Union approval, interest in organizing is high, but union membership continues to wane

The problem is outdated Labor laws

By TIM ROWDEN
Managing Editor

Approval of unions and interest in organizing is higher than it has been in decades, but new data on unionization from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) shows that, statistically, union membership declined last year. How can that be?

Heidi Shierholz, president of the Economic Policy Institute, explained the numbers in a Jan. 20 online press conference with local and national Labor journalists.

Unionization rates jumped by half a percentage point in 2020, from 11.6 percent to 12.1 percent, Shierholz said, due largely to a “pandemic composition effect” — the fact that the majority  of jobs lost to the pandemic in 2020 were more concentrated in industries with low unionization rates, such as leisure and hospitality. That pandemic composition effect began to unwind in 2021, she said. Non-unionized jobs began returning, tilting the overall percentage of non-unionized workers in the workforce back in the other direction, even with high union approval rates and a growing number of workers fighting to organize their workplaces.

“The 2021 union numbers are a real wake-up call,” Shierholz said. “As we rebuild our economy, it is crucial that the Biden Administration and Congress institute policies like the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act – policies that promote the right to union representation and collective bargaining. And I will say, if policymakers fail to act, the downward trends in unionization will continue and the post-pandemic economy will be marked by widespread inequality and wage stagnation for working people, so the stakes are really high.

“The substantial level of union activity in 2021 and the polling data of union favorability demonstrates that workers want unions, workers value unions, but the fact that unionization still declined is a massive testament to how broken our Labor law is,” she said.

Labor shortages during the pandemic have given workers an edge in demanding better wages, leaving bad jobs and organizing, Shierholz said, but that edge is unlikely to last without substantial changes to the nation’s outdated Labor law.

“The American Rescue Plan Act has generated an incredibly strong recovery with huge demand for workers. At the same time millions of workers are out of the labor force due to health and safety concerns or Covid-related care responsibilities. So there’s a lot of demand for workers and fewer workers around,” Shierholz said.

“Employers have had to compete for workers, and that means that workers have more power, but these dynamics are unlikely to continue once the pandemic is behind us. For lasting worker power, for lasting strong wage growth and decent working conditions going forward, working people absolutely have to be able to join unions.”

PROTECTING THE RIGHT TO ORGANIZE
The Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act, which passed the House last year with bipartisan support, provides a comprehensive set of reforms that would strengthen private-sector workers’ right to form a union and engage in collective bargaining.

“The decline of union membership in 2021 is a wake-up call to lawmakers that we must reform our broken Labor law,” said Shierholz. “The Biden administration and Congress must adopt policies that make it easier for workers to form a union, including the PRO Act. Not only are these policy changes crucial to restoring a fair balance of power between workers and employers, they are also essential to an equitable recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.”

The number of workers in unions dropped in 2021 by 137,000, on top of a decline of 444,000 in 2020, for a total reduction of 581,000 union workers between 2019 and 2021.  The unionization rate held steady between 2019 and 2021 even though the number of workers in unions dropped substantially over the same period because the number of workers in unions declined at roughly the same rate as the number of workers not in unions over this period. However, as the economy continues to recover and the pandemic composition effect continues to unwind, unionization rates will face downward pressures in 2022 — unless policymakers act to reform Labor law.

Despite the decline in union membership and the growing gap between the demand for and the availability of union membership, workers continued to exercise their right to form unions and bargain collectively in 2021.

Union activity last year included organizing drives with nurses, journalists, graduate students, and even Starbucks workers, as well as successful strikes by taxi drivers in New York, health care workers in Buffalo, and factory workers at Deere. The substantial level of union activity in 2021 demonstrates that workers want and value unions. The fact that unionization nevertheless declined is a glaring testament to how broken U.S. Labor law really is and how urgent it is that Congress pass the PRO Act and the Public Service Freedom to Negotiate Act.

Whatever business owners and policymakers may think, workers’ newly resurgent support for unions and interest in unionizing – particularly among younger workers’ –  is unlikely to fade away, even after the pandemic.

“These folks have become interested in unions at a time when unionization was very, very low. So they’ve already demonstrated that they get the importance of this even in the face of extremely low unionization rates,” Shierholz said. “They are sort of jumping in with a lot of enthusiasm. The interest that they’re showing despite the low levels of unionization makes me feel like there will be some staying power there.”