Posts tagged Labor shortage
US union membership rate hits all-time low despite campaigns
January 23, 2023 // The number of workers belonging to a union actually increased by 1.9% to 14.3 million. But that failed to keep pace with higher overall employment rates. The number of wage- and salary-earning workers rose by 3.9%, the government said. U.S. union membership has been falling steadily for decades. In 1983, the first year that comparable data is available, the union membership rate was 20.1%, the government said. Public-sector workers, like police and teachers, had the highest unionization rates last year, at 33%. Just 6% of private-sector workers were unionized.
U.S. labor strikes went up almost 50% between 2021 and 2022
January 18, 2023 // Union membership and strike activity has fallen in the decades since King’s death. But more recently, that has been changing. The number of strikes in the United States rose almost 50% between 2021 and 2022, according to Cornell University’s School of Industrial and Labor Relations. That pickup in activity has momentum.
Restaurant Employees Will See Huge Pay Raises Nationwide
January 12, 2023 // Laws, like the FAST ACT, plus the unionization of restaurant employees are boosting the minimum wage for restaurant employees.
More than 7,000 nurses from 2 New York City hospitals on strike over staffing concerns
January 12, 2023 // Tentative contract agreements were reached with a majority of the hospitals under strike warnings. However, Mount Sinai Hospital, representing approximately 3,625 nurses, and Montefiore Bronx, representing approximately 3,500, have been unable to come to a deal.
Unions shifting to low-risk short strikes for workers to flex leverage during labor shortage
October 20, 2022 // Of the 302 strikes within the U.S. to this point this yr, 141 of the walkouts, or 47%, have lasted a day or much less, in keeping with the labor-action tracker at Cornell College’s Industrial Labor Relations Faculty. Solely 41 strikes, or 13%, have lasted 30 days or extra. By means of the identical interval in 2021, there have been 53 strikes of a day or much less out of a complete of 172 walkouts, or 31%. Brief-term walkouts restrict the danger that employers will rent everlasting replacements for aggrieved employees, stated Catherine Creighton, director of Cornell’s ILR Buffalo Co-Lab. “It’s positively a danger that workers face after they go on a long-term strike,” stated Ms. Creighton, who additionally has labored as a labor-relations lawyer. “It’s been discovered that in a short-term strike, you’re getting your message out to the employer otherwise you’re letting them know you imply enterprise. However you’re not essentially placing your job in danger.”
Railroad Strike Threat Shows How Unions’ Rigid Rules Often Hurt Workers
October 6, 2022 // Railroad companies would almost certainly have raised compensation to maintain the workforce they needed, but they’ve been locked in by union contracts that prevent them from increasing workers’ pay—or any other benefits—until a new contract is reached. The lack of flexibility to respond quickly to changing circumstances and conditions has almost certainly hampered railroad companies’ ability to find workers throughout the pandemic.
Shippers want rail service reform even if unions ratify contracts
October 6, 2022 // Both BLET and SMART-TD said last Thursday that they finally reached a tentative agreement with the railroads, and that agreement will be sent to union members in the coming weeks for approval. The Association of American Railroads estimated that a strike would have cost the U.S. economy as much as $2 billion a day. Shippers lobbied Congress to ensure that the tentative labor deals were reached to prevent a strike.
Op-ed: Competition key to determining effects of increased unionization
September 27, 2022 // We often take it for granted that businesses would prefer to bargain individually with workers, rather than collectively through a union. A cynical explanation might be that profit-hungry corporations prioritize greed over worker welfare, but academic research offers some deeper insight. It shows that companies that are unionized experience reductions in product quality and face a higher likelihood of going out of business. Professors Omesh Kini (Georgia State University), Mo Shen (Auburn University), Jaideep Shenoy (University of Connecticut) and Venkat Subramaniam (Tulane University) find that unionized manufacturers experience a higher rate of product recalls than non-unionized companies.
We haven’t completely dodged a ‘disastrous’ rail strike, rail workers say
September 15, 2022 // After years of an increasingly taxing work environment, longtime rail employees are worn down — and not trusting that the tentative agreement reached by their union officials and employers will deliver for them. “It just feels like we’re going to be forced into a deal that I’ve heard nobody say anything positive about,” said the track worker.
Understanding America’s Labor Shortage: The Most Impacted Industries
September 9, 2022 // For example, durable goods manufacturing, wholesale and retail trade, and education and health services have a labor shortage—these industries have more unfilled job openings than unemployed workers with experience in their respective industry. Even if every unemployed person with experience in the durable goods manufacturing industry were employed, the industry would only fill 65% of the vacant jobs. Conversely, in the transportation, construction, and mining industries, there is a labor surplus. There are more unemployed workers with experience in their respective industry than there are open jobs.