“Labor Unions are having a moment” announced a recent Time magazine story, pointing out Gallup’s finding that “Sixty-eight percent of Americans approve of labor unions.” Many readers might have thought that they had accidentally stumbled on a mid-20th century archive. After all, organized labor in the U.S. has been in decline for a long time. Nationally, union membership dropped from about one-third of workers in the early 1950s to a little over 10% today.
Actually, though, unions are growing in size, in power and in importance. We are seeing this play out around the country in campaigns for workers’ organizing rights at Amazon, Starbucks, REI, John Deere, high-tech firms, media organizations, universities and more. And we think this union resurgence is a positive development for American workers.
Seattle Times Op-Ed by Professors Kim England & Michael McCann