#Workers and #Unions Should Enthusiastically Celebrate #LaborDay 2022. Here's Why.

Each January since 1983, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has estimated the percentage of union members in the U.S. workforce during the preceding year.?Almost every year, that percentage has declined?and, with it, workers’ hopes of building the power they need to raise wages, secure benefits and safe, fair workplaces, and gain a strong voice at work and in our politics.?

This January’s report will not show a dramatic reversal. Yet, for the first time in a long time, unions and workers have good reasons for optimism that #unionmembership will grow, perhaps substantially, and soon.

Headline-grabbing recent #unionorganizing successes at an 苹果 retail store,?an 亚马逊 warehouse,?two Trader Joe's stores,?a Chipotle Mexican Grill ,?and more than two hundred 星巴克 shops?show workers can win union representation elections, even in the face of fierce, sometimes lawbreaking,?employer opposition. Union organizing victories among okmagazine.com technology workers,?digital journalists,?animators,?video game workers,?and 谷歌 contractors?demonstrate unions are not buggy-whip-like relics. These victories should help workers overcome an important psychological barrier. Organizing a union involves grave risks. Workers will bear those risks, but only if success is possible. These victories prove it is.?

#PresidentBiden's encouragement has helped. The self-proclaimed most pro-union President in American history?urged workers in a February 2021 video to make their own choice about unions and not bend to #employer coercion.?Months later, he condemned an employer for threatening to permanently replace striking workers.?In May, he welcomed a half-dozen worker-organizers to the Oval Office and proudly showed them the bust of farmworker union icon #CesarChavez that graces his office.?

Workers are hearing these messages. Workers petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for 58% more representation elections in 2022’s first nine months than during all of 2021,?and unions won more elections during 2022’s first half than they had in nearly 20 years.?Many workers and union organizers had abandoned #NLRB processes, largely because our #laborlaws permit disturbingly coercive employer conduct with few effective punishments for lawbreaking employers. Now, unions and workers are returning to a NLRB led by a pro-worker Biden-appointed majority and general counsel. More election petitions are likely as a recent poll shows workers’ approval of unions at a 60-year peak.?

State and local #government employee unions have turned existential threats into forward momentum. They not only withstood existential #rightwing attacks from #Republican governors and state legislatures; they emerged better organized, more financially sound, and increasingly effective at retaining current members and organizing new members.?The public-sector unionization rate remains five times higher than the private sector rate.?

Now and in the future, President Biden’s economic policies may play an even greater role in union growth than his rhetoric. The historically low unemployment produced by Biden’s #AmericanRescuePlan empowers workers to quit bad jobs to take better jobs. More than four million workers have made that choice monthly for over a year.?So, employer retribution against unionizing workers may be a less effective scare tactic.

#BidenAdministration policies also will increase #employment in industries with above-average union membership rates. In the private sector, the national average union “density” rate is 6.1%.?In #construction, the percentage is doubled.?In #transportation, it is even higher.?The #BipartisanInfrastructureLaw, the #CHIPSAct, and the #InflationReductionAct will add well over one million new construction and transportation jobs.?Result: many more union members.

Global #supplychain failures and Biden’s #MadeinAmerica strategy are contributing to U.S. manufacturing employment growing faster than it has in three decades.?#Manufacturers are reshoring jobs at a record rate.?While new #manufacturingjobs are not guaranteed to be union, odds rise above zero when these jobs are sited in the U.S. where #uniondensity in #manufacturing is also above average.?

Undeniably, some large unions face big challenges. The #climatechange-driven transition from fossil fuels to renewables is shifting jobs from unionized industries (e.g., oil refineries) to less-unionized industries (e.g., solar power).?The United Auto Workers Union will have to fight hard to get U.S. #automakers to assemble Inflation Reduction Act-supported #electricvehicles in unionized plants and to organize electric vehicle #battery manufacturers.?#Publicsectorunions will have a huge fight to get their employers, principally local governments, to increase employment by nearly 600,000 merely to return to pre-pandemic levels.?These fights may be winnable, but they will not be easy, and defeats would depress union membership growth.

Despite the challenges, Labor Day should bring real hope to workers and unions. It’s not merely a day off from work or a final summer blast. This year, workers can celebrate that Labor Day could be the beginning of a much #brighterfuture.