Machibet777 CricketWhy US is seeing a resurgence of labour unions

Workers at some of the biggest US companies are choosing to join labour unions in a trend that only seems to gather steam. Employees at a second Apple store in US are the latest to jump onto the bandwagonWhat's happening?A Gallup poll said in August this year that 71% of American respondents – more than at any point since 1965 – now support labour unions. Membership of labour unions, on the decline for decades, has picked up at a pace not seen since the Great Depression of 1930s, US media said, adding that in the first three quarters of FY22, there was a 58% rise in unionisation activity over the same period a year ago.The resurgence in moves to unionise is also noticeable because it is being driven by workers at new-age companies that are also typically seen as being progressive. After the first Starbucks store in Buffalo, New York, voted to unionise in December last year, baristas at more than 200 outlets across the US have followed suit. But what made corporate bosses sit up and take note was the decision by workers at a large Amazon warehouse in New York’s Staten Island to form a union in April this year. medium94986369 Unions have now sprouted up at the likes of Google and media organisations like The New York Times and Conde Nast, to name a few. And this week, workers at a second Apple store, in Oklahoma, voted to join a union, following the lead of their colleagues in Maryland. Why now?Experts say that the new spurt in unions is being driven by younger, often college-educated workers forced to work in low-paying jobs. “Overworked, underpaid, over-educated,” is how John Logan, a labour and employment studies professor at San Francisco State University, described them to CNBC.But a key factor, experts point out, was also the Covid-19 pandemic and the insecurities it bred among low-level staff even as the companies they worked for reported huge financial gains. For instance, the push that finally resulted in the Staten Island Amazon warehouse union came from a walkout over the lack of face masks and other safety gear for workers. As Ruth Milkman, a labour expert and professor at the City University of New York, told CBS, these workers are not looking only at wages, but also "want respect". "They want to be treated with dignity... They have these high expectations for what their work life is supposed to be about." medium94985322What has further contributed to their willingness to unionise is also the Great Resignation or the labour shortages created by the pandemic, “which gave people more leverage, and made them less fearful of organising", she said. That’s especially relevant since US corporates are not known to take kindly to unions. In fact, Amazon is said to have spent more than $4mn on labour consultants and required every employee to attend anti-union meetings. Apple and Starbucks, too, were accused of resorting to union-busting tactics. But unions would have received a boost from the Joe Biden administration, which has been sympathetic to their cause.Yet actual participation remains at a multi-decade low, hovering at 10.3% of the workforce in 2021, down from 10.8% in 2020 and 20% in 1983, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. At its peak in 1954, union membership was close to 35%. This week, for instance, workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York state voted to reject unionisation, likely owing to the company’s intense union-busting activities and organisers failing to gain traction at larger facilities with high turnover.How can it help?Since the 1970s, productivity in the US has risen consistently but wages have not kept up. A study from the Economic Policy Institute shows that between 1979 and 2021, productivity (which measures the economy-wide income generated in an average hour of work) grew by 62.5%. Though wages grew in line with productivity till the early 1980s, since then earnings have grown at a much lower rate despite considerable growth in productivity. Since 1979, American hourly wage has only grown 15.9%, about a quarter of the growth in productivity. medium94985418The alarming gap between productivity and pay in the US can be attributed to a number of policy decisions — raises in the minimum wage became smaller and rarer, tax rates for higher slabs fell, and the government failed to change labour laws as employers grew more hostile towards unions.But wages not keeping up with growing productivity came with a side effect. After 1979, though productivity rose, it did so at a much lower rate than in the previous decade, leading to slower economic growth. Most of the economic benefits of growing productivity were reaped by corporations in the form of profits and by highly-paid executives and professional employees. The average worker gained little from a more productive economy, and in the last four decades, income inequality has soared in the US.The Economic Policy Institute says that for sustainable economic growth there needs to be a stronger link between productivity and pay, and that workers need more power in this equation. The growing popularity of union movements in the US is evidence of a changing dynamic.A study published by Cornell University's Industrial and Labour Relations Review found that among workers no older than 25 between 1969 and 1973, union members earned $3.4mn until the age of 64 compared to $2.1mn for non-members. Even union members without college degrees fared better (by about $400,000) over the course of their careers. Weakened labour laws and hostility towards unions after the 1980s likely suppressed the benefits for unionising, with power increasingly concentrated in the hands of employers.