Union approval near 60-year high
To observe Labor Day—the holiday invented by conservative politicians and their friends in the labor movement to draw attention away from the militant history of May Day—Gallup released a poll on public attitudes towards unions.* For the fifth consecutive year, it shows approval close to the highest levels in 60 years—68%. It’s ranged between 68% and 71% since 2021. The graph below tells the history. When Gallup first asked the question in 1936±the year of the Flint sit-down strike—72% approved. Positive feelings sagged some during the 1940s, but rose back above 70%… Read More
More on union density: who and where
A follow-up to yesterday’s post about historical trends in union density. Today, a look at demographics and geography. Once upon a time, the stereotypical union member was a factory worker. That hasn’t been the case for a long time. In 2024, manufacturing accounted for 10% employment and only 8% of union membership. In 1983, the numbers were very different: 22% of employment and 30% of union membership. Last year, not quite 8% of manufacturing workers were unionized—higher than private services, where it’s under 6%—but that’s down hard from 28% in 1983. demographics… Read More
Unions lose some more
Here are the headlines for my last five writeups of the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ annual accounting of union density: Union density: yet another low (2020) Pandemic boosts union density (2021) Union membership resumes its fall (2022) Union density keeps falling (2023) Unions had a flat 2023 (2024). It’s not hard to detect a theme here: near-relentless decline. The only recent up year was 2021, which came about because more nonunion workers lost their jobs than union workers during the worst months of the pandemic, raising the density numbers. (Density is the… Read More
Fresh audio product: British and Iranian elections, remembering Jane McAlevey
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): July 11, 2024 Richard Seymour discusses the British election (Sidecar article here) • Trita Parsi, the Iranian election • remembering Jane McAlevey with a 2017 BtN interview excerpt (catalog of interviews here)
fresh audio product: the European energy situation, the case for nationalizing the railroads
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 23, 2023 Jamie Webster of BCG on Western Europe’s energy situation • Kari Lydersen, author of this In These Times article, and Ron Kaminkow, locomotive engineer and organizer with Railroad Workers United, talk about the miseries of the industry and why it should be nationalized
Fresh audio product: Italian politics, union finances
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): July 28, 2022 Paolo Gerbaudo on the failure of technocracy and the imminence of right-wing rule in Italy • Chris Bohner on the huge stash unions have but aren’t spending (report here, Jacobin summary here)
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): August 12, 2021 Mia Jankowicz, author of this article, on anti-vaxxers, notably Sherri Tenpenny • Sanford Jacoby, author of Labor in the Age of Finance, on unions’ weird alliance with Wall Street during the shareholder revolution
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): June 24, 2021 Sam Gindin, author of this review, on competition, labor, and solidarity • Leslie London, director of the Observatory Civic Association, on the fight against Amazon in Cape Town, South Africa • Tana Ganeva, author of this article, on the prevalence and horrors of solitary confinement
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): April 29, 2021 Donna Murch on why this is a fruitful moment for labor organizing (Guardian article here) • Ben Burgis, author of Canceling Comedian While the World Burns, on why cancel culture is bad
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): February 18, 2021 Forrest Hylton on Bolsonaro’s Brazil: disease, chaos, and creeping military dictatorship • Luis Feliz Leon on organizing Amazon workers in Alabama (Gainesville article here; Bessemer, here)
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): June 18, 2020 Eric Reinhart on jails as COVID-19 spreaders (article here, AER article on pretrial detention here) • Erin Hatton on “coerced” workers, from prisoners to grad students [back after vacation break]
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): September 19, 2019 Sam Gindin on the UAW’s strike against GM, and the possibilities for the green repurposing of a plant GM is abandoning • Robin Einhorn on the role of slavery in shaping tax politics in the early US (article here)
Union density hits record low
Union density—the share of employed workers belonging to unions—fell to 10.5% in 2018, the lowest since the Bureau of Labor Statistics began reporting the data in its modern form in 1964, down from 2017’s 10.7%. (See graph below.) After rising 0.1 point in 2017, private sector density fell back to match 2016’s 6.4%, the lowest since stats began in 1929. Republican governors’ war on public sector unions is having a visible effect: just 33.9% of government workers belonged to unions last year, the lowest since 1978, when membership was on an upswing—an… Read More
Fresh audio product
Just added to my radio archive (click on date for link): July 19, 2018 Rebecca Gordon explains why Nicaraguans are protesting the Ortega government (article here) • Alex Gourevitch on how the workplace is authoritarian, and why strikes are essential (article here)
LBO News from Doug Henwood 