Union organizing has shifted into high gear. But despite successful organizing drives at such corporate powerhouses as Starbucks, Amazon and Apple, it's still an uphill climb for unions seeking to sign up new members.
In recent history, those upstart union wins are very much the exception rather than the rule, and American labour laws remain stacked in employers' favour.
There were 826 union elections from January through July of this year, up 45% from the number held in the same period of 2021, according to a CNN analysis of data from the National Labor Relations Board, which oversees organizing votes at most U.S. businesses. And the 70% success rate by unions in those votes is far better than the 42% success rate in the first seven months of 2021.
But there were only 41,000 potential union members eligible to vote in the 2022 elections. Even if the unions had won all those votes – NLRB data don't break down how many workers worked at each company holding a vote – it would be a drop in the bucket among the estimated 105 million workers at U.S. businesses who don't belong to a union, according to Labour Department statistics.
The campaign by the grassroots Starbucks Workers United is a big part of the reason for the surge in organizing.
There have been votes conducted at nearly 300 Starbucks stores so far this year, and while some results have yet to be determined, the union has won at about 200 stores where...
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