Unions Are Having a Moment. Investors Should Take Heed.

livemint.com:

Unions aren’t the force in the U.S. that they used to be. That doesn’t mean they can’t pack a punch.

United Auto Workers’ members employed by Ford Motor, General Motors and Stellantis could strike as soon Friday if enough progress toward a new contract isn’t made, disrupting an auto industry that is only just now digging out from the supply-chain problems the pandemic set off. Hollywood writers and actors are still on strike. United Parcel Service this summer averted one after negotiating a deal with the International Brotherhood of Teamsters to raise pay, and West Coast ports reached a deal with the International Longshore and Warehouse Union in June.

Then there are the ongoing organizing efforts at companies such as Amazon.com and Starbucks. Considering how few workers are represented by unions, it is easy to view the uptick in labor actions as inconsequential. After all, Labor Department figures show that just 10.1% of nonfarm workers were union members last year.

Compare that with 1954 when one-third of U.S. workers were in unions, according to data collected by economist Richard Freeman. Moreover, the cost-of-living clauses that many unions once negotiated have largely gone away.

That matters because when many union members’ wages automatically adjusted higher with rising prices, it contributed to the wage-price spirals that made inflation soar in the 1970s. But there are reasons unions seem to be having a moment, and those reasons could be consequential for investors. First, in the aftermath of the Covid crisis, U.S.

workers have reconsidered their worth. Shortly after the pandemic struck, many were labeled, and celebrated as, essential. And many of those who were laid off found, as pandemic restrictions eased,