What could the Future of Organized Labor hold?

What could the Future of Organized Labor hold?

The structure and organization of the labor movement has changed. The tried and true method of organizing labor into unions has not changed in the past several decades. Unions have changed with technology to get their message out, but the message has not changed. The economy of the US has changed. In 1970 about 25% of the US workforce was in manufacturing, which is roughly where it was in 1950. By 2009 it was halved to 11%. The number one industry in 1947 was manufacturing, by 2009 it was number four. Manufacturing and the Finance, Insurance, and Real estate (FIRE) industry have swapped spots with FIRE being the number one industry with 21.4% of the workforce. The FIRE industry is not an industry that is known for unions. Outside of the Government sector, white-collar jobs do not fall under a collective bargaining agreement. Maybe it is time for that to change. Another industry that is just starting to see union involvement in a more public way is the foodservice industry. There are more than 10 million workers in the foodservice industry. Foodservice is a sector with lower-paid workers. In 2019 the number of people working as waiters and waitresses was almost two million, but the average salary was under $18,000 a year. On the other hand, what benefit would organized labor have for these workers? One benefit could be better working conditions, but I am not sure if a substantial increase in pay would be possible. The goal would be to convince the workers that working conditions are worth the fight. Businesses tend to use the argument that union dues are too high and not worth it. In this case, they may have a point. If they need to pay for unions and not receive a raise, they will be paying to possibly get better working conditions. Smaller, more streamlined, collective bargaining units may be better suited to negotiate with these smaller businesses. The two main arguments that unions use are the need to pay dues and that they may oppose restrictions. Collective bargaining incurs a cost, so some level of dues are required.


All eyes are on the Starbucks location in Buffalo that was recently unionized. It will be interesting to see how many details of the contract become publicly available. The first contract that is agreed to with Starbucks may cast the die on what future contracts will be. If Starbucks is able to agree to few concessions, it may not bode well for future unionizing with Starbucks. One of the points that is brought up in Johnson’s article “No longer a tall order: Coffee shops unionize: Breakthrough at Starbucks is latest win for baristas” is, that some of what these workers may want is changes in social policy. If they get this in the contract at the Buffalo Starbucks, and the policy is company-wide, there is one less reason for other locations to unionize. Additionally, if any other concessions are made more wide-spread, it will have the same effect on future unionizing efforts with Starbucks.


Starbucks is not the only national company to face local unionizing efforts. Amazon workers recently voted against unionizing at its plant in Alabama. In Jay Greene's article “Labor board calls for revote on union at Amazon warehouse in Alabama”, he notes that amazon used several tactics that the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) found illegal. The workers will have a second vote. For Amazon, there is much on the line. The company is using the fallacy that with a union, managers and employees can not communicate. They make it sound like day-to-day activities would need to go through a union rep., or that managers and employees could not have social conversations. If this is how union contracts worked, teachers would never speak to a principal. Some teachers I know may wish for a clause like that in their next contract, but that would be unreasonable. If the unions want to discredit this argument, they need to work harder to show how unrealistic it is. The main issue that the NLRB found was that Amazon had placed a mailbox in a location where they (the NRLB and the union) felt caused intimidation for the workers. The same article mentioned that the amazon facility has frequent employee turnover. So, not only does the union need to convince the workers that may have voted against unionizing in the first vote, but they need to convince the new employees. Without interviewing the employees that left since the last vote, it is difficult to say how they voted in the first election. I would say it is fair to say that if the employees enjoyed the status-quo at amazon, they are not likely to leave.


Unions are making headways into two major national companies. If the union is able to get a favorable result from the second Amazon vote in Alabama, there could be major changes throughout the company’s labor force. And the outcome of the first contact with the workers at the Buffalo Starbucks may set the tone for how unions deal with Starbucks.









References

Finance & Insurance, and Real Estate, Rental & leasing. (n.d.). Datausa.Io. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://datausa.io/profile/naics/finance-insurance-and-real-estate-rental-leasing

Greene, J. (2021). Labor board calls for revote on union at Amazon warehouse in Alabama. In The Washington Post (Vol. 18). https://www.proquest.com/docview/2604257316/A984FA3F8F604FE0PQ/41?accountid=8067

Johnson, K. (2021, December 17). No longer a tall order: Coffee shops unionize: Breakthrough at Starbucks is latest win for baristas. Boston Globe. https://www.proquest.com/usnews/docview/2610719129/fulltext/D0A33E46E074413CPQ/1?accountid=8067

Restaurants & Food services. (n.d.). Datausa.Io. Retrieved December 20, 2021, from https://datausa.io/profile/naics/restaurants-food-services

The Economist. (2005, September 29). Industrial metamorphosis. Economist (London, England: 1843). https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2005/09/29/industrial-metamorphosis

Thompson, D. (2012, January 26). Where did all the workers go? 60 years of economic change in 1 graph. The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/01/where-did-all-the-workers-go-60-years-of-economic-change-in-1-graph/252018/

WeGotEd [WeGotEd]. (2011, June 15). Target Stores Anti-Union Propaganda. Youtube. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2j3ZNUxqo9M

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