Look For The Union Label
What’s behind a 21st century resurgence of labor unions in the United States after the upheaval of the late 1900s.
For Gen X—those of us with parents who were part of labor and not management—we grew up with unions. But when we joined the workforce, unions were on the decline.
The generation before us—the post WWII Baby Boomers—had grown dissatisfied with self-serving unions mired in corruption and scandal. We were told only the horrors of unions in the workplace.
Smelling blood in the water, employers went on the offensive, offering incentives or outright threats to remove or keep unions out of their workforce. And Republicans pushed so-called pro-business legislation such as “right to work” laws to further undermine workers' rights.
While some professions—education, nursing, creatives—and stalwarts—Teamsters, AFL-CIO—maintained strong unions during the 1980s-2000s, others fell off drastically or just never formed in emerging industries like the tech sector.
But in the 2020s, unions are seeing a resurgence driven largely by Millennials and Gen Z.
So what happened?
United States Labor Union History
A labor union is an association of workers formed to negotiate collectively with an employer to protect and further workers' rights and interests.
Sustained trade union organizing among American workers began in 1794 with the establishment of the first trade union, but these organizations focused more on setting trade standards than workers’ rights.
In the United States, labor unions began forming locally in the mid-19th century in response to the social and economic impact of the Industrial Revolution with many immigrants maintaining ties with European labor unions.
National labor unions in the United States began to form in the post-Civil War Era.
The National Labor Union (NLU) was founded on August 20, 1866 in Baltimore, Maryland. Unlike its successors, it wasn’t for one specific labor category.
The president of the Coachmakers' International Union met with the president of the Ironmoulders' International Union and head of the Machinists and Blacksmiths Union.
NLU was the first attempt to create a national labor group solely in the United States. One of their first actions was to call on Congress to mandate an 8-hour work day.
The NLU disbanded between 1872 and 1873 without achieving their goal.
But they left a blueprint for union organizing in the United States, separate from European unions.
In 1886, the American Federation of Labor (AFL) was formed. But in the 19th century, union membership was almost exclusively for White, Protestant men.
This put them in direct competition with people of color, women and many of the immigrants entering the workforce.
But WWI and the Great Depression changed that.
In the 1930s, the Congress of Industrial Organizations (CIO) organized large numbers of Black workers into labor unions for the first time. More than 200,000 Black workers were in the CIO in 1940 with many holding leadership positions in union locals.
The AFL merged with the CIO to become the AFL-CIO in 1955.
The early 20th century unions fought for an end to child labor, for a five day work week, safer work conditions in often deadly workplaces and an eight hour work day.
The Union Heyday
By the 1950s, it was difficult to find a manufacturing job without a union. Almost one in three United States workers was a union member.
Unions held political power from the local to federal levels. The AFL-CIO was instrumental in helping to pass civil rights legislation in 1964-1965.
Strikes for better wages, working conditions or benefits had teeth that companies took seriously.
The 1959 United Steel Workers of America strike had 500,000 members on a work stoppage for several months. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, strikes were common in the U.S. from the late 1940s to the 1970s with more than 1 million workers participating in a strike in most years.
Records were set in 1952 of 2.75 million and in 1949 of 2.54 million striking workers. Both 1970 and 1971 saw around 2.5 million workers on strike.
But those numbers—as well as union membership—fell drastically in the 1980s.
Union Upheaval
Repeated scandals and documented corruption brought the image of the labor union down in the 1970s.
Union leadership in a few organizations was exposed for having ties to organized crime, but the scandals affected the reputations of many blue collar unions. Union leaders were also caught colluding with management for their own self interests or misappropriating funds for their own gain.
By the administration of Republican President Ronald Reagan, unions were prime targets for employers.
In August of 1981, the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization (PATCO) went on strike, seeking better working conditions, better pay and a 32-hour workweek—four eight-hour days followed by three days off.
Despite vowing to support PATCO during his 1980 presidential campaign, Reagan ordered the strikers to return to work immediately. Two days after the strike began, Reagan fired 11,345 air traffic controllers and banned them from federal service for life.
PATCO and key members of their leadership were also ordered to pay fines of $1,000 to $100,000. By October, PATCO was decertified as a union.
It would take the FAA 10 years to restore staffing levels to prestrike numbers.
The era of union pride was over and union busting had begun.
Employers offered short term incentives to keep unions out of the workplace. Prior union efforts to mandate federal protections for workers left many feeling unions were redundant or obsolete.
Minimum wage stagnated while executive salaries and bonuses skyrocketed.
By 1983, union membership had dropped to just 20% or one in five eligible workers. By the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, the number dropped to one in 10, or 10%.
A 21st Century Resurgence?
A series of protests in the 2010s such as Occupy Wall Street focused attention on wage inequality in corporate America.
According to a report by the Economic Policy Institute:
"From 1978 to 2021, CEO pay based on realized compensation grew by 1,460%..."
"In contrast, compensation of the typical worker grew by just 18.1% from 1978 to 2021."
Then the pandemic reshaped a lot of workers' perceptions further.
Union stalwarts in healthcare, education and shipping responded to the extraordinary demands placed on them during the pandemic. They've called for better wages and working conditions.
The United States is facing shortages of nurses, teachers and truck drivers and can ill afford to lose the ones that remain.
The entertainment industry is responding to changes in how their work is distributed and consumed, seeking compensation commensurate with the profits made from their labor by studios and streaming services.
And as AI becomes the next big thing, writers and actors seek to protect their identities and intellectual property.
In May of 2023, the Writers Guild of America—made up of WGA-East and WGA-West representing approximately 11,500 screenwriters—went on strike over an ongoing labor dispute with the Alliance of Motion Picture and Television Producers (AMPTP).
In July, the Screen Actors Guild-American Federation of Television and Radio Artists (SAG-AFTRA) went on strike over their own ongoing labor dispute with AMPTP.
But these are all actions by decades-old organizations.
The new union growth is coming in industries and job sectors that have rarely or never been unionized.
They include food service, game design, animation, retail sales and internet technology.
Two high profile efforts involve corporate giants Starbucks and Amazon.
While employers and consumers lamented "no one wants to work anymore" during and after the pandemic, service industry and fulfillment workers responded "no one wants to be taken advantage of anymore."
For many workers, the pandemic opened their eyes to their worth versus their compensation.
But having enjoyed unlimited profits while providing limited wages in substandard working conditions, neither company welcomed empowered workers. But the workers were undeterred.
According to a 2022 LA Times report, the people entering the workforce are not willing to quietly comply or keep disputes in house like the generations before them.
Executive director of UCLA Anderson’s Center for Media, Entertainment & Sports Jay Tucker said:
"In addition to being more tech savvy, they seem to be also more collaborative, more mutually accountable and more acutely aware of hypocrisy when they see it."
"They’re not afraid to hold their bosses and their boss’ bosses accountable when they feel like something’s not appropriate. That’s a noticeable and significant shift in the way workers approach these kinds of issues."
LA Times writer Ryan Faughnder added:
"Today’s young people entering the workforce are more confrontational than their elders in pushing for social change and much more likely to put pressure on their employers to act."
And public support for labor unions has reached a high not seen in decades.
But many efforts to unionize—at companies like Amazon, Apple, The New York Times and Condé Nast—stalled due to federal legislation designed to favor corporations over workers.
What Can We Do?
With over 70% approval of unions, it would seem a no-brainer to support striking workers.
WGA member Adam Conover shared guidance on how to support the WGA and SAG-AFTRA strikes.
An important step to improving working conditions and wages is eliminating union busting legislation.
During an election cycle, every politician is pro-labor.
But if they're an incumbent, how did they vote? Were they in favor of corporate subsidies and bailouts, but opposed to increasing the minimum wage?
The Republican Party has proven time and again that they work for the wealthy, not the workers.
It's vital to register to vote and support pro-labor Democrats or progressive independents up and down the ballot—from your local school board up to President.
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In addition to writing for The Big Picture, Amelia writes
My husband is a retired union plumber … he always says they never did him wrong. My friend made a comment on day about how union workers stand around with their thumb up the a** and I politely told her those were non-union works because they aren’t making a fair wage. Her husband is a carpenter making a very small wage because he has nobody to ensure he gets a fair wage.
Starting with the Reagan regime, antitrust laws morphed from a tool to ensure fair competition to a vehicle for union busting.