After a year of wall-to-wall positive coverage for unions, the unionization rate hit a record low in 2023.
After a year of wall-to-wall positive coverage for unions, the unionization rate hit a record low in 2023.
A bout a year ago, I noted that the media have been hyping up a “union renaissance” that isn’t actually happening. Since then, the glowing media coverage has continued. One would think unions have been going from strength to strength, surging in popularity and organizing new workers. Here’s a sample of some of the news coverage that organized labor has received in the past year:
January 30, 2023, Washington Post: “Unions can help beyond their membership. César Chávez proved it.”
February 10, 2023, The Nation: “Inside the Campaign to Unionize the University of Oregon”
March 14, 2023, Jacobin: “Duke University Is Trying to Turn Back Time on Graduate Worker Unions”
March 17, 2023, Washington Post: “Ski patrollers struggle to afford mountain towns. Will unions help?”
March 17, 2023, Washington Post: “Nearly 80,000 federal employees joined unions in a year, White House says”
March 22, 2023, NPR: “Michigan is set to repeal its decade-old right-to-work law, a big win for unions”
March 22, 2023, The New Republic: “Starbucks Workers Are on a Nationwide Strike to Protest Union-Busting”
March 24, 2023, Washington Post: “Inside the battle for the first union contract at Starbucks”
March 24, 2023, The Nation: “Why 60,000 Education Workers Walked Off the Job In Los Angeles: This week’s massive jobs action also represents a model for building worker power.”
March 31, 2023, Washington Post: “Under Biden, U.S. sees unions as key ally in democracy agenda”
April 19, 2023, The Nation: “Rutgers Strikers Run the Table”
April 26, 2023, New York Times: “Street Chaos and Long Hours Push Farmers’ Market Workers to Unionize”
May 1, 2023, The Nation: “Why Are So Many Young People Joining Labor Unions?”
May 1, 2023, American Prospect: “In 2023, Everyone Who Can Go Union Is Doing Just That”
May 2, 2023, The Nation: “Iowa Starbucks Workers Want a Nice Hot Cup of Union Power”
May 10, 2023, The Nation: “These Unions Are on the Front Lines Fighting Against the Uberization of Us All”
May 12, 2023, New York Times: “Flush With Federal Money, Strings Attached, a Deep South Factory Votes to Unionize”
May 15, 2023, The Nation: “Inside a Teamster Rebellion: This Is What Union Democracy Looks Like”
May 16, 2023, American Prospect: “A Great Week for American Labor: Doctors in Philly and auto (well, actually, bus) workers in rural Georgia both go union big-time.”
May 16, 2023, New York Times: “Strippers Unionize at California Club After Long Fight”
May 18, 2023, NPR: “In a historic step, strippers at an LA bar unionize”
May 22, 2023, The Nation: “Workers of the Music World Are Uniting — And Winning: Last week, staffers at Bandcamp voted to form a union. It’s the latest sign that a real labor movement is starting to take shape in the music industry.”
May 31, 2023, The Nation: “Let’s Hear It for the Strippers’ Union”
June 14, 2023, NPR: “‘It’s gonna be a hot labor summer’ — unionized workers show up for striking writers”
June 20, 2023, Washington Post: “Unions can ensure robust industrial policy doesn’t damage communities”
June 23, 2023, NPR: “U.S. Starbucks workers join in a weeklong strike over stores not allowing Pride décor”
June 26, 2023, American Prospect: “For Workers, Unions and Public Pressure Get the Goods”
June 27, 2023, The Nation: “Contract Talks by Teamsters and the UAW Have the Potential to Change Our Politics: Upcoming negotiations by these two unions could swing the 2024 election — and help rebuild democracy”
July 6, 2023, American Prospect: “What the Teamsters Are Really About: As a strike at UPS looms, the union’s plans may encompass more than winning a good contract.”
July 14, 2023, Washington Post: “Worker strikes grip Los Angeles as nation faces ‘hot labor summer’”
July 14, 2023, Los Angeles Times, “Dangerous heat wave during ‘hot labor summer’ — how picketing workers brave the sun”
July 16, 2023, MSNBC: ‘“Workers are done,’ AFA union head on potential nationwide strikes”
July 18, 2023, Forbes, “Hollywood’s ‘Hot Labor Summer’ Is Going Viral”
July 21, 2023, Money: “Summer of Strikes: Why So Many Workers Are Walking off the Job”
July 25, 2023, The New Republic: “How a UPS Strike Could Drive a Historic Labor Resurgence”
July 26, 2023, The Nation: “Chicago’s Labor Movement Is Looking Very Queer These Days: Queer people across the Windy City are unionizing and demanding better rights at work.”
July 26, 2023, The Guardian: “‘It feels like it’s strike summer’: US unions flex muscles across industries”
July 27, 2023, The New Yorker: “The Historic Battles of ‘Hot Labor Summer’”
July 27, 2023, American Prospect: “Will the Teamsters’ Gains at UPS Help Them Unionize Amazon?
August 1, 2023, The Nation: “The Case for More Strikes: Unions nationwide must take advantage of their leverage and use the strike weapon more often”
August 2, 2023, Vox: “Workers are mad as hell this summer: From actors to delivery drivers, why 2023 is a perfect storm for strikes”
August 4, 2023, InTheseTimes: “Democratic Socialists Are Fueling a Hot Labor Summer”
August 8, 2023, Washington Post: “White House unveils wage rule for federal projects, in win for unions”
August 11, 2023, Los Angeles Times: “Corporate greed, low unemployment, housing crisis: That’s the recipe for hot labor summer”
August 18, 2023, Washington Post: “The tough-talking union leader guiding autoworkers into a historic strike: Shawn Fain, the new president of the United Auto Workers, rails against corporate greed and refuses to shake hands with CEOs”
August 18, 2023, Washington Post: “How Los Angeles went from union foe to U.S. strike capital”
August 21, 2023, CNBC: “Hot strike summer has ‘real potential to last,’ Ivy League expert says: ‘There’s a contagion effect’”
August 22, 2023, Chicago Sun-Times: “‘Hot labor summer’: Actors, union leaders rally in downtown Chicago as SAG-AFTRA strike continues”
August 30, 2023, NPR: “2/3 of Americans approve of unions — slightly down from last year, but still high”
August 30, 2023, The New Republic: “Poll: Majority of Americans Support Unions and Support Strikes: A new Gallup poll shows Americans are overwhelmingly in favor of labor unions.”
August 30, 2023, The New Yorker: “Scenes from Hollywood’s Hot Labor Summer”
August 30, 2023, MSNBC: “Treasury confirms labor unions are good for the economy”
September 1, 2023, MSNBC: “‘Summer of strikes’ shows political power available to working class allies”
September 1, 2023, MSNBC: “How Bidenomics is fueling union power”
September 2, 2023, NPR: “Labor Day is now a key to Election Day for Democrats and Republicans alike”
September 3, 2023, Huffington Post: “Labor Unions Are Making A Comeback”
September 4, 2023, Jacobin: “Gen Z and Millennial workers overwhelmingly support unions, and they’re at the forefront of the current organizing upsurge. Labor can take advantage of this opening — if union leaders get off the sidelines and devote massive resources to new organizing.”
September 4, 2023, NPR: “4 things to know on Labor Day — from the Hot Labor Summer to the Hollywood strikes”
September 4, 2023, Salon: “12 of the biggest strikes during this Hot Labor Summer”
September 5, 2023, New York Times: “California’s Hot Labor Summer Is Not Over Yet”
September 13, 2023, MSNBC: “Unpacking the hot labor summer”
September 14, 2023, Washington Post: “UAW strike caps off hot labor summer”
September 15, 2023, The New Republic: “Can the UAW Transform America Again? By thinking big, Shawn Fain is summoning memories of Walter Reuther and the autoworkers’ union’s finest hour.”
September 18, 2023, American Prospect: “UAW Strikes Built the American Middle Class: Today’s strikers are seeking to renew the broadly shared prosperity that earlier UAW work stoppages created.”
September 19, 2023, Huffington Post: “The UAW Strike Poses the Biggest Test — And Opportunity — For Joe Biden’s Economic Agenda”
September 20, 2023, The Opinions podcast, New York Times: “What the Autoworkers’ ‘Audacious’ Demands Could Mean for Workers in America: The ‘long, hot summer of labor’ is turning into the ‘hot fall of labor.’”
September 22, 2023, Matter of Opinion podcast, New York Times: “When It Comes to Work, ‘the Current Situation Is Unsustainable’: Is this season of strikes going to change the way we all work?”
September 22, 2023, MSNBC: “Unions energized by public support as sense of rigged work system spreads”
September 26, 2023, The New Yorker: “Joe Biden’s Visit to a U.A.W. Picket Line Was a Powerful Political Gesture”
September 26, 2023, NPR: “Growing Public Support for Unions Helped Push Biden To Picket Line”
September 27, 2023, The Nation: “My President Joined a Picket Line: No matter what you think of Joe Biden, his decision to stand with UAW workers is historic. And it might just get him reelected.”
September 28, 2023, New York Times: “Penn R.A.s Vote to Unionize, Expanding Labor Movement Among Undergraduates”
September 29, 2023, MSNBC: “‘A critical, existential point’: Unions backing each other to take on big business”
September 30, 2023, Jamelle Bouie, New York Times: “A President on a Picket Line”
September 30, 2023, Nicholas Kristof, New York Times: “Why Unions Are Good for America”
September 30, 2023, CNN: “America is on strike. Here’s the progress unions have made”
October 5, 2023, American Prospect: “Want a Safer Workplace? Join a Union”
October 8, 2023, New York Times: “Amid Strikes, One Question: Are Employers Miscalculating?”
October 13, 2023, New York Times: “Doctors Unionize at Big Health Care System”
October 20, 2023, The New Republic: “The Emerging Coalition That Could Revitalize Our Politics: The left and labor haven’t always seen eye to eye—but they may be on the verge of a fruitful reunion.”
October 21, 2023, Huffington Post: “Workers Are Striking in Numbers Not Seen in Years”
October 23, 2023, The New Yorker: “How the Yale Unions Took Over New Haven”
October 27, 2023, CNN: “‘We’re going to war with employers’: Union leaders on the spike in workers on strike”
October 28, 2023, The New Yorker: “Will the U.A.W. Strike Turn the Rust Belt Green?”
October 30, 2023, The New Yorker: “What the U.A.W. Won: In forcing the Big Three automakers to pay higher wages and make other concessions, the union demonstrated the enduring power of organized labor.”
October 30, 2023, Paul Krugman, New York Times: “Autoworkers Strike a Blow for Equality”
October 31, 2023, American Prospect: “How to Roll the Union On: Building on workers’ historic victories in auto plants, delivery trucks, hospitals, campuses, and (maybe) Hollywood”
October 31, 2023, MSNBC: “The UAW’s victory is just the beginning of a much, much bigger battle”
November 1, 2023, The Nation: “Doctors Are Employees Now. It’s Time for Us to Unionize.”
November 3, 2023, The Nation: “The UAW’s ‘Stand Up Strike’ Strategy Led to a Huge Win — and Not Just for Autoworkers”
November 20, 2023, MSNBC: “Benefits of historic auto union worker contracts redound to non-union labor as well”
November 21, 2023, Huffington Post: “Medieval Times Workers End Their Strike After 9 Months on the Picket Line”
November 21, 2023, The New Republic: “Unions Are Finally Going Where the Money Is: A handful of Wells Fargo workers in Alaska and New Mexico are breaking new ground for the labor movement”
November 21, 2023, CNN: “Unions are the strongest in decades. Nearly a million Americans got double-digit raises as a result”
November 23, 2023, NPR: “How U.S. Unions Took Flight”
December 6, 2023, New York Times: “Labor’s Very Good Year”
December 8, 2023, The Nation, “The New Labor Militancy of LA’s Hotel Workers”
December 11, 2023, Wall Street Journal: “The Big Wins by Unions in 2023”
December 18, 2023, The Nation, “A Working-Class Foreign Policy Is Coming: After a transformative year on the picket lines, the United Auto Workers’ ambitions for building worker power don’t stop at the US border.”
December 25, 2023, NPR: “Big wins and legal battles: How unions old and new did in 2023”
December 26, 2023, NPR: “Coming off big wins at the bargaining table, what’s ahead for unions in 2024?”
December 27, 2023, New York Times: “Board Game Cafe Workers Went on a Quest for a Union and Won”
December 27, 2023, CNN: “Shawn Fain, CNN Business’ labor leader of the year, plans to keep automakers sweating”
December 29, 2023, The New Republic: “Hero of the Year: Shawn Fain: The UAW president staged the first-ever strike against all three Detroit auto companies, and he isn’t done yet.”
January 5, 2024, Jacobin: “The US Labor Movement Had a Banner Year in 2023”
January 15, 2024, Salon: “MLK’s dream fulfilled: Why the labor movement is suddenly surging”
January 17, 2024, New York Times: “The New Labor Playbook: As the Opinion video above explores, these are heady times for organized labor.”
Today, the Bureau of Labor Statistics published its annual report on union membership. The unionization rate hit a record low of 10.0 percent in 2023, down from 2022’s 10.1 percent. “The number of wage and salary workers belonging to unions, at 14.4 million, also showed little movement over the year,” the BLS reported.
That’s an astonishing amount of news coverage for something that isn’t happening.