The 2022 union density numbers are out.
The percentage of people in a union dropped to 10.1%, an all-time low.
What can change this dynamic? We asked a bunch of experts for their opinions:
Conversation
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This might be surprising to some folks. We have a tight labor market, unions have had a lot of recent high-profile successes (Starbucks, Amazon) and they recently hit an all-time high for public approval.
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But these are not necessarily translating to big shifts in union membership.
Union membership went up by only 273,000 in 2022 bls.gov/news.release/u
The total number of people employed went up by almost 6 million!
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Some ideas about how to increase union membership or worker power going forward - and Liba Wenig Rubenstein () suggest that unions can be good for business and that knee-jerk antagonism to unions is misguided.
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. of thinks we need legal reforms to strengthen and expand the right to strike.
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Jenna Gerry of advocates for strengthening unemployment insurance as a vital backstop for worker power.
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. of thinks we should get rid of the NLRA entirely and move towards a sectoral bargaining framework.
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Dustin Guastella of Teamsters Local 623 has two suggestions:
1.) Unions should focus on building *political* power by working in the system 2.) We need to reinvest in our manufacturing industry.
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. of notes that unions are essential because of how the workforce needs to weave together technical and "soft" skills together.
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Replying to
"Union membership at an all time low"
And incomes, GDP per capita, GDP growth and unemployment are all really solid right now 😁😁😁
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