The power dynamic in labor has shifted and pickets are seemingly everywhere. But for how long?
From auto production lines to Hollywood, the power of labor unions is back in the national spotlight
NEW YORK — From auto production lines to Hollywood, the power of labor unions is back in the national spotlight.
But despite historic strikes and record contract negotiations this year, there's a lot stacked against labor organizers today. Union membership rates have been falling for decades due to changes in the U.S. economy, employer opposition, growing political partisanship and legal challenges.
“Even though we’re seeing stronger support for unions, (with) the highest popularity of union favorability in polls since at least 1960s, translating the worker desire for representation into actual representation is really hard under our current system,” Alexander Colvin, dean of Cornell University's School of Industrial and Labor Relations, told The Associated Press.
At least 457,000 workers have participated in 315 strikes in the U.S. just this year, according to Johnnie Kallas, a Ph.D. candidate and the project director of Cornell University’s Labor Action Tracker.
The strikes have led to more than 7.4 million days of missed work in 2023, S&P Global Market Intelligence said, the highest level in almost a quarter century.
Labor activism is reaching a boiling point amid soaring costs of living and rising inequality, particularly the growing pay gap between workers and top executives. Those inequities only became more glaring during the COVID-19 pandemic as U.S. corporations raked in record profits.
“It’s kind of a perfect storm, (so) you see a lot of union movement these days,” said Eunice Han, an assistant professor at the University of Utah specializing in labor economics.
The tightest U.S. labor market in decades is
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