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In response to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the share of US employees belonging to a union fell barely, from 10.1% of all employees in 2022 to 10.0% in 2023. In response to this decline, the US Secretary of Labor Julie Su issued a press release that began this manner:
The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported a rise in union membership, with 139,000 extra union members in 2023 than in 2022, which means this nation has 400,000 extra union employees than we had in 2021. The features below the Biden-Harris administration underscore President Biden’s dedication to being probably the most pro-worker, pro-union president in historical past. We’ve seen massive non-public sector will increase in unionization amongst well being care employees, transportation and warehousing employees, and in academic providers. These are employees who acknowledge that they’ve energy and are organizing to make use of that energy. Employees in well being care, auto manufacturing, transportation, leisure and extra have delivered massive wins on the bargaining desk up to now yr.
Once more, these sentiments are expressed whereas BLS knowledge reveals a slight decline within the charge of union membership from 2022 to 2023. For the report, the union membership charge was 10.3% in 2021, and 10.8% in 2020, earlier than “probably the most pro-worker, pro-union president in historical past” took workplace. However because the BLS was reporting that from 2022 to 2023, the share of private-sector employees in unions stayed flat at simply 6.0%, whereas the share of public-sector employees in unions declined from 33.1% to 32.5%, these in assist of unions had been weirdly triumphalist. For an instance chosen more-or-less at random, right here’s some commentary from the Nationwide Partnership for Ladies and Households:
2023 was a banner yr for labor actions and unions. “Scorching Strike Summer season” morphed into “The Yr of the Union” as a powerful job market, greater than a decade of intensive labor organizing kicked off by the “Struggle for 15” and a rising recognition of the necessity for employee protections via the continuing pandemic helped drive main wins for employees. Hanging United Auto Employees, writers, actors, UPS employees and Kaiser Permanente well being care employees secured sturdy contracts that embody advantages like elevated wages, well being care entry and job protections, whereas U.S. rail employees secured paid sick depart for a big phase of their workforce. Employees at Starbucks continued to realize momentum in the direction of their first contract in defiance of blatant union-busting techniques, constructing on years of organizing work and lots of of profitable retailer votes. Partly due to these high-profile strikes, unions noticed close to report highs of public assist in 2023, with two-thirds of individuals approving of unions, greater than 6 in 10 saying unions assist the U.S. financial system and one-third of individuals predicting unions will likely be stronger sooner or later. Employees’ efforts had been coupled with the Biden administration’s success in reinvigorating the Nationwide Labor Relations Board, the federal company devoted to defending workers’ rights to prepare and addressing unfair labor practices.
Do not forget that throughout this “banner yr for labor actions and unions,” the share of US employees who really belong to a union was shrinking–and has been shrinking for many years, together with final yr and in reality throughout the whole presidency. It’s true that on the whole, public attitudes appear extra supportive of unions. However a number of the union successes in the previous couple of years, like the primary success in unionizing an Amazon warehouse (on Staten Island), have since turn into mired in controversy and appear in peril of failing.
Possibly we’ll all look again on 2023 because the yr union membership within the US bottomed out, and the start of an ideal union resurgence, however I doubt it. A few years in the past, Suresh Naidu wrote “Is There Any Future for a US Labor Motion?” within the Fall 2022 difficulty of Journal of Economic Views, the place I work as Managing Editor. Naidu is sympathetic towards unions, but additionally clear-eyed. For instance, he factors out that old-style union organizing exterior a big bodily facility shouldn’t be going to work properly in an financial system the place many individuals are working from residence, or doing gig jobs. He factors out {that a} decline in unionization may additionally replicate a broader decline in “social capital” of individuals appearing collectively in a wide range of contexts. He mentioned a spread of organizations that attempt to converse for employee pursuits in a scientific method (just like the motion to boost the minimal wage to $15 per hour) with out really being unions.
However Naidu additionally factors to an much more basic difficulty that US unions face: they should arrange one firm at a time. In a dynamic US financial system, the place some corporations are all the time shrinking or going out of enterprise, which means unions are operating on a treadmill: they should preserve organizing new unionized corporations simply to offset the standard year-to-year lack of beforehand organized corporations. Naidu writes:
In the USA and different establishment-level bargaining programs, a primary constraint on union density is that it’s laborious to prepare new corporations quick sufficient to maintain tempo with the exit of already unionized corporations. Even when unionization had been an order of magnitude simpler, the pricey trench warfare of establishment-by institution organizing within the face of structural change and pure enterprise dynamism makes maintaining union density fixed, not to mention increasing it, an uphill battle.
Naidu cites a examine from a few many years in the past, when about 13% of American employees belonged to a union, which calculated that simply to maintain the speed of unionized employees secure, it “would require that the unions arrange every year new members equal to 7.5 p.c of their present membership.” That will require growing the then-existing union organizing successes by six-fold, simply to maintain the unionization charge secure. The calculation can be slightly completely different at the moment, however the primary lesson stays: People say good issues about unions in surveys, however on the subject of organizing and supporting a union in their very own office, most of them aren’t .
The publish Unions: Info and Fluff first appeared on Conversable Economist.
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