Union leaders hope Biden will be able to enact policies to reinvigorate the labor movement, bringing in more members, money, and political influence while dramatically expanding collective bargaining rights and protections from workplace abuse.
While some in the labor movement are seeking to distance themselves, most are supportive even as they call for reforms.
The Supreme Court’s ruling was expected to diminish union membership. But so far, many unions have actually increased their numbers since the verdict. Conservative groups are working to reverse that trend in the long run.
Jerry Wurf, the national president of the public workers union American Federation of State County and Municipal Employees, considered the Memphis sanitation workers’ protest more than a strike; it became a social struggle, a battle for dignity. Wurf called the strike a “race conflict and a rights conflict.”
“Millennials view unions favorably and are worried about their economic security and are appalled by the monstrous economic inequality that threatens to reduce the future of the American dream to rubble." said Henry Garrido, executive director of District Council 37, which represents roughly a third of New York City’s municipal workforce If we don’t focus on engaging the next generation of American workers, then ours may be the last generation of unionized workers.”
The labor movement's agenda was on full display at the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia. Union delegates numbered roughly one-quarter of the convention’s 4,000-plus delegates. Still, there were stark reminders that labor has struggled to keep at bay the party’s coziness with corporations, especially those of the Silicon Valley disruption variety. Ride-hailing giant Uber—not unionized taxi cabs—served as the DNC’s exclusive shuttle service.
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