Happy Labor Day Weekend!
Celebrating Labor Unions and Discussing Brief News Updates
Happy Labor Day weekend!
I wanted to take a few minutes to celebrate some recent labor union victories, bring attention to some other news stories I will discuss in further detail throughout future articles, and provide brief updates on topics prior articles covered.
I also want to celebrate a few milestones for the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter! Today marks two months since I released this newsletter to the public, and I’ve grown and learned a lot since then. This issue also marks my 20th full-fledged article, and I have many more planned.
If you are reading this from your inbox, I hope you enjoy these brief stories in addition to my more detailed analyses. If you are reading my newsletter for the first time, I encourage you to sign up for free to receive my articles in your inbox as soon as they are published!
With those housekeeping sidenotes out of the way, I have some union stories I wanted to share with you.
Celebrating Labor Unions
It’s difficult to overstate just how much we owe to labor unions, the labor movement, and how much more we could achieve with stronger union participation. Thankfully, unions are becoming increasingly popular, so hopefully union participation rates will soon follow.
Americans’ Approval of Unions Highest Since 1965
According to a recent Gallup poll, union approval ratings are the highest they’ve been since 1965. See the graph below to see how the percentage of Americans approving of labor unions has changed since the 1930s, and how it has been steadily rising in recent years. The percentage of Americans who approve of labor unions recently hit 68% – more than two out of every three Americans – and hopefully it will continue to climb.
Between corporations laying off employees despite receiving windfall tax cuts and pandemic relief funds, billionaires endangering their workers despite their skyrocketing wealth, and workers being called “essential” while being unable to afford rent, perhaps workers are wishing they had someone looking out for their best interests for once.
U.S. Department of Labor Celebrates Unions
I also enjoyed reading this article on the U.S. Department of Labor website – titled “Thank You, Unions” – which went through some of the history of Labor Day and other important achievements. You might enjoy reading the whole article yourself, but I wanted to at least share this excerpt with you:
From the first workers’ compensation and unemployment compensation laws and the 40-hour week, to Social Security, Medicare, the Occupational Safety and Health Act, the Federal Mine Safety and Health Act, the Family and Medical Leave Act and the Affordable Care Act, America’s labor movement has been a driving force for progress.
Some of these programs need to be expanded, improved, and defended against those who would curtail or repeal them, but just as solidarity within a labor movement was crucial to their passage, so too will it be essential for further progress.
The Battle of Blair Mountain Centennial
Speaking of union history, this week marked the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Blair Mountain, the infamous culmination of the largest labor uprising in U.S. history. Many of these workers were veterans who came home from World War I only to be exploited by unscrupulous robber barons, and the conflict ended with many worker and strikebuster casualties. This article by the Economic Policy Institute tells a fascinating account of the events and puts lessons learned from 1921 in the context of problems we face in 2021.
The Richard L. Trumka PRO Act
Many of these problems we face in 2021 can be addressed by passing the PRO Act. For any readers who might be unfamiliar with the PRO Act, or if you’d like a refresher on some of its basic provisions, I wrote about this important bill around the time it passed in the House of Representatives. While it still awaits passage in the Senate, and may languish there until something can be done about the filibuster, we must continue to remind our Senators how important the PRO Act is for all workers.
After having been renamed for the late AFL-CIO president, Richard Trumka, the full name of the Act is now the Richard L. Trumka Protecting the Right to Organize Act, and I can’t think of a more fitting legacy he might want to leave behind. He advocated for the passage of the PRO Act throughout 2021, and although we lost this legendary labor leader in August, his legacy lives on through our continued efforts for a more just economy.
AFL-CIO Elected President Liz Shuler, the First Woman to Serve in Federation’s History
One person who certainly is continuing Trumka’s legacy is the first woman to be elected president of the AFL-CIO, Liz Shuler. To serve as president, she left her position as secretary-treasurer for the AFL-CIO, and the United Steelworkers vice president, Fred Redmond, was elected to serve as the next secretary-treasurer. This was another historic election, as Redmond is the first African American to hold this position.
Shuler shared a vision of the path forward for the labor movement in a statement following her election:
I believe in my bones the labor movement is the single greatest organized force for progress. This is a moment for us to lead societal transformations—to leverage our power to bring women and people of color from the margins to the center—at work, in our unions and in our economy, and to be the center of gravity for incubating new ideas that will unleash unprecedented union growth.
I could not agree more. Just as the labor movement surrounding the Battle of Blair Mountain in the 1920s was undermined by a lack of multiracial solidarity, so too would a 21st century labor movement lose strength – and, more importantly, righteous conviction in the principles we advocate – unless we ensure that everyone has a voice in this movement.
Remember, you can’t spell “union” without U & I!
Unions Continue to Score Victories Against Amazon
Despite a union election defeat in Bessemer, Alabama earlier this year, the National Labor Relations Board concluded that Amazon interfered with the election. Part of their reasoning involved the distribution of anti-union propaganda to workers while in the presence of supervisors.
Amazon also had the USPS install a vote collection box where workers could be surveilled by Amazon security cameras. According to the Board’s recommendation, doing so “usurped the National Labor Relations Board’s… exclusive role in administering Union elections.”
Apparently these unethical tactics are not unique to Amazon, either. This article by David Dayen – “Anatomy of an Anti-Union Meeting” – is a deep dive into the misleading tactics even used by companies you might expect would espouse union ideals, like the company No Evil Foods. This serves as yet another reminder why workers need laws like the PRO Act protecting their right to organize a union.
The Teamsters have also been increasing pressure on Amazon in an effort to unionize their delivery drivers. As this Vice article mentions:
The Teamsters have taken a holistic approach to organizing at Amazon, which includes engaging its members and Amazon workers, antitrust enforcement, industry pressure campaigns, and engaging and educating the public about Amazon's impact on communities.
These efforts also include going after the tax breaks that Amazon routinely seeks, whether they are building new warehouses or new headquarters. Teamsters helped thwart yet another brazen attempt by Amazon to secure corporate welfare at the expense of local communities thanks to this holistic approach.
This statement by the Teamsters shows how union research helped put the $7.3 million in tax breaks Amazon sought in the context of the corporations’ billions in profits, how that ultimately meant very little to such a massive monopoly like Amazon, and how that forgone tax revenue would harm the community of Fort Wayne, Indiana. I encourage you to read the whole statement if you are interested in more details the Teamsters Local 414 cited, but I certainly hope to hear of more victories for workers and local communities in the future.
Future Articles and Updates
Before we wrap up this Labor Day weekend edition of the Economic Justice and Progress Newsletter, I wanted to briefly address some important updates on subjects I covered recently.
Manchin Obstructs Infrastructure Investment Bills (Again)
Days after I outlined the economic benefits of the Build Back Better Agenda and called for solidarity in my previous article – and within 24 hours of reports of corporate America launching a “lobbying blitz” to gut our infrastructure investment bills – Senator Joe Manchin published an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal making excuses to “pause” the budget reconciliation bill.
While Congressmembers obstruct these essential investments, which would create millions of union jobs over the next decade, Congress also failed to act on a looming unemployment crisis.
Pandemic Unemployment Benefits Expire on Labor Day
As you can see in the highlighted text in the screenshot above, many of the unemployment insurance (UI) benefits passed as part of our Coronavirus relief bills expire on September 6, 2021. They could have been extended to another arbitrary deadline, or they could have been extended until meaningful metrics had been met – such as the unemployment rate or COVID cases declining – but Congress did neither.
I rhetorically asked in a recent article what Congress would do in the coming months:
Will Congress act again to prevent unnecessary suffering? Or will they go on recess and say, “Let them eat cake”?
It sounds like they chose the latter.
Because of Congressional inaction, millions of people are estimated to be losing UI benefits. At a time when the economy is still recovering, and the Bureau of Labor Statistics just released a Jobs Report showing disappointing jobs numbers throughout August, this is unwelcome news. Besides, preliminary data suggests that states who tried ending pandemic UI benefits early did not spur significant job growth. Instead, they likely increased food insecurity, hurt local economies, prompted lawsuits to reinstate benefits, and otherwise caused unnecessary suffering.
I will discuss these and other details surrounding the latest Jobs Report in a forthcoming article, but in the meantime, I hope you all have a fun and safe Labor Day weekend!
Thank you for reading my newsletter and taking the effort to learn about making the world a better place. I look forward to hearing your thoughts on how we can make progress towards a more just economy.
-JJ
Updated 9/15/2021 - Added missing apostrophe