Portside

Increased militancy after pandemic sacrifices and tighter labor market contributed to impressive contract deals in the last year.

Last year, the union membership rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 10.1% — the lowest on record. The absolute number of American workers in unions did grow in 2022 — by approximately 200,000. But the number of non-union jobs grew faster.

Ninety-one percent of the graduate and professional student workers who participated in Monday's election voted to form a union.

The walkout involves bargaining units representing nearly 48,000 teaching assistants, researchers and other employees across the University of California’s 10 campuses.

The university’s statement affirms it will honor Local 33’s petition for an official election via secret ballot while maintaining a commitment to academic supervisors’ freedom to express opinions on unionization.

Enthusiasm for strikes, walkouts, sick-outs, and pickets has surged. A new, progressive wing of the Democratic Party, represented by young women of color like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Ilhan Omar—has won the enthusiasm of millions of young people.

Some labor historians say this new militancy resembles the 1930s, when a huge strike wave helped lead to landmark pro-labor legislation and one of the biggest bursts of unionization in American history.

The National Labor Relations Board's decision on Columbia University graduate students seeking to unionize only applies to private colleges. Organizing rights for graduate students at public colleges depend on each state's labor laws. Graduate students have formed unions in more than a dozen states.