Largely ignored is the positive role veterans from working-class backgrounds have played in key labor and political struggles since the mid-20th century.
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.
As more strikes succeed, Kate Bahn, chief economist at the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, says workers are more likely to organize them at their own workplaces.
Nick Driedger argues that most metrics by which unions are measured obscure what is really important.
Between 2019 and 2021, the overall percentage of U.S. union members stayed flat. But the percentage of workers ages 25-34 who are union members rose from 8.8% to 9.4%, or around 68,000 workers, according to the federal Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The annual decline in the number of union members actually slowed after the a right-to-work law in Michigan took effect in 2013. And membership grew to 604,000 in 2020 from 589,000 in 2019.
We need to bring back fairness to an economy plagued by an imbalance of power between workers and employers. At a time when our nation is engaged in a vital conversation about economic justice, we need to make union membership a civil right.
The United Electrical Workers was one of America’s mightiest unions. Many leaders were leftists who challenged corporate power, so UE was decimated by McCarthyism. The union survived and UE's model of militant, democratic unionism can revive labor.
As we approach Super Tuesday, three numbers capture the stakes, the dynamics and the limits of the 2020 election.
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