a union steward to communicate with their employees. They lose a lot of flexibility to have workers try different jobs and cross-train rather than stick with pre-determined union classifications. It brings a level of politics to the workplace that many employers don't want. And with a union, you face the threat of work stoppages and strikes.”

But Carl Van Horn, a Rutgers University public policy professor and the founding director of the university's John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, says declining union density numbers — the number of employees who are union members as a percentage of the number of employees in an industry — mask the fact that unions are flourishing and powerful in certain segments of the economy. “I don't see any signs of unions abating in the public sector,” he says. “That's where they are strongest. Teachers, firefighters, emergency responders — that's where unions have been revitalized.”

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Labor activists cite a variety of factors that have contributed to the sharp decline in private-sector unionization: the growth of the gig economy, globalization and the outsourcing of manufacturing, and an intense anti-union effort by U.S. corporations.

But as private-sector unions have withered, public-sector membership has exploded. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that in 2009, for the first time, more public-sector employees belonged to unions than private-sector workers.14

And public-sector unions have managed to fend off significant setbacks. Between 2011 and 2018, more than a dozen states passed laws to constrain public-employee unions.15

Lawmakers and governors say growing deficits, due in part to high union salaries and bloated pension plans that make up a significant portion of their deficits, are bankrupting their states. “We can no longer live in a society where the public employees are the haves and taxpayers who foot the bills are the have-nots,” said Wisconsin's Republican governor at the time, Scott Walker, a vocal opponent of public unions, in 2011.16 When then-Ohio Republican Gov. John Kasich signed a bill to limit public-sector unionization in 2011, he called it a matter of “balance.” The average private-sector worker in his state paid 23 percent of their health care costs, while the average city worker paid just 9 percent, Kasich said.17

And in 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court, in Janus v. American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, shut off an important revenue source for public-sector unions: mandatory fees collected from nonmembers to cover their share of collective bargaining costs. In a ruling that split along partisan lines, the decision overruled 41 years of precedent by saying that requiring workers to pay union fees violates their First Amendment rights.18

Yet a review of 10 large public-employee unions later found that they made up that lost revenue by gaining new members.19

The AFL-CIO, the 12.5 million-member federation representing 55 unions, has long recognized that falling union membership outside of the public sector requires the movement to update its model. Nearly 10 years ago, AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka began inviting liberal and activist organizations, such as the NAACP and the Sierra Club, to his group's annual convention.20

“We are in a crisis right now,” Trumka said during a press conference at the 2013 convention. “None of us are big enough to change the economy and make it work for everybody. It takes all progressive voices working together.”21

The “Fight for $15” movement illustrates how labor is seeking to keep unions relevant. Launched in 2012, the movement has achieved success in many locations. California, Massachusetts, parts of New York, Maryland, New Jersey, Illinois, Connecticut and Florida have passed laws raising their state or local minimum wage to $15 an hour. Unions played a key role in the movement, even though it helps many nonunion workers.

Other labor leaders are promoting something called “sectoral bargaining,” in which unions focus on organizing an entire industry rather than individual companies.22 Countries with sectoral bargaining generally have higher unionization rates and more comprehensive collective bargaining agreements. And sectoral bargaining tends to set compensation floors for workers industrywide. Proponents say it would help protect low-paid workers, such as domestic workers, agricultural workers and independent contractors who tend not to work for one individual employer.23

Jake Rosenfeld, an associate professor of sociology at the University of Washington and author of the 2014 book What Unions No Longer Do, says unions must continue seeking a way to become relevant.

Attendees at the 2016 Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia demonstrate against the Trans-Pacific Partnership, a free trade agreement between the United States and 11 other Pacific Rim countries signed by President Barack Obama the previous year. Unions said the agreement would cost American jobs and lower wages. (Getty Images/The Washington Post/Contributor)

“If they are a relic, we can expect our current moment of historically high inequality — with all the corrosive effects that come with it — to last,” he says. “Across the developed world, it is hard to find an example of a country where inequality is restrained in which a strong labor movement doesn't play a key role in keeping it tamed.”

Could unions help reduce growing income disparities?

For most of the last 40 years, pay has stagnated for all but the highest-paid workers as the income disparity gap has widened dramatically.

This growing gap is significant: It has cost the bottom 90 percent of workers about $2.5 trillion per year in lost wages — or a total of $50 trillion between 1975 and 2020, according to a new study by the RAND Corporation, a California-based think tank. That is enough to pay every working American in the bottom 90 percent an additional $1,144 a month, the study says. If this income gap disparity had not grown, median full-time earners who are now making $50,000 would be earning $92,000.24

The decline of unions has played an important role in this trend, said Heidi Shierholz, former chief economist at the Labor Department under Obama. As unionization has eroded, she said, “pay for working people has stagnated and inequality has skyrocketed.” As a result, she said, de-unionization accounts for much of the growing income disparity during the years 1979-2019. That is because union members earn an average of 13.2 percent more than their nonunion peers, according to the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), a left-leaning Washington think tank.25

Moreover, the benefits of collective bargaining tend to help all workers. “Where unions are strong, they essentially set broader standards that nonunion employers must match in order to attract and retain the workers they need and avoid facing an organizing drive,” the EPI said in its report. “The combination of the direct effect of unions on their members and this ‘spillover’ effect to nonunion workers means unions are crucial in fostering a vibrant middle class.”26

The Biden administration has made it clear that it sees unionization as an important factor in reducing the income disparity gap. Neera Tanden, nominated to be Biden's budget director, said in February 2020 that rising income inequality was the consequence of “decades of conservative attacks on workers' right to organize” and that labor unions “are a powerful vehicle to move workers into the middle class and keep them there.” Biden said in November that his administration would create “an economy that gives every single person across America a fair shot and an equal chance to get ahead.”27

But critics say it is a misperception that unions can help fight rising income disparities. “It's bunch of nonsense,” lawyer Lotito says. “Union members make more money than their counterparts because of legacy contracts that have been around for a while.”

Union critics cite Volkswagen as an example of how unions harm the middle class. In 1987, the company closed what was then its only U.S. assembly plant in New Stanton, Pa., after workers there had gone on strike several times, forcing the company to pay higher wages. Eventually, the company moved its production to lower-wage Mexico and Brazil.

Robotic arms install front seats in a Tesla auto at the company's factory in Fremont, Calif., in 2018. Automation has been one factor in the disappearance of many well-paying union manufacturing jobs in recent decades. (Getty Images/The Washington Post/Mason Trinca)

In 2014, workers at the VW plant in Chattanooga, Tenn., voted against joining the United Auto Workers. Workers at that plant typically start out earning $15.50 an hour, high by regional standards but below what unionized auto workers are paid. The Tennessee plant has received more than $800 million in government subsidies, making it the state's biggest business recipient of such subsidies. State economists estimate that the company's initial $1 billion investment in the plant created 12,400 jobs, and a 2016 expansion was expected to add more. An attempt to unionize the plant in 2019 also failed.28

Another example cited by union critics is the case of Pillowtex, a North Carolina textile firm that unionized in 1999 after a long battle and then filed for bankruptcy a year later. It shut down in 2003.29

“Instead of getting a raise, Pillowtex workers ended up unemployed,” said Diana Furchtgott-Roth, a Trump administration deputy assistant secretary and a former acting assistant secretary for economic policy in Trump's Treasury department. “The argument that increasing union coverage is the pathway to higher wages does not stand up to scrutiny.” However, the company cited soft consumer demand and intense foreign competition — rather than high labor costs — in announcing its closure.30

A 2019 study by the Bureau of Labor Statistics found that public-sector unions have the biggest impact on reducing the income gap. “Union impacts on wage inequality in the public and private sectors differ quite a lot,” the study said. “In the private sector … union and nonunion wages are very similar,” but in the public sector, “unions reduce wage inequality.”31

Rutgers University's Van Horn compares the income inequality in the United States to the situation in Europe where support for labor unions is, in many cases, written into law. “It is, therefore, part of the culture that there should be more compassion,” he says. “The United States is different, in that the people with money can speak loudly.”

NYU's Remes notes that countries with narrower income gaps than the United States have labor systems that stop employers from earning excessive profit. “To be kind of Marxist about it,” he says, “when the workers have more power and more material gains, there is more equality.”

“Taxing the rich,” he says, “is the other way to achieve this. The perverse incentive of stock options encourages managers to lay people off to drive up stock prices.” Managers and executives are often paid with options to buy stock at a lower-than-market price. And layoffs can boost stock prices if investors see the move as a way of cutting costs, increasing the value of stock options. Labor unions, he says, are an important check on excessive layoffs driven by stock prices.

Will unions remain a reliable part of the Democratic base?

During the 2020 Democratic presidential primaries, a popular campaign stop was a Stop and Shop picket line in Massachusetts. Some 31,000 employees affiliated with the United Food and Commercial Workers had gone on strike, arguing that the contract offered by the company was insufficient. Most Democratic candidates trekked to the picket lines to declare their solidarity with the strike — and grab a photo opportunity with the workers.32

That is because union members have long been considered an important voting bloc, particularly to the Democratic Party.

Unions play a critical role in canvassing voters and getting them to the polls. Union members “vote at higher rates than most Americans, they are mobilized, they are in important states,” says Paul Frymer, a Princeton University political science professor who has written about the labor movement. “The union movement is a big part of the Democratic Party. There isn't another mobilized coalition like it. They are the biggest civil rights movement in the country.”

Workers at this JBS meat processing plant in Greeley, Colo., went on strike in July 2020 demanding better pay and safer working conditions after dozens of employees were sickened by the coronavirus. The Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined the company for safety violations, but JBS said the government took too long to issue safety standards for meatpacking plants. (Getty Images/MediaNews Group/The Denver Post/Andy Cross)

Democratic politicians have long been open about that relationship. The union movement “drives the Democratic Party,” New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said in 2018 as he signed a bill allowing public-sector unions to deny wage increases and benefits to workers who refuse to join the union. “And that's why they want to weaken the union movement,” he said, referring to conservative anti-union activists and Republican lawmakers.33

But that may be changing. While labor is unwavering in its financial support for the Democratic party, the share of union members voting Democratic fluctuates.

“The house of labor is not uniform in its political thinking,” says Rutgers' Van Horn. “Particularly in some of the trades, they have begun to think and vote more like the Republicans. Some of it is economic, some of it is social. It is a divided group.”

Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton beat Trump by only 8 percentage points among union-household voters in 2016, according to exit polls, compared to the 18-point advantage Obama had over Republican nominee Mitt Romney in 2012.34

In 2020, labor support was critical to Biden's victories in three big industrial swing states — Michigan, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania — that Trump had taken from Democrats in 2016, providing his margin of victory in the Electoral College that year. Biden won 56 percent of the union-household vote nationwide — up from Clinton's 51 percent. But that was still a big drop from the 84 percent President Lyndon B. Johnson garnered in 1964.35

Political analysts and some labor leaders say the Democrats take union support for granted. Unions, with their financial contributions and grassroots organizing, helped Democrats win the White House and both chambers of Congress three times in the last four decades, and all three times — under Presidents Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Obama — the Democrats failed to pass reforms that would make it easier to form and join a union.36

“The Democratic Party decided long ago that the labor movement was an ATM, in which they could just withdraw money every four years, while also promoting unfair trade deals and not passing important pro-union legislation,” NYU's Remes says. “It is not surprising that workers in the manufacturing sector in particular have rebelled.”

Trump was able to gain some union support by waging trade wars, lambasting China's unfair trade practices and claiming that illegal immigration was costing Americans their jobs.37 His promise to invest $1 trillion in infrastructure projects — a vow he never delivered on — excited union members who would have benefited from construction jobs.

“‘The immigrant's here to take your job’ — that resonated with our membership,” said James Williams, a vice president of the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades. “They feel like their way of life and their way of living is under attack.”38

While unions in 2020 said Biden has taken a tougher position on trade deals than his Democratic predecessors, some analysts say the party's increased focus on environmental policies could alienate part of the labor movement. In 2020, the United Mine Workers of America held back an endorsement in the presidential race because of comments Hillary Clinton made in 2016 criticizing the coal industry.39

“The biggest argument that I have from our membership is that this isn't a blue-collar, working-class Democratic Party that my dad or mom was in,” said Chuck Knisell, an international vice president of the miners union. “It's morphed into something different.”40

Lotito, the Littler Mendelson lawyer, points out that the most vibrant parts of the modern-day labor movement — public-sector unions — are firmly enmeshed with the Democratic Party, particularly in big cities dominated by that party, such as his city. “In deep blue states, they are practically another wing of the government,” he says.

And polling ultimately shows that support for unions remains much higher among Democrats than among Republicans. In the September Gallup Poll, 83 percent of Democrats approved of unions, compared to 45 percent of Republicans and 64 percent of independents.41

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Background

Birth of Unions

The second Industrial Revolution, which began in the late 19th century, gave birth to the labor movement in the United States. As new types of businesses emerged, the nation's industrial workforce tripled between 1860 and 1910.

The movement grew out of a belief among workers that they needed to protect their common interests. Unions fought for and secured better wages, hours and working conditions for industrial workers, and sparked efforts to stop child labor and provide health benefits and support for injured and retired workers.

Between 1870 and 1929, industrial output rose 14-fold, creating a huge demand for both skilled and unskilled immigrants.42 By the 1880s, most American workers were toiling through 14-hour days, with no sick days or overtime pay. Children as young as 8 were working in coal mines, developing health problems normally associated with older people.

Many workers unwilling to accept the way big businesses were being run began organizing around specific skills and trades. In 1881 they formed an umbrella organization for the trade unions, called the Federation of Organized Trades and Labor Unions. Five years later, it became the American Federation of Labor (AFL). The group's founder, English-born cigar maker Samuel Gompers, became the first president and led it for nearly 40 years.

Gompers organized workers into groups called “locals” based on their trade or crafts. Membership exploded. In the building trades, it grew from 67,000 in 1897 to 391,600 in 1904, and in the transportation industries, membership jumped from 116,000 to 446,300. There was also enormous growth in the coal industry: A strike in 1902 sparked a large organizing effort, and membership rose from 447,000 to more than 2 million between 1897 and 1904.43

At the same time, a social justice streak ran through the movement. Labor leaders were uneasy about the two distinct classes of workers — skilled and unskilled — that were forming with the rise of the Industrial Revolution as the 20th century approached. The AFL issued a formal policy stating that it represented all workers, regardless of their skill, race, class or gender.44

However, the AFL's unions continued to be comprised of only skilled trades. So, from the beginning, the movement faced a conundrum: Its ideological aspirations did not square with its institutional realities.

Violence Erupts

The fight for workers' rights, a cornerstone at the movement, sometimes turned violent. An 1892 lockout and strike at the Homestead Steel Works in Pennsylvania and a strike two years later at the Pullman railway car company in Illinois sparked deadly violence that ended only after the federal and state governments sent in military reinforcements to assist local police.

A drawing depicts the 1892 strike by steel workers in Homestead, Pa., when private Pinkerton agents, employed by plant owner Carnegie Steel to suppress the strike, were driven away by the workers. (Getty Images/MPI/Archive Photos)

In 1914, the “Ludlow Massacre” at the Colorado Fuel and Iron Co., owned by wealthy industrialist John D. Rockefeller Jr., followed a strike by coal miners and coke oven workers. State militia opened fire with machine guns on miners' tents; according to various reports, up to 66 people died, including two women and 11 children who suffocated in a pit they had dug beneath their tent.45

The Great Depression further exacerbated tensions between workers and companies, when Americans lost faith in corporations and unions launched a new wave of demands. At the same time, the movement was facing internal conflicts and power struggles. Some in the movement felt that only skilled workers had the economic clout to deal with management, while others felt less-skilled workers should also be organized. The debate got so heated at the 1935 AFL convention that the president of the United Mine Workers, John L. Lewis, punched the Carpenter's Union president in the face, sparking a split in the movement. Lewis spearheaded the formation of the Congress of Industrial Organizations, which in 1938 broke away from the AFL and remained separate for two decades.

Government Involvement

By then, union organizing was a vibrant part of the work world, and the government began to regulate the process. In 1935, the administration of Franklin D. Roosevelt convinced Congress to pass the landmark National Labor Relations Act, which created the NLRB to organize the type of union elections still held today: government-supervised secret-ballot votes that employees hold at work. Many labor advocates cite this law and type of elections as examples of how the U.S. labor-law regime is outdated and not designed for the current workplace, with an abundance of gig workers across a wide range of industries.46

The law was followed by the Fair Labor Standards Act, a crucial piece of legislation that banned children under 14 from working and barred those under 18 from hazardous jobs in mining and factories. It also limited the work week to 44 hours — later reduced to 40 — and established the first minimum wage — 25 cents an hour (roughly $4.59 in today's dollar).47

Meanwhile, strikes became important tools to win gains for workers. In December 1936, one of the first sit-down strikes — in which workers took control of their workplace, preventing management from replacing them with other workers — occurred at a General Motors plant in Flint, Mich. The autoworkers sought to establish the United Auto Workers (UAW) as the only bargaining agent for GM employees. After 44 days, workers won a pay raise and other concessions.48 Several massive strikes in the 1940s against the automobile, steel and meatpacking industries, among others, angered business and conservative groups and led to passage of the Taft-Hartley Act by a Republican-controlled Congress in 1947. It sharply limited strikes and empowered states to enact right-to-work laws, which prevent workers from being forced to join a union to keep their job.49

Unions were flourishing so well that historian Arthur M. Schlesinger Jr. ranked an “upsurge of labor” before the two world wars as one of 10 events that profoundly shaped history during the first half of the 20th century.50

Teamsters President Jimmy Hoffa (center) confronts Chief Counsel Robert F. Kennedy (left) during a hearing of the so-called Senate Rackets Committee in 1958. The series of hearings revealed organized crime's involvement in the union, including rigging elections, misappropriating funds and using violence and intimidation. (Getty Images/Bettmann/Contributor)

But the movement's reputation began to decline in the late 1950s, after a multiyear investigation by the Senate Select Committee on Improper Activities in the Labor or Management Field, under the chairmanship of Sen. John L. McClellan, D-Ark. The so-called Rackets Committee's hearings, led by chief counsel Robert F. Kennedy, revealed organized crime's involvement in unions, particularly the Teamsters Union under its leader Jimmy Hoffa, and exposed misappropriation of welfare, pension and other union funds, rigged elections and the use of force, intimidation and violence.51

Public-Sector Unions

As state and local governments increased their workforces during the mid-20th century, they began to recognize collective bargaining rights for government employees, expanding unionized workers beyond blue-collar ones. Ironically, government workers became an important political force in the 1960 presidential bid of John F. Kennedy, the brother of one-time union foe Robert. In 1962, President Kennedy issued an executive order giving federal workers the right to organize.

In the 1970s, President Richard M. Nixon also turned out to be an important ally for unions. During his administration, unions gained some big legislative victories, such as the 1970 Occupational Safety and Health Act, which included sweeping worker-protection measures.52 Congress also adopted minimum standards for employee pensions under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act in 1974.53

The Decline of Unions

Labor historians cite President Ronald Reagan's 1981 showdown with the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization as a seminal event in the eventual decline of unions. More than 11,000 members of this union went on strike to demand a raise and better working conditions. In a show of power, Reagan fired and permanently replaced them.

“Reagan wanted to really turn back the clock, you might say, to an approach to American government and politics that was pre-New Deal,” wrote Joseph McCartin, a Georgetown University history professor and author of a book on the dispute. “And part of that meant reorganizing the relationship between government and the labor movement…. He sent a powerful message that many employers, even in the private sector, acted upon after that, and it was a period of getting tough with the union movement that really marked a profoundly important turning point.”54

Ironically, Reagan was popular with union members, who had grown disillusioned with what many perceived as the Democratic Party's growing elitism as it aligned itself with Washington powerbrokers and Wall Street and corporate executives.55 Union members became part of the so-called Reagan Democrats who helped Reagan handily win re-election in 1984.

Members of the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization walk the picket line in 1981 during a strike demanding better pay and working conditions. Republican President Ronald Reagan fired the strikers and replaced them with nonunion employees. Labor historians often point to this event as the beginning of the modern decline in union power. (Getty Images/New York Daily News Archive/Dennis Caruso)

By the time another Democrat won the White House in 1992, 12 years after the conservative Reagan revolution began, mainstream Democrats had moved further to the right. Labor, therefore, did not fully celebrate the return of the traditionally pro-union political party to the White House.56

Although Bill Clinton had gained enough union support to win the presidency, he enraged labor with his push for the 1994 North American Free Trade Agreement that included Canada, Mexico and the United States. Unions felt strongly that the deal, which became a centerpiece of Clinton's economic agenda, did not protect union job losses. This started a decades-long debate between labor and the Democratic Party. While party leaders argued that freer global trade would create more higher-quality jobs in the United States, labor leaders said trade deals put downward pressure on U.S. wages and encouraged outsourcing of manufacturing jobs to other countries.

A series of Republican electoral victories — the takeover of Congress in 1994 and the election of George W. Bush as president in 2000 — brought about further weakening of unions. In 2002 Bush invoked the Taft-Hartley Act — which had not been used since the 1970s — to end a labor dispute that had drastically slowed work at 29 West Coast ports.57

After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security, which combined several federal agencies into one department. For a time, the rights of workers in the new department to form a union were abridged by an executive order by Bush. After Hurricane Katrina devastated New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, Bush ordered that the Bacon-Davis Act, a 1930s law that insured high “prevailing wages” for construction workers on federally funded projects, be suspended in response to the emergency, the University of California, Santa Barbara's Lichtenstein says.

As the labor movement faced blow after blow in the policy arena, unions began to focus on ways to increase their ranks. What emerged from that effort was a legislative proposal called the Employee Free Choice Act, which would have made it easier to form a union.

Obama Disappointments

Struggling unions “naturally welcomed the presidency of Barack Obama, the first Democratic chief executive from an urban, heavily unionized state since John F. Kennedy,” says Lichtenstein.

Obama's ascension to the presidency in 2009 “was labor's political high-water mark in recent decades,” journalist Steven Greenhouse wrote in Beaten Down, Worked up: The Past, Present, and Future of American Labor. “But even so, unions failed to achieve their primary goal.”58

Both labor and anti-union groups approached the start of the Obama administration with a Democratic Congress as a high-stakes battle, as congressional debate began over the Employee Free Choice Act. The Center for Responsive Politics, which tracks lobbying and campaign spending, referred to the bill as an “ideological bomb.”59

Democrats introduced the measure early in Obama's presidency with dramatic declarations of the changes it would bring. “Just as the National Labor Relations Act, the 40-hour week and the minimum wage helped to pull us out of the Great Depression and into a period of unprecedented prosperity, so too will the Employee Free Choice Act invigorate our economy,” Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat from Iowa, said in announcing the bill.60

Businesses were equally forceful in their language: “The Employee Free Choice Act represents the most dramatic potential change to U.S. labor law in nearly 75 years,” wrote the Society for Human Resource Management, a professional group of human-resource employees, noting that its members had sent more than 40,000 letters to Congress opposing the bill.61 A central and particularly controversial element of the bill was the “card-check” provision, which would have allowed a union to be approved and certified if a majority of workers signed union cards, rather than requiring a secret-ballot vote.

Although Obama had promised more than 100 top labor officials early in his presidency that the measure was an important priority of his, the bill eventually died in Congress. Some in the labor movement blamed Obama for using his political capital at the start of his administration to enact health care legislation, rather than winning passage of this labor-friendly bill as a reward to unions who had helped him get elected.62

“He failed to fight for our priorities and stand up for the main reason we endorsed him — card check,” said Norwood Orrick, a telecom technician and a member of the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers, referring to a nickname for the Employee Free Choice Act. This disappointment “was discussed a lot in my immediate circle of activists.”63

Other union advocates were blunter in their criticism. “Unlike bailouts to the capitalists, even the smallest concessions to workers are ignored by the Democratic Party,” William Lewis, a hotel worker in Stamford, Conn., wrote on Left Voice, a socialist website popular with labor activists. “Obama never addressed the issue beyond sound bites here and there, and at a Labor Day picnic that year, he devoted all of two sentences to the act in front of the assembled 20,000 union members,” he wrote, adding that in the end, the Democrats abandoned passage of the measure, “alongside so many other promises.”64

Despite their disappointment over the Employee Free Choice Act, unions remained strong allies of Obama and the Democrats and racked up plenty of wins during Obama's first term. But by Obama's second term, labor leaders were declaring their independence from the party.

“It's a pattern of disappointments,” International Association of Fire Fighters president Harold Schaitberger said on MSNBC's “The Rachel Maddow Show.” “Our friends have not found a way to deliver on behalf of workers, on behalf of the middle class. We are turning the spigot off and redirecting our efforts out to the various states where we are fighting these fights.”65

Trump Administration

While unions remain a crucial ally of Democrats, their frustration is significant enough that the votes of some of their members helped Trump secure his 2016 win. Trump won the most votes among union households of any Republican presidential candidate since 1984, the election that gave Reagan his second term.66

“American workers' pent-up frustration about stagnant wages and shuttered factories was a big factor in the 2016 election,” Greenhouse wrote in Beaten Down, Worked Up. “That frustration helped push millions of blue-collar workers to vote for Donald Trump, a billionaire who wooed and wowed them by promising ‘to bring back the jobs,’ rev up manufacturing, and get tough on Mexico and China. Blue-collar whites gave Trump the margins he needed to win Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin, and with those states, overall victory.”67

But labor advocates say Trump's record as president was filled with dozens of anti-worker accomplishments, including:68

• Scrapping the “fiduciary rule,” which imposed a legal requirement on financial advisers to act in the best interest of workers and retirees in handling their 401(k)s. The move could cost many workers tens of millions of dollars.69

• Eliminating a rule that extended overtime pay to millions of workers, depriving many of thousands of dollars per year.70

• Trying to relax a rule for safety inspection of coal mines, even though Trump claimed to be a friend of miners.71

• Making it easier to award federal contracts to companies that are repeat violators of wage, sexual harassment and racial discrimination laws and the right to unionize.72

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Current Situation

Pandemic Issues

Trump's ultimate test on the issue of workers' rights, of course, came with the COVID-19 pandemic. Critics say the administration has failed to protect workers from the pandemic.

As a candidate in 2016, Trump promised to “dismantle the regulatory state,” but the complicated rulemaking process made this difficult in the early years of his administration. The pandemic, though, allowed Trump to invoke an economic emergency and relax, rescind or suspend federal regulations affecting a range of businesses, from trucking companies to oil to gas pipelines.73

OSHA has issued few workplace violation citations during the pandemic and has allowed those it has cited to negotiate lower fines. In fact, under Trump's presidency OSHA had fewer safety inspectors than at any other point since the 1970s. Thousands of health care workers have reported dangerous conditions, such as a lack of proper protective gear or the ability to maintain social distance at their work stations. But the agency has investigated fewer than 3 percent of the 9,488 coronavirus-related complaints it had received as of Oct. 18.74

In addition, before the pandemic struck, Trump killed an airborne pollution regulation that would have required hospitals, nursing homes and other medical workplaces to prepare for a pandemic. Some critics say the action left hospitals unprepared to protect their workers during the outbreak.

The meatpacking industry has been particularly hard-hit by lax workplace regulations during the pandemic. Trump classified employees in this industry as essential workers, meaning they did not have the option to stay home.75 By invoking the Defense Production Act, Trump classified meatpacking plants as essential infrastructures that had to remain open. The move was meant to battle shortages in the nation's food supply. But it also made an already dangerous industry even more unsafe. Between 2015 and 2018, one slaughterhouse worker, on average, lost a body part or went to the hospital for treatment every other day.76

Around 50,000 meat-processing workers at about 550 plants have been diagnosed with the coronavirus and about 250 have died. Workers' rights organizations described a dire lack of antivirus precautions at some large meat plants, especially in the early days of the pandemic. In September, OSHA fined two companies a total of just $29,000 for safety violations. Workers' groups were outraged that the two plants, with some of the severest outbreaks, were cited for only three violations and that hundreds of other plants were not fined. They also complained that OSHA's guidelines were voluntary rather than mandatory.77

Some of the companies say that their citations are without merit; Smithfield Foods and JBS both said they are contesting the violations and are making safety improvements. A Smithfield spokeswoman said that they “simultaneously and repeatedly urged OSHA to commit the time and resources to visit our operations in March and April. They did not do so.” JBS said the OSHA citation “attempts to impose a standard that did not exist in March as [the company] fought the pandemic with no guidance.” OSHA said the guidance was well known and companies ignored it.78

OSHA issued a handful of other citations later in the year. The companies, which said they would appeal the penalties, complained that federal regulators had taken too long to issue guidelines on how to keep workers safe.

Trump “essentially told the country that a pork shoulder is worth more than a worker's life,” said David Michaels, who ran OSHA under Obama and is now a professor at the George Washington University School of Public Health. Labor groups say they expect President Biden to strengthen OSHA soon after taking office to help put the brakes on the pandemic. Biden could quickly boost inspections, fill vacancies and establish new workplace standards relevant to the pandemic.79

Unions representatives, former Labor Department officials from the Obama administration and nonprofit groups have created a catalogue of recommendations to improve worker safety. A top goal is to create an emergency temporary standard for the coronavirus, which would be a set of mandatory rules, such as social distancing, hand-washing breaks and better ventilation, that employers must follow or face penalties.80

Biden's Agenda

In his first week in office, Biden signed an executive order asking the Labor Department to issue rules clarifying that all employees have the right to turn down work that puts their health at risk during the pandemic without losing eligibility for jobless benefits.81

Biden also ordered that federal employees be paid at least $15 an hour and allowed to take emergency paid leave. He also asked his administration to prepare another executive order that would require federal contractors to do the same, which he could sign within his first 100 days.82

Fast-food workers in Los Angeles hold up signs calling for a $15 minimum hourly wage in 2017. President Biden signed an executive order granting a $15 minimum wage to federal employees on Jan. 22 and promised to do the same for federal contractors within his first 100 days in office. (AFP/Getty Images/Frederic J. Brown)

In addition, Biden revoked executive orders issued by Trump that had restricted federal employees' collective bargaining power and limited their civil service job protections. And he directed federal agencies to develop plans to pay more federal workers at least $15 an hour.83

More broadly, Biden has said he would implement additional pro-worker and pro-union regulations, executive orders and directives. For example, he has vowed to allow federal employees to receive bigger pay increases than under Trump and have access to workplace improvements such as diversity training.

He also is expected to reverse Trump's actions on overtime rules, making it easier for workers to collect overtime pay, and make drastic changes to rules relating to employee compensation and benefits.84

In addition, with Biden's expected pro-worker appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, the agency is likely to more aggressively punish employers who break the law by fighting union campaigns.85 The board may also issue a rule that makes it easier for employees of federal contractors and franchisees to hold parent companies responsible for violations of their labor rights.86

Now, with a Democratic-led Congress in place, the party is expected to quickly seek major legislative changes designed to help workers. Biden's campaign platform endorsed the $15 federal minimum wage by 2026 (this would be the country's minimum wage, rather than leaving that option up to the states) and called for legislation to give all workers 12 weeks of paid leave to deal with a family member's or their own health condition.

The Gig Economy

With the growing shift toward a gig economy, particularly with massive pandemic-related layoffs and furloughs, many workplace protections are irrelevant to the hundreds of thousands of Americans working on a contract basis.

The Trump administration had finalized a rule that makes it easier for businesses to classify workers as independent contractors, which was seen as victory for gig-economy companies such as Uber and DoorDash.87 But Biden's incoming press secretary has cited the independent contractor rule as a “midnight regulation” that could be blocked from taking effect in an Inauguration Day memo.88

Biden and the Democrats may face an uphill fight to protect gig workers, since California voters in November passed a ballot measure designed to protect the contract-work system. The win may help companies including Uber, Lyft and DoorDash fight challenges elsewhere the country.89

The California vote outcome “is an important turning point for this conversation,” Lyft President John Zimmer told The Wall Street Journal. And DoorDash Chief Executive Tony Xu said in a statement: “Now, we're looking ahead and across the country, ready to champion new benefits structures.”90

The PRO Act

For unions, the biggest victory of all would be if Democrats and Biden revive the Employee Free Choice Act, which is now called the PRO (Protecting the Right to Organize) Act.

The Democratic-controlled House of Representatives passed the PRO Act last February. It did not include the controversial “card-check” language that made passage harder to attain, but it would shorten to 10 days the period between a union petition for recognition and an election. It would also eliminate right-to-work laws in 27 states.

Unions are gearing up to push for passage of the measure, and businesses have registered their opposition to it. One of those opponents, the Securities Industry and Financial Markets Association, which represents the securities industry, told Congress the bill “would alter the independent contractor status under the National Labor Relations Act” and “adversely impact hundreds of thousands of independent broker-dealers and financial advisers.”91

But lawyer Lotito says that, given the administration's crowded pandemic-related agenda, this legislation may be just another union fantasy.

“Biden needs to a do a few things in his first year: get shots in our arms and contain the virus,” he says. “If he does that, the economy will stabilize, and the job market will improve. He has no more than 18 months to do this before we really move into the election cycle. And he needs to unite America. If he pushes the PRO Act, which will never pass a 50/50 Senate, he will signal that he is as divisive as anyone else.”

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Outlook

Wholesale Changes

Amid the decades-long slide in labor's ranks, union leaders and analysts have worked to devise structural ways to reverse their decline and improve conditions for workers. Many of these ideas require wholesale changes in labor laws and employment structures.

“Unions in the private sector will continue to fight an uphill battle and will likely remain confined to a few industries in mostly coastal cities,” Lotito says.

Without significant change, predicts former Trump and Bush labor adviser Vernuccio, unions “will continue to fade away” if they “continue with their current model of inflexibility and put more money and effort into politics than representation. They need to embrace a voluntary model that actually improves workers' lives and give up their government training wheels that force employees to join their club.”

David Madland, a senior fellow and the senior adviser to the American Worker Project at the liberal Center for American Progress, has developed a national proposal for wage boards. Under this idea, the U.S. secretary of Labor would convene separate national boards for each industry, composed of employer and worker representatives and a Labor Department official. They would meet every few years and set minimum wages for occupations within those industries.92

The goal is to transform “unions from individual firm-level bargaining units into organizations and structures” that “negotiate for higher wages and benefits across an entire industry or sector,” he said.93

Professors at Harvard Law School's Labor and Worklife Program and organizers from around the country have created what they call the “Clean Slate for Worker Power” approach. The group argues that it is impossible to return to the labor movement of the past and that the time for tinkering with labor laws is long gone. The only way to truly revive workers' fortunes is by creating a statutory clean slate, they say.

Still, labor activists organizing outside the union movement are winning victories, as the Fight for $15 has illustrated. What is being referred to as an “alt labor movement” has helped win pay raises and paid leave for almost 1 million Walmart workers and helped set some new industry standards for domestic workers.94

But some people working on behalf of unions and employers do not think drastic changes are needed to preserve the labor movement. They cite the new union organized at Google and the proposed union at Amazon in Alabama, and say the pandemic has created a renewed interest in unions, especially among health care workers.95 Of the approximately 1,500 petitions for union representation filed on the NLRB's website in 2020, about 16 percent are related to the health care industry, up from 14 percent over the previous year.96

Rutger's Van Horn sees a pandemic-awakened worker consciousness that “is not going to go away.” While “that doesn't mean we are going to go back to the 1960s,” he adds, “the pandemic brought to light a lot of inequities, particularly for low-wage workers. There is now a stronger case for unions.”

But management lawyer Pryzbylski says despite some complaints in the workplace during the pandemic for more protective equipment, hazard pay and other job protections, he does not see any improvements in the low level of private-sector unionization. “Employees don't want conflicts at work, and unions seem to bring conflicts,” he says. “We don't have the kind of OSHA and minimum wage violations that there once were, and I don't see the demand for unions increasing.”

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Pro/Con

Can labor unions be revived?

Pro Celine McNicholas Director of Government Affairs and Labor Counsel, Economic Policy Institute. Written for CQ Researcher, January 2021 The share of workers represented by unions has dropped by more than half since 1979 — from 27 percent to 10.8 percent in 2020. Not coincidentally, the share of income going to the top 10 percent of the population has escalated during this period: Such high earners now capture nearly half of all income. The decline of unions is not because people don't want to be in unions. They do: According to Gallup, 65 percent of Americans approve of labor unions — a 17-year high. And 71 percent of adults under age 34 approve of them. But corporate attacks on unions that impede organizing efforts have robbed workers of this opportunity. We need fundamental reform of labor law to restore and protect workers' rights to come together and bargain with employers over the terms of their employment. Congress should pass the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which would significantly strengthen the ability of private-sector workers to form unions and engage in collective bargaining by addressing several of the major obstacles that currently stand in the way of workers. It would hold employers accountable for breaking the law and put workers on an even playing field with their employers. Additionally, Congress should pass federal reforms so that all public-sector workers can form unions and engage in collective bargaining. Currently, more than half of the states lack comprehensive collective bargaining laws for public-service workers such as teachers. Workers in the public service, like the private sector, deserve the right to join together in unions to fight for stronger safety and health protections, better pay and better working conditions. Finally, the National Labor Relations Board should reverse Trump administration rules that have made it harder for workers to organize, conduct union elections and negotiate contracts. While the national numbers are dismal, there are a few bright spots for unions. In 2019, there was an increase in union coverage among workers under the age of 45 (+127,000), which offset the 125,000 union jobs that were lost among those over age 45. Additionally, workers in traditionally nonunion sectors — such as nonprofits, digital journalism, museums and technology — have been organizing new workers into unions. With high support for unions and enthusiasm among new groups of workers, policymakers must seize this moment to make it easier for working people to join unions.

Con F. Vincent Vernuccio President, Institute for the American Worker and Senior Fellow, Mackinac Center for Public Policy; Author, Unionization for the 21st Century: Solutions for the Ailing Labor Movement . Written for CQ Researcher, January 2021 The existing union model was created for a different time and a different workforce. One-size-fits-all collective bargaining was designed for the Industrial Revolution, when workers made a living on assembly lines and in factories and did not need as much skill and ingenuity as they do today. U.S. union membership has been declining for decades, after peaking in the 1950s during the postwar economic boom, when nearly one-third of all workers belonged to a union. Now only 10.8 percent of all workers are union members, and only 6.3 percent of private-sector workers. Many collective bargaining agreements allow workers to get raises based only on the number of years they have been on the job and not on how hard they work or their level of productivity. Even union officials realize their business model is outdated. David Rolf, former vice president of the Service Employees International Union, has said, “The 20th century model is dead. It will not come back…. We need fundamentally different ideas of how to build a labor movement.” He is right. The labor law of the 1930s and union model that peaked in the 1950s do not work in today's dynamic, skilled economy, where employees want to be compensated based on their individual talent. Additionally, workers increasingly want to work for themselves, especially in the gig economy. Unfortunately, congressional efforts to help revive unions are simply doubling down on the failed model of the past. The number one labor priority in Congress right now is the PRO Act, which aims to make traditional unionization easier by, among other things, eliminating right-to-work laws. Sectoral bargaining, which would allow unions to negotiate wages and benefits for entire industries, is another emerging movement geared toward increasing union membership. Sectoral bargaining, which President Biden supports, would allow the United Auto Workers, for instance, to negotiate for Southern autoworkers, who have repeatedly rejected unionization efforts. The key to preserving the original function of unions is to make them voluntary professional service organizations geared toward helping individual workers. Instead, most efforts to increase union membership continue to double down on the failed ways of the past, creating more one-size-fits-all agreements and forcing workers to accept and pay for unwanted representation. Without a full change in strategy — and consideration for workers' autonomy — union membership will continue its decline.

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Short Features

Companies Often Embrace ‘Union Avoidance’ Tactics

When workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama sought last year to schedule a vote on whether to form a union, the company turned to the international law firm Morgan Lewis & Bockius for advice on how to respond. It was the same firm that helped Amazon successfully fight off unionization at a Delaware warehouse in 2014. 1

Some 6,000 workers at the Amazon facility in Bessemer, Ala., will vote this February and March on whether to unionize. If they vote to do so, the warehouse would be the first unionized Amazon facility in the United States. (AP Photo/Icon Sportswire/Michael Wade)

“Businesses of all sizes in nearly every industry turn to us for trusted advice on navigating labor-management issues,” the firm says on its website. “We represent and support employer coalitions and industry associations in labor-related litigation.” 2

The vote at the Alabama warehouse is scheduled to be held starting Feb. 8. It will be the first U.S. Amazon facility to hold a union representation election in seven years. 3

Fighting unions has become standard practice in many U.S. businesses, according to labor advocates, some of whom blame aggressive anti-union tactics for the decades-long decline in union membership among private U.S. companies. Companies say they oppose unionization because it raises their costs and lessens their control of the workplace.

According to a 2019 report by the Economic Policy Institute, a pro-union think tank, companies spend nearly $340 million a year hiring “union avoidance” advisers to help halt unionization efforts. “Aggressive anti-union campaigns — once confined to the most anti-union employers — have become widespread,” the report said. “U.S. employers are willing to use a wide range of legal and illegal tactics to frustrate the rights of workers to form unions and collectively bargain.” 4

The industry has exploded from 100 anti-union specialists in the 1960s to more than 2,000 today, ranging from some of the nation's most respected consulting and law firms to “shady outfits that routinely break the law,” according to Steven Greenhouse, a former New York Times labor reporter and author of two books about the union movement. 5

A Google search for “how to fight a union” produces a plethora of companies offering their services, including unionbustingplaybook.com and unionproof.com. And business publications such as the Harvard Business Review and human resources newsletters abound with tips on preventing employees from organizing. 6

It is a uniquely American industry. Labor issues that arise in European companies often are adjudicated by labor-management committees, known as works councils, that hash out management-worker differences. Germany's works councils are particularly active, and labor agreements — usually made on a national level — have been an important part of that nation's auto industry.

No such formal structures exist in the United States. In fact, U.S. labor unions are meant to be exclusively worker organizations that are not dominated by employers; the National Labor Relations Act bans “company unions.” 7

U.S. employers say unions lead to higher labor costs, more strikes, decreased human resources control, more lawsuits and arbitration and extra accounting for union dues. 8 And many executives are clear about their desire to avoid a union. “We like driving the car, and we are not going to give the steering wheel to anyone but us,” said Lee Scott, a former CEO at Walmart, well-known for its efforts to resist unionization. 9

In fact, the company's founder, Sam Walton wrote in his 1992 autobiography: “Theoretically I understand the argument that unions try to make, that the associates need someone to represent them and so on. But historically, as unions have developed in this country, they have mostly just been divisive.” In 1970, when employees at two Walmart stores in Missouri tried to unionize, he hired John Tate, a lawyer who called unions “bloodsucking parasites,” to oversee labor relations. 10

A company can legally try to persuade workers not to unionize, but federal law forbids preventing employees from unionizing through threats or violence. Yet, Greenhouse wrote, some union avoidance firms recommend that companies engage in illegal anti-union activities, such as firing or spying on union supporters, asking workers to disclose whether they favor a union or threatening to close plants or offices if workers unionize. Other illegal tactics include cutting union activists' hours or pay and reporting workers to immigration enforcement authorities if they try to unionize, he wrote. 11

The Economic Policy Institute's study found that employers are charged with violating federal labor law in 41.5 percent of all union election campaigns. It said the rate is so high, in part, because federal penalties for violating the law are low. 12

“Union busting is a field populated by bullies and built on deceit,” Martin Jay Levitt, a former management consultant who later came to regret his anti-union work, wrote in his book, Confessions of a Union Buster. “The only way to bust a union is to lie, distort, manipulate, threaten and always, always attack,” he wrote. 13

But to many in the industry, union avoidance is simply a way to train employers within the limits of labor law. “There is nothing nefarious about what union avoidance companies do,” says Jon Hyman, a labor and employment attorney at Meyers Roman Friedberg & Lewis. “They merely offer a service that employees and employers need when a union is organizing.”

David Pryzbylski, a labor and employment attorney in Indianapolis at Barnes & Thornburg LLP who represents management, says companies “routinely share information with employees about unions during a union campaign to ensure workers have a complete picture and can make an informed choice on potential unionization.” He says unions often paint a misleading picture of how they operate or what they have delivered to existing members. “Just like unions have an opportunity to communicate around these issues, companies do as well, and most take advantage of that opportunity,” he says.

— Holly Rosenkrantz

[1] Jay Greene, “Amazon to face first U.S. unionization vote in seven years next month,” The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y45neqws.

[2] “US Labor/Management Relations,” Morgan Lewis & Bockius, https://tinyurl.com/y54ld6jw.

[3] Greene, op. cit.

[4] Celine McNicholas et al., “Unlawful: U.S. employers are charged with violating federal law in 41.5% of all union election campaigns,” Economic Policy Institute, Dec. 11, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yygrlbl3.

[5] Steven Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up (2019), p. 156. His other book about unions is The Big Squeeze: Tough Times for the American Worker (2009).

[6] William E. Fulmer, “Step by Step Through a Union Campaign,” Harvard Business Review, July 1981, https://tinyurl.com/y37j9msc; “How can we prevent a union from organizing in our company?” Society for Human Resource Managers, https://tinyurl.com/yy6ovsaw.

[7] Douglas Williams, “Are ‘Works Councils’ Really Such a Good Idea for Workers and Unions?” In These Times, Dec. 15, 2014, https://tinyurl.com/y6lufdxf.

[8] Steve Milano, “The Disadvantages of Union Membership From an Employer's Perspective,” Houston Chronicle, Jan. 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3j8sddg.

[9] Jake Rosenfeld, What Unions No Longer Do (2014), p. 7.

[10] Susan Berfield, “How Walmart Keeps an Eye on Its Massive Workforce: The retail giant is Always watching,” Bloomberg, Nov. 24, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/jhfrxzn.

[11] Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up, op. cit., p. 157.

[12] McNicholas et al., op. cit.

[13] Martin Jay Levitt, Confessions of a Union Buster (1993), p. 1.

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Race, Gender Issues Plague Union Movement

“We don't want to just be ‘in the room where it happens,’” Marc Bayard, project director at the Black Worker Initiative at the Institute for Policy Studies, wrote in September. “We want to be architects of the whole damn house.” 14

Bayard was expressing a long-standing concern that union leadership is not diverse enough.

Richard Trumka, president of the AFL-CIO labor federation, has spoken about the need for more diversity in labor leadership and more union support for racial justice. “We as a movement have not always done our best to support our brothers and sisters of color,” he told a 2015 labor convention in Ferguson, Mo., where protests had erupted the year before after police shot and killed an unarmed Black teenager. 15

Trumka has acknowledged that the labor movement also has a gender issue. “There are too few women, and particularly Black women, in leadership roles in the labor movement,” he said in another 2015 speech. 16

Black men have long held high-ranking positions in labor unions; among the most prominent was civil rights leader A. Philip Randolph, who led the first union made up of African American workers in 1925 and became vice president of the AFL-CIO 30 years later.

Recent research shows that when women of color make up the majority of the employees in a workplace and are organized by women of color, the union election win rate is 89 percent, the highest for any group. 17 Yet Black women organizers are rare in many labor groups, Bayard said. 18

“African American women are the most underutilized leadership resource in the U.S. labor movement despite the fact that they belong to unions at higher rates than all other women,” said a 2015 report by the Institute for Policy Studies, a liberal Washington think tank. 19

That finding was not new. A study eight years earlier by Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations had reached the same conclusion: “Developing more lead organizers who are female, people of color, and especially women of color … is a formula for success.” 20

Both studies called for creating and expanding mentorship programs, bolstering public education and crafting pilot organizing projects focused on Black women. Arlene Holt Baker, a retired executive vice president of the AFL-CIO, said labor will “grow stronger if it utilizes the intellect, the organizing skills, the political skills, the bargaining power and the leadership skills of more Black women at every level of our movement.” 21

Fast-food workers and supporters march in downtown Chicago last July 20, part of a nationwide day of protest organized by unions and others to demand better pay and safer working conditions for front-line workers who often are people of color. Unions have been criticized for not being at the forefront of protests against systemic racism. (Getty Images/NurPhoto/Max Herman)

But racism may be so deeply entrenched in the movement that policy papers and summits on the issue may not be enough. “Race fractures the labor movement,” said Ian Haney López, a law professor at University of California, Berkeley, and author of the 2014 book Dog Whistle Politics: How Coded Racial Appeals Have Reinvented Racism and Wrecked the Middle Class. 22

Labor organizer Andrew Tillett-Saks said unions should engage with their white members on how racism negatively affects fellow workers of color. “Internal battles on this issue are necessary and will lead to the tough conversations members need to have,” he argued. 23

Racial issues persist in the movement. At the height of the Black Lives Matter protests over the killing by police of Minneapolis resident George Floyd, Sam Cabral, the president of the International Union of Police Associations, accused Trumka of making “patently false” and “disgraceful” claims about the nation's history of violence against Black people and of “playing to a crowd” rather than standing by unionized police officers. 24

Despite efforts to diversify the movement, only one person of color serves in the AFL-CIO's leadership — executive vice president Tefere Gebre.

Since Floyd's killing, some labor analysts have said that in the past the movement has focused too much on contract negotiations and not enough on racial justice. Benjamin Sachs, a former attorney for the Service Employees International Union, pointed out that in part because of collective bargaining agreements between the Minneapolis police department and its union, Derek Chauvin, the officer accused of killing Floyd, had never been fired, despite 17 misconduct complaints. 25 Indeed, critics say, many police unions have contracts that protect officers accused of misconduct, including prejudice or discrimination.

Trumka, for his part, has called on President Joe Biden to appoint a racial equity czar to coordinate the new administration's racial justice policies. Unemployment is a top labor issue, as is racial justice, he pointed out, noting that the unemployment rate among African Americans was 9.9 percent in December, compared with 6 percent for whites. 26

“Structural racial inequity exists in nearly every facet of our country,” Trumka said in a press call to highlight his movement's agenda. “Our workplaces, our health care system, our criminal justice system. This has always been true but never been clearer.” 27

— Holly Rosenkrantz

[14] Marc Bayard, “Black Labor Leaders Are Needed Now More Than Ever,” The Nation, Sept. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5ndvtfg.

[15] Bruce Vail, “Acknowledging ‘Ugly History of Racism’ in Labor Movement, AFL-CIO Creates New Commission on Race,” In These Times, March 10, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/yxf5qr9z.

[16] “Richard Trumka: Black Women Leaders of Labor Show Us a ‘Bright Path Forward,’” Institute for Policy Studies, June 29, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y3ozfna7.

[17] “Why Black Women Need Unions, Why Unions Need Black Women,” “And Still I Rise: Black Women Labor Leaders' Voices/Power/Promise,” Institute for Policy Studies, April 2015, http://tinyurl.com/p7q8nqe.

[18] Bayard, op. cit.

[19] “Why Black Women Need Unions, Why Unions Need Black Women,” ibid.

[20] Kate Bronfenbrenner and Dorian T. Warren, “Race, Gender, and the Rebirth of Trade Unionism,” Cornell University School of Industrial and Labor Relations, June 2007, https://tinyurl.com/y4gul6cb.

[21] Joye Barksdale, “Black Women: Labor Resource in Waiting,” AFSCME, July 14, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/yyucfbt2.

[22] Ian Haney López, “Unions Must Address Racism,” AFL-CIO, Jan. 12, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y4qezh2j.

[23] Andrew Tillett-Saks, “Why the Labor Movement Must Join the Anti-Racist Struggle to Make Black Lives Matter,” In These Times, April 6, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y5hr5lk5.

[24] Hamilton Nolan, “Police Union Denies Racism, Calls AFL-CIO President ‘Disgraceful’ in Irate Letter,” In These Times, June 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxd5gfa9.

[25] Benjamin Sachs, “Floyd killing shows police unions abuse power. We need radical reform: Former union lawyer,” USA Today, June 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4seljb3.

[26] Niv Ellis, “AFL-CIO calls on Biden to appoint racial equity czar,” The Hill, Jan. 12, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4866t96.

[27] Richard Trumka, “Workers First Agenda Will Build Sustainable Economy and Stronger Democracy,” AFL-CIO, Jan. 12, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y25w28zy.

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Bibliography

Books

Dubofsky, Melvyn, and Joseph A. McCartin , Labor in America: A History , John Wiley & Sons, 2017. Two historians trace the labor movement from colonial times to the present.

Greenhouse, Steven , Beaten Down, Worked Up: The Past, Present and Future of American Labor , Penguin Random House, 2019. A veteran New York Times labor reporter explores the future of the union movement.

Hogler, Raymond L. , The End of American Labor Unions: The Right-to-Work Movement and the Erosion of Collective Bargaining , Praeger, 2015. A Colorado State University professor of labor law examines the history of regulating unions.

Lichtenstein, Nelson , State of the Union: A Century of American Labor , Princeton University Press, 2013. In a comprehensive history of the labor movement, a prominent labor historian argues that the movement was unprepared for the Reagan and Clinton presidencies.

Rosenblum, Jonathan , Beyond $15: Immigrant Workers, Faith Activists, and the Revival of the Labor Movement, Penguin Random House, 2017. A Pulitzer Prize-winning author who focuses on the growing income disparity gap explores how a progressive coalition that includes labor unions built a movement to win a federal minimum wage of $15 an hour.

Articles

Babineau, Diana , “Unions Have Supported Democrats for Decades. It's Time for Dems To Keep Their Promises,” In These Times, Sept. 5, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3gnrb7d. A liberal magazine explores the tensions between the Democratic Party and the labor movement.

Bandler, James , “Inside the Union Where Coronavirus Put 98% of Members Out of Work,” ProPublica, April 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3u3ue2z. A writer reports on how the hospitality sector has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic recession.

Bowe, John , “The Immokalee Way: Protecting Farmworkers Amid a Pandemic,” The Nation, Sept. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5d82kxk. The writer of a 2008 book on modern American labor examines how the pandemic is affecting farmworkers in the “tomato capital of the world.”

Kelly, Kim , “What Socialism Has to Do With the U.S. Labor Movement,” Teen Vogue, May 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yyzt8ban. A socialist writer unapologetically delves into socialism's connections to the U.S. labor movement.

Meyerson, Harold , “What a Biden Labor Board Could Do,” The American Prospect, Nov. 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2m5rbna. A prominent socialist commentator explores how the somewhat-obscure National Labor Relations Board could affect labor policy under President Biden.

Tankersley, Jim, Jeanna Smialek and Alan Rappaport , “Biden's Economic Team Suggests Focus on Workers and Income Equality,” The New York Times, Nov. 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2sx4kyd. Three reporters examine the pro-labor positions of Biden's economic appointments.

Reports and Studies

Madland, David , et al., “President Trump's Policies Are Hurting American Workers,” Center for American Progress, Jan. 28, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y5694f3q. A liberal think tank examines former President Donald Trump's policies it considers strongly anti-worker.

McNicholas, Celine , et al., “Why unions are good for workers — especially in a crisis like COVID-19,” Economic Policy Institute, Aug. 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4fv7op6. A pro-labor policy group examines how unions could be used to help workers and the economy during the pandemic.

Price, Carter C., and Kathryn A. Edwards , “Trends in Income From 1975-2018,” RAND Corp., September 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yy2oy2mg. A study finds that income inequality has cost the bottom 90 percent of workers a total of $50 trillion over more than 40 years.

Vernuccio, F. Vincent , “Unionization for the 21st Century: Solutions for the Ailing Labor Movement,” Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Nov. 11, 2014, https://tinyurl.com/y6ytd847. A former Labor Department official during the George W. Bush administration argues that unions are losing membership because most do not meet the needs of the modern workforce.

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The Next Step

Biden Policies

Bur, Jessie , “A Biden presidency could change relationships with federal unions,” Federal Times, Jan. 13, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4udev26. The Biden administration plans to swiftly restore government employees' collective bargaining rights that were restricted by President Donald Trump.

Eaton, Dan , “4 ways Biden wants to remake labor law,” San Diego Union-Tribune, Jan. 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y2hk642h. President Biden's appointees to the National Labor Relations Board will be more skeptical of employers planning to thwart unionization than previous boards.

Jones, Charisse , “Democratic control of Senate could mean changes in wages, child care, unions under Biden,” USA Today, Jan. 7, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4oljfhx. Biden plans to extend to domestic and agricultural laborers the same federal safeguards that protect most workers and will prosecute companies that purposefully misclassify their workers as independent contractors.

COVID-19

Hogan, Bernadette, and Aaron Feis , “NYPD, large unions should administer COVID-19 vaccine themselves, Cuomo says,” New York Post, Jan. 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y65u8kn8. New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said large unions, such as the teachers and the transport workers unions, should prepare to distribute the vaccine to their own members in order to relieve pressure on clinics and hospitals.

Kelley, Jeremy P. , “Teachers unions back vaccine, but say it's not a cure-all,” Dayton Daily News, Jan. 16, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y58v22wk. Two large Ohio teachers unions are encouraging members to get the vaccine but say social distancing and masks are still essential to combat the pandemic.

Pattani, Aneri , “For Health Care Workers, The Pandemic Is Fueling Renewed Interest In Unions,” NPR, Jan. 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yy78quuu. Nurses in a North Carolina hospital voted by a large majority to unionize after the COVID-19 pandemic heightened existing workplace safety concerns.

Race

Brady, Jeff , “Union Pushing Keystone XL Faces Racial Discrimination Suit,” NPR, Jan. 19, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y5oq67u2. A construction union advocating for the building of the Keystone XL oil pipeline is being sued by multiple members who allege racial discrimination and verbal abuse.

Morrison, Aaron , “Unions threaten work stoppages amid calls for racial justice,” The Associated Press, Sept. 5, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3mm29se. Union leaders representing autoworkers and other industries threatened to lead nationwide walkouts to force lawmakers to take action on police reform.

Petrella, Dan, and Jamie Munks , “Police unions, others air concerns over criminal justice proposal pushed by Legislative Black Caucus: ‘This bill goes beyond reasonable reform,’” Chicago Tribune, Jan. 9, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4pfztw9. A criminal justice reform bill in Illinois would restrict collective bargaining rights for police unions and end qualified immunity, changes the police unions oppose.

Union Busting

Bloch, Sam , “Facing aggressive pushback, Amazon workers to vote on forming the company's first American union,” The Counter, Jan. 18, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4lt6dbg. Workers at an Amazon warehouse in Alabama will soon vote on unionization, against the wishes of the online giant.

Caruso, Stephen , “Scranton Joe? Biden gets heat for inaugural celebration with union-busting law firm,” Pennsylvania Capital-Star, Jan. 20, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4kzlch8. A law firm that recently busted a Pittsburgh graduate student union drive hosted an inaugural event for President Biden, who began his presidential run in a Pittsburgh union hall.

Gurley, Lauren Kaori , “‘Lazy,’ ‘Money-Oriented,’ ‘Single Mother’: How Union-Busting Firms Compile Dossiers on Employees,” Vice, Jan. 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y5qmqsfa. A leaked spreadsheet from a consulting firm that advised Google on how to avoid unionization includes pithy descriptions of employees who were investigated by the consultants.

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Contacts

AFL-CIO
815 16th St., N.W., Washington, DC 20006
202-637-5000
afl-cio.org
Umbrella organization representing 12.5 million workers in 56 unions.

Center for Union Facts
202-463-7106
unionfacts.com
Anti-union organization that tracks alleged union corruption, officers' salaries, membership data and financial data.

Economic Policy Institute
1225 I St., N.W., Suite 600, Washington, DC 20005
202-775-8810
epi.org
Labor-backed think tank that researches labor conditions, jobs, trade and globalization.

National Labor Relations Board
1015 Half St., S.E., Washington, DC, 20570
202-273-1000
nlrb.gov
Five-member bipartisan board that decides labor cases and monitors labor and union policy.

Service Employees International Union
1800 Massachusetts Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20036
202-730-7000
seiu.org
Union that represents 2 million U.S. and Canadian workers in health care, property services and other fields.

U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
2 Massachusetts Ave., N.E., Washington, DC 20212
202-691-5200
bls.gov
Department of Labor agency that provides data on wages, work stoppages, collective bargaining and unionization rates.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce
1615 H St., N.W., Washington, DC 20062
202-659-6000
uschamber.org
Influential business lobbying group that opposes many union priorities.

U.S. Office of Labor-Management Standards
200 Constitution Ave., N.W., Washington, DC 20210
866-487-2365
dol.gov/agencies/olms/public-disclosure-room
Department of Labor agency where unions' collective bargaining agreements and campaign contribution disclosures are available to the public.

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Footnotes

[1] Christina Wilkie, “Biden holds joint meeting with union leaders and CEOs of major retail, auto and tech companies,” CNBC, Nov. 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y6j8mb8e.

[2] James Bandler, “Inside the Union Where Coronavirus Put 98% of Members Out of Work,” ProPublica, April 9, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3u3ue2z.

[3] Kieran Nicholson, “Employees stage work interruption Friday at JBS meatpacking plant in Greeley,” The Denver Post, July 10, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y55py23r.

[4] Katie Shepherd, “Tyson Foods managers had a ‘winner-take-all’ bet on how many workers would get covid-19, lawsuit alleges,” The Washington Post, Nov. 19, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5xksldy; Ryan J. Foley, “Tyson fires 7 at Iowa pork plant after COVID betting inquiry,” The Associated Press, Dec. 16, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yyr6sueq.

[5] Hugh Langley, “400 Googlers have created one of the first ‘white-collar unions’ in Silicon Valley. Organizers say they want it to combat moral issues, not salaries,” Business Insider, Jan. 5, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y5rprh7o; Jay Greene, “Amazon to face first U.S. unionization vote in seven years next month,” The Washington Post, Jan. 15, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y45neqws.

[6] Heidi Shierholz, “The number of workers represented by a union held steady in 2019, while union membership fell,” Economic Policy Institute, Jan. 22, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y65wl3lc; “Union Members Summary,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, Jan. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/z5mm2oa.

[7] “Labor: Long-Term Contribution Trends,” Center for Responsive Politics, https://tinyurl.com/y3bzn9s8.

[8] Michelle Chen, “Trump's National Labor Relations Board Is Sabotaging its Own Mission,” The Nation, Sept. 7, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4tedq9h; Eli Rosenberg and Reis Thebault, “Biden fires Trump-appointed labor board general counsel and deputy who refused to resign,” The Washington Post, Jan. 21, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y484a8fj.

[9] Angela Childers, “OSHA likely to look very different under Trump or Biden administration,” Business Insurance, Oct. 28, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxzttpcj.

[10] Sharon Lerner, “How Trump Gutted OSHA and Workplace Safety Rules,” The Intercept, Oct. 20, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y3png5ez; Holly Otterbein and Megan Cassella, “Rank-and-file union members snub Biden for Trump,” Politico, Sept. 22, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y63jpx9a.

[11] “Union Members Summary,” op. cit.

[12] Celine McNichols et al., “Why unions are good for workers — especially in a crisis like COVID-19,” Economic Policy Institute, Aug. 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4fv7op6; Megan Brenan, “At 65%, Approval of Labor Unions in U.S. Remains High,” Gallup, Sept. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yy9wjd7v; and Lydia Saad, “Labor Unions See Sharp Slide in U.S. Public Support,” Gallup, Sept. 3, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y4m39hlo.

[13] Taylor Telford, “Income inequality in America is the highest it's been since Census Bureau started tracking it, data shows,” The Washington Post, Sept. 26, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5ugcdsd; Heidi Shierholz, “Weakened labor movement leads to rising economic inequality,” Economic Policy Institute, Jan. 27, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y34xjbgf.

[14] Daniel DiSalvo, “The Trouble with Public Sector Unions,” National Affairs, Winter 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yatggec6; “Union Members Summary,” op. cit.

[15] Steven Greenhouse, “Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions,” The New York Times, Jan. 3, 2011, https://tinyurl.com/y3zc2v4u.

[16] Daniel DiSalvo, “The Future of Public-Employee Unions,” National Affairs, Spring 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2tz3alh.

[17] “Kasich signs SB5, but fight isn't over,” Columbus Dispatch, April 1, 2011, https://tinyurl.com/yxnvqrg9.

[18] Alana Semuels, “Is This the End of Public-Sector Unions in America?” The Atlantic, June 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y3u6tmwa; Janus v. American Federation of State, County, and Municipal Employees, U.S. Supreme Court, June 27, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y9owvovs.

[19] Daniel DiSalvo, “The Future of Public-Employee Unions,” Manhattan Institute, March 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yxoyfc4c.

[20] Nelson Lichtenstein, “Two Roads Forward for Labor: The AFL-CIO's New Agenda,” Dissent, Winter 2014, https://tinyurl.com/y4wju22b; “Our Unions and Allies,” AFL-CIO, accessed Jan. 24, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y9myp7wj.

[21] Lichtenstein, ibid.

[22] Dylan Matthews, “‘Unions for all’: the new plan to save America's labor movement,” Vox, Sept. 2, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4abcw8o.

[23] David Madland and Malkie Wall, “What Is Sectoral Bargaining?” Center for American Progress, March 2, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4k3lodf.

[24] Shierholz, “Weakened labor movement leads to rising economic inequality,” op. cit.; Carter C. Price and Kathryn A. Edwards, “Trends in Income From 1975 to 2018,” RAND Corp., September 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y25qxngx; and Nick Hanauer and David M. Rolf, “The Top 1% of Americans Have Taken $50 Trillion From the Bottom 90% — And That's Made the U.S. Less Secure,” Time, Sept. 14, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yyeg2qol.

[25] Shierholz, ibid.; Josh Bivens et al., “How today's unions help working people,” Economic Policy Institute, Aug. 24, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y2gmyezx.

[26] Shierholz, ibid.

[27] Jim Tankersley, Jeanna Smialek and Alan Rappeport, “Biden's Economic Team Suggests Focus on Work and Income Equality,” The New York Times, Nov. 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5l5r6l3.

[28] “May 2019 Metropolitan and Nonmetropolitan Area Occupational Employment and Wage Estimates, Chattanooga, TN-GA,” Bureau of Labor Statistics, https://tinyurl.com/y2yl9f7d; Robert Farley, “Big Three hourly wages inflated,” Politifact, Jan. 13, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y248uuec; Mike Pare and Dave Flessner, “Volkswagen won most subsidies in Tennessee, but were they necessary?” Tennessean, Sept. 17, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/yapeoxtr; Bobby Allyn, “Tennessee Workers Reject Union at Volkswagen Plant — Again,” NPR, June 15, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yyccy267; and Mike Pare, “Ad campaigns heat up as union vote nears at Volkswagen's Chattanooga plant,” Chattanooga Times Free Press, May 31, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4h7kwum.

[29] “Pillowtex closing 16 plants, laying off 6,450,” The Associated Press, July 30, 2003, https://tinyurl.com/y2tsb2za.

[30] Diana Furchtgott-Roth, “What Unions Don't Do for the Middle Class,” National Review, Feb. 4, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/yxu72z92.

[31] Maureen Soyars Hicks, “Can unions significantly reduce wage inequality? Depends on whether you're in the public or private sector,” Bureau of Labor Statistics Monthly Labor Review, January 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y3k2yccz.

[32] Alexia Fernández Campbell, “The largest private sector strike in years is over. Supermarket workers won,” Vox, April 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5qbvg2m.

[33] Rebecca Rainey and Ian Kullgren, “1 year after Janus, unions are flush,” Politico, May 17, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y4styuwd.

[34] “How Groups Voted in 2016,” Roper Center, https://tinyurl.com/yyzls5e2.

[35] “National Exit Polls: How Different Groups Voted,” The New York Times, Nov. 3, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4sqmh52; Rich Yeselson, “Union Power After the Election,” Dissent, Nov. 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5y6ayje.

[36] Harold Meyerson, “Why Can't Labor Get a Little More Help From Its Friends?” The American Prospect, March 28, 2010, https://tinyurl.com/yxgfcgkl.

[37] Steven Greenhouse, “The Worker's Friend? Here's How Trump Has Waged His War on Workers,” The American Prospect, Aug. 30, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxw798tf.

[38] Otterbein and Cassella, op. cit.

[39] Daniel Strauss, “Clinton haunted by coal country comment,” Politico, May 10, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/y84merpn.

[40] Otterbein and Cassella, op. cit.

[41] Brenan, op. cit.

[42] David Brody, Workers in Industrial America: Essays on the 20th Century Struggle (1993), pp. 14-15.

[43] Ibid., p. 24.

[44] “Labor Movement,” History, March 31, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ycooa3g8.

[45] The Ludlow Massacre,” PBS, http://tinyurl.com/n46b73c; Ben Mauk, “The Ludlow Massacre Still Matters,” The New Yorker, April 8, 2014, https://tinyurl.com/ycvj3kmw.

[46] Seth D. Harris and Alan B. Krueger, “A Proposal for Modernizing Labor Laws for Twenty-First-Century Work: ‘The Independent Worker,’” The Hamilton Project, December 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y5zlgx8w.

[47] Jonathan Grossman, “Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938: Maximum Struggle for a Minimum Wage,” Department of Labor, https://tinyurl.com/y7vxxuz5.

[48] “1936, December 30: Sit-down strike begins in Flint,” History, http://tinyurl.com/8vcpc58.

[49] “Right to Work Resources,” National Conference of State Legislatures, https://tinyurl.com/y6q4g7gp.

[50] Brody, op. cit., p. 157.

[51] Philip Dray, There Is Power in a Union: The Epic Story of Labor in America (2011), pp. 529-530; Jeff Burbank, “Robert F. Kennedy's crusade against the mob: Part 2,” The Mob Museum, https://tinyurl.com/yy9fpngs; and Norman I. Gelman, “Public Intervention in Labor Disputes,” CQ Researcher, Feb. 18, 1959, https://tinyurl.com/y4vpscwx/.

[52] “Summary of the Occupational Safety and Health Act,” Environmental Protection Agency, https://tinyurl.com/yxtw7jnm.

[53] “Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA),” Department of Labor, https://tinyurl.com/yadcqrns.

[54] Chuck McCutcheon, “Unions at a Crossroads,” CQ Researcher, Aug. 7, 2015, https://tinyurl.com/y3kjb852.

[55] Robert Reich, “Democrats once represented the working class. Not any more,” The Guardian, Nov. 10, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/hneb63h.

[56] B. Drummond Ayres Jr., “The 1992 Campaign: Candidate's Record; Unions Are Split on Backing Clinton,” The New York Times, March 15, 1992, http://tinyurl.com/p3y6lpg.

[57] “George Bush, union-basher?” The Economist, Oct. 10, 2002, https://tinyurl.com/y5m5ouvf.

[58] Steven Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up (2019), p. 204.

[59] Lindsay Renwick Mayer, “Labor and Business Spend Big on Looming Unionization Issue,” Center for Responsive Politics, Feb. 26, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y4ghpxdp.

[60] “House and Senate Introduce Employee Free Choice Act,” Education and Labor Committee, U.S. House of Representatives, March 10, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y2t8wqzh.

[61] “Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check),” Society for Human Resource Managers, https://tinyurl.com/y2j6hqq4.

[62] Kris Maher, “President Tells Unions Organizing Act Will Pass,” The Wall Street Journal, March 4, 2009, https://tinyurl.com/y4qgrp6s.

[63] Noam Scheiber, “Biden Push for Labor Support Is Burdened by Obama-Era Baggage,” The New York Times, Jan. 30, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/yymj56hz.

[64] William Lewis, “The PRO Act: Biden's Latest Lie to Labor,” Left Voice, Sept. 12, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2mvg7g6.

[65] Joan Walsh, “Richard Trumka declares labor's independence,” Salon, May 6, 2011, https://tinyurl.com/y3u3x49j.

[66] Philip Bump, “Donald Trump got Reagan-like support from union households,” The Washington Post, Nov. 10, 2016, https://tinyurl.com/zw94e95.

[67] Greenhouse, Beaten Down, Worked Up, op. cit., p. 6.

[68] David Madland et al., “President Trump's Policies Are Hurting American Workers,” Center for American Progress, Jan. 26, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/yyfjxnph.

[69] Neil Weinberg, “Fiduciary Rule Dies as Last Court Deadline Passes,” Insurance Journal, June 18, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y63v3j6w.

[70] “More than 8 million workers will be left behind by the Trump administration overtime proposal,” Economic Policy Institute, March 22, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/yxdmqod2.

[71] Fatima Hussein, “Trump Administration Fails to Loosen Mine Inspection Rule,” Bloomberg Law, Aug. 28, 2019, https://tinyurl.com/y5ah9tr3.

[72] Eric Levitz, “Trump Makes Labor-Law Violators Eligible for Federal Contracts Again,” New York, March 27, 2017, https://tinyurl.com/y5wufs8e.

[73] Jane Mayer, “How Trump Is Helping Tycoons Exploit the Pandemic,” The New Yorker, July 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y8f5jny9.

[74] Timothy Noah, “Trump's OSHA Is Fining Companies Pennies for Pandemic Violations,” The New Republic, Sept. 11, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y699gknh; Sharon Lerner, “How Trump Gutted OSHA and Workplace Safety Rules,” The Intercept, Oct. 20, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5s2t6ff.

[75] Taylor Telford, Kimberly Kindy and Jacob Bogage, “Trump orders meat plants to stay open in pandemic,” The Washington Post, April 29, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ybdo9ley.

[76] Mayer, op. cit.

[77] Kimberly Kindy, “More than 200 meat plant workers in the U.S. have died of covid-19. Federal regulators just issued two modest fines,” The Washington Post, Sept. 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5dyt8sk; Lillianna Byington, “OSHA comes under fire for ‘paltry’ fines and lax guidance to meat plants,” Food Dive, Nov. 17, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4ode94w.

[78] Kindy, ibid.

[79] Noah, op. cit.; Eli Rosenberg, “How Biden could revamp worker health protections in the midst of the deadly pandemic,” The Washington Post, Nov. 13, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y57qzahh.

[80] Rosenberg, ibid.

[81] “Fact Sheet: President Biden's New Executive Actions Deliver Economic Relief for American Families and Businesses Amid the COVID-19 Crises,” The White House, Jan. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y3ykrug3; Kate Davidson, “Biden Signs Executive Orders to Boost Covid-19 Aid, Expand Worker Protections,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/yyd2cygn; and Jessie Bur, “Biden seeks a $15 minimum wage for feds and contractors,” Federal Times, Jan. 22, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4zaxj89.

[82] “Fact Sheet,” ibid.

[83] Ibid.

[84] Ryan Golden, “Biden could bring overtime rule redo, expanded benefits mandate,” HR Dive, Nov. 12, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2vdevy8.

[85] Noam Scheiber, “How Biden Can Move His Economic Agenda Without Congress,” The New York Times, Dec. 15, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/ycperqwg.

[86] Noam Scheiber, “Franchise Workers Lose Some Power to Challenge Labor Practices,” The New York Times, Feb. 25, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/we78b5y.

[87] Eric Morath, “Gig-Economy Companies Get Worker Flexibility From Trump Administration,” The Wall Street Journal, Jan. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y4swdesd.

[88] Ben Penn, “Employers' Gig Worker Win May be Short-Lived Under Biden,” Bloomberg Law, Jan. 6, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4y95782.

[89] Preetika Rana, “Uber, DoorDash Gig-Worker Victory in California Sets Tone for Other Companies,” The Wall Street Journal, Nov. 4, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y5d2h43o.

[90] Ibid.

[91] “Opposition to H.R. 2474, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act,” SIFMA, Feb. 6, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2bslpxd.

[92] David Madland, “Wage Boards for American Workers,” Center for American Progress, April 9, 2018, https://tinyurl.com/y2m7rnf4.

[93] Matthews, op. cit.

[94] Andrea Dehlendorf, “The Future of the Labor Movement,” The Forge, Sept. 8, 2020, https://tinyurl.com/y2mvl9fw.

[95] Aneri Pattani, “For Health Care Workers, The Pandemic Is Fueling Renewed Interest in Unions,” NPR, Jan. 11, 2021, https://tinyurl.com/y4bx3tj2.

[96] Ibid.

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About the Author

Holly Rosenkrantz is a Washington-based freelance journalist who writes about politics, business and health care. She is a former White House correspondent and labor and workplace reporter and has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, CBS News, Bloomberg News and Reuters.

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