Posts tagged union membership rate
Podcast: The State and Future of Labor Unions
October 14, 2024 // Though there have been several union wins in recent years, union membership is at historic lows. Where do unions fit in the future of America? Will they continue to decline, or will they see a comeback? How will automation play a role? Vinnie Vernuccio joins Qualified Opinions to discuss.
Connecticut has most unionized public sector in the country
September 3, 2024 // Between 2018 and 2023, the number of public sector union members in Connecticut surged, making Connecticut the state with the highest percentage of unionized public sector workers in the country, and the fifth-highest rate of overall union membership, according to the latest numbers from Unionstats.com The figures, derived from Census data, show 15.8 percent of the state’s entire workforce is a union member, and 16.9 percent of workers are covered by a collective bargaining agreement. Those percentages have stayed relatively steady, but the actual numbers of union members have increased, even as Connecticut’s workforce has decreased.
New report shows greater interest in labor unions, especially among young workers
August 2, 2024 // he report is based on a 2022 survey from the Worker Empowerment Research Network (WERN), focusing on about 2,500 frontline workers in five specific low-wage industries post-COVID-19: health care, hospitality, retail, telecommunications and warehousing. These workers' opinions on unions are important because these sectors experienced the most upheaval during COVID and there has been major union activity within these industries. Unlike other surveys with broad national samples, this survey zeroes in on job satisfaction, workplace issues (e.g., wage theft, harassment, scheduling instability) and workers' attitudes toward unionization.
CALIFORNIA: Charter School Teachers Vote To Unionize (Commentary)
June 25, 2024 // Private sector employees have been most affected by these losses. While only 6% of these employees are represented by unions, 32.5% of their public-sector counterparts have these protections. One of the ways that right-wing politicians have tried to reduce these rates is to transfer education funds from public schools to privately run schools whose workers are not represented by unions. Since California voted not to allow school vouchers in 2000, Privatizer’s primary way has been through charter schools. This has been particularly true in Los Angeles which has more students in charter schools than any city in the country. Unions do not represent employees in most of these charter schools, but that is starting to change.
Has Pushback to Full of ‘S’ Labor Unions Finally Arrived?
June 10, 2024 // Written by I4AW’s Sam Adolphsen and F. Vincent Vernuccio, the study warns that the initial “Environmental” focus of ESG is being supplanted by labor leaders, who are focusing on the leftist acronym’s “social” component in order to intimidate companies and force membership growth: With help from the whole of Biden’s big government, Big Labor is replicating the ESG strategies used by environmentalists and other activists. These groups aim to cajole fossil fuel-producing companies and other businesses they consider socially unacceptable into abandoning profitable business ventures. The tactics of the Big Labor plan call for hijacking the shareholder resolution process through proxy voting and shareholder activism to force pro-union policies. Unlike typical shareholder proposals, those supported by Big Labor do not seek to advance shareholder value. Instead, they seek to increase union membership and strengthen Big Labor’s power.
Teamsters Memo Signals Rift Between Major Unions
June 4, 2024 // In 2013, several years after the Teamsters left the AFL-CIO, the union tried to raid bargaining units at American Airlines and then-U.S. Airways, which later merged with American. The mechanics at U.S. Airways were represented by the IAM. At the time, the IAM accused the Teamsters of “dividing already unionized employees with hollow promises.” The Teamsters and the IAM later reached a peace. They even announced in 2022 that they would work together to organize a broad swath of workers at Delta alongside the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA. The Teamsters were to represent the airline’s mechanics, the IAM Delta’s ramp and cargo workers, and the AFA Delta’s flight attendants.
Latinas, the lowest-paid group in the U.S., turn to unions for better wages, report says
May 28, 2024 // Latinas are the lowest paid demographic in the United States, one of the reasons union membership among them is increasing, bucking the national downward trend of at least four decades, according to a report released this week by the National Women's Law Center (NWLC). The document, a fact sheet on union membership analyzing relevant trends among workers from all demographics in the United States, highlights that through 2023 women made up almost half of union members (45.6%).
SEIU 1000 LOSES 130 MEMBERS IN A SINGLE DAY
April 1, 2024 // And it’s happening specifically because of the Freedom Foundation’s direct mail and email campaigns. But we can’t take all the credit. SEIU 1000’s long history of incompetent, indifferent, scandal-plagued representation in playing a huge role in the union’s downfall. And that isn’t just speculation. The Golden State’s largest public employee union has already seen its dues-paying membership shrink to about half of those in the bargaining unit. And there are reasons to believe it’s even less than that. Like public-employee unions all over the country, SEIU 1000 diverts a huge percentage of its revenues to the national headquarters in Washington, D.C., to fund leftist candidates and causes that have nothing whatever to do with the workplace concerns of its rank and file.
OPINION: The SEIU’s fake fast food union
February 12, 2024 // Struggling at the national level, the union turned to its legislative allies in California. It worked for several years to enact the so-called “Fast Recovery Act,” a scheme to create a new council that would regulate wages and working conditions for fast-food workers. The idea: Save the union the unproductive hassle of signing up new workers, and instead make all of them subject to a union-controlled government board. Though it took the union two legislative sessions to pass it, over fierce resistance from restaurants, it eventually got to the Governor’s desk in 2022. He signed it on Labor Day that year.
Commentary: With Unions, the Numbers Tell the Story
February 5, 2024 // Public sector unions’ hold on government employees isn’t a lock. State legislatures can pass laws that rein in unionization and membership recruitment and protect employees. States can choose a different path by, for example, ending artificial union subsidies and requiring union executives to prove their value to employees. States can follow Florida’s lead: Last year, the Sunshine State ended union payroll deductions and doubled down on recertification, forcing unions to demonstrate actual support from membership to remain in power.