Posts tagged Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations
You may have heard of the ‘union boom.’ The numbers tell a different story
March 2, 2023 // Headline writers began declaring things like, "Employees everywhere are organizing" and that the United States was seeing a "union boom." In September, the White House asserted "Organized labor appears to be having a moment." However, the Bureau of Labor Statistics recently released its union data for 2022. And their data shows that — far from a resurgence — the share of American workers in a union has continued to decline. Last year, the union membership rate fell by 0.2 percentage points to 10.1% — the lowest on record. This was the second year in a row that the union rate fell. Only one in ten American workers is now in a union, down from nearly one in three workers during the heyday of unions back in the 1950s.
A surge in retail union organizing is the surest sign yet that workers are fed up
March 29, 2022 // It's a trend born from pandemic-fueled discontent. Once hailed as "essential" and given "hero pay," workers have seen their wages flatline as company profits rise and CEO pay soars. They've worked through COVID waves, had coworkers die, and experienced harassment at the hands of customers who don't want to wear masks.
What the Amazon union do-over in Alabama means for the future of retail
February 16, 2022 // U.S. consumers, especially younger ones, harbor new expectations about the workplace that businesses may not be able to ignore.
From essential status to strikes, 2021 was the ‘year of the worker’
December 28, 2021 // As the pandemic wore on, the year was dominated by strikes, unionization efforts and worker mobilization.
Columbia student worker union concedes to second round of contract mediation in third week of strike
November 19, 2021 // Meanwhile, Columbia, along with the UAW, continues to put the financial squeeze on student-workers. After changing the way it distributes stipends at the beginning of the semester, the university has begun withholding striking graduate workers’ stipends, which students rely on to live.