Illustration by Sarah Angèle Wilson
This article appears in the August 2022 issue of The American Prospect magazine. Subscribe here.
The outlook for the labor movement in America is at once bleak and hopeful. On one hand, the number of workers belonging to or represented by unions continues to decline. In 2021, a meager 6.1 percent of private-sector workers belonged to a union, and union coverage overall stood at 11.6 percent. Income inequality is the highest it has ever been, and the power differential between labor and management, coupled with the weaknesses of U.S. labor law, enables employers to engage in rampant union-busting and retaliation with minimal penalties. Just when they are needed most, unions seem nearly at risk of extinction.
On the other hand, a wave of grassroots labor organizing has gained traction across the country at Starbucks, Amazon, REI, Trader Joe’s, and beyond. Sixty-eight percent of Americans support unions, the highest level since 1965, and the number is even higher among young people. Almost half of non-unionized workers say they would join a union if they had the chance. “I believe we may be on the verge of an era of mass organizing like we have not seen since the 1930s,” Rep. Andy Levin (D-MI) said in a statement to the Prospect.
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