FROLITICKS

Satirical commentary on Canadian and American current political issues

Oct 20

Major Obstacles in Unionizing Private Sector Workers in the U.S.

by bcurry

No one denies that attempts at unionizing some of the biggest American employers in the private sector — Walmart, Amazon and Starbucks — can be hazardous to one’s job.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that the union membership rate of private-sector workers was just 6.3 percent in 2020, down from 6.6 percent last year and from 6.9 percent in 2011.  Labor specialists cited several reasons for the continuing steep decline in private sector union membership.  Among the factors were new laws that rolled back the power of unions in Wisconsin, Indiana and other states, the continued expansion by manufacturers like Boeing and Volkswagen in nonunion states and the growth of sectors like retail and restaurants, where unions still have little presence.  Among those larger employers noted above, there is also the fact that companies engage in numerous anti-union initiatives to persuade or obviously prevent their workers from organizing at the plant, warehouse or local outlet levels.

Earlier in the past two decades, it was at Walmart in the U.S. and Canada that clearly intimidated its so-called “associates” from organizing at the local level.  For example, in April 2005, Walmart simply closed it store in Jonquière, Quebec, when workers there attempted to organize.  Nine years later the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the move was improper, illegal and contrary to section 59 of Quebec’s Labour Code and turned the case back to an arbitrator to determine the appropriate remedy.  Walmart at no time told anyone that the Jonquière store intended to go out of business or that it was experiencing financial difficulties.  On the contrary, from a perspective of five years, the store was performing very well and its objectives were being met.  Let’s face it, the closure was a clear warning to other communities and Walmart workers of the evident consequences of attempting to organize.

In another example, in April 2021, a vote on whether to form a union at the Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama, became a major labour showdown.  Unfortunately, the workers voted down the union drive following pressure from Amazon management.  The company’s decisive victory dealt a crushing blow to organized labour, which had hoped the time was ripe to start making inroads at Amazon.  Amazon is a rich entity.  Propelled in part by surging demand during the pandemic, people spent more than $610 billion U.S. on Amazon over the 12 months ending in June 2021.  This is even more than that spent by people at Walmart during the same period.  Amazon also added hundreds of new warehouses and hired about 500,000 workers since the start of last year, none of which are unionized.

More recently, some Starbucks Buffalo-area locations filed for a union election in late August of this year.  None of the nearly 9,000 corporate-owned Starbucks locations in the country are unionized.  However, a Starbucks-owned store in Canada did manage to recently organize, a first for Starbucks.  Starbucks has faced union campaigns before, including an effort in 2019 in Philadelphia where the firing of two employees involved in union organizing was deemed unlawful by a labour board judge.  Starbucks of course has appealed the ruling.  According to union officials, Starbucks management has employed other intimidation and often subtle methods to discourage employees from organizing.  The measures include holding meetings with employees in which company officials question the need for a third party to represent them.

As an apparent shortage of workers in certain private sectors due to the pandemic, unions may see an opportunity to assist in organizing workers because of the competition among employers for workers.  If anything, the situation has forced many employers to improve their working conditions and raise the wages offered in order to retain workers and to recruit new workers.  This is particularly the case in the retail, services and restaurant sectors.  Nevertheless, the ability to organize workers in the private sector still obviously faces numerous hurtles in the U.S.  Hopefully, as economies improve, current labour shortages may benefit all workers, whether unionized or not.

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May 1

May Day is here, but where is organized labour?

by bcurry

Today is May 1rst, a day celebrated in many countries as ‘May Day’, including in Canada and less so in the U.S.  It should be noted that May Day is one of the most important holidays in communist countries such as China, North Korea, Cuba and the former Soviet Union countries.  Since the late 19th century, unions and worker groups have celebrated the first day in May as an International Workers’ Day, since referred to as May Day.  In North America, May Day largely grew out of the 19th-century labour movement for worker’s rights and an eight-hour workday in the U.S. and Canada.  In numerous cities, there will be parades, picnics and celebratory gatherings by both unionized and non-unionized workers and families.  However, historically, both the U.S. and Canada chose to celebrate the contribution of workers on an alternative national statutory holiday in September, ‘Labour Day’.  So much for the history lesson.

The fact is that May Day is celebrated much more in Europe where countries have long ago implemented universal health care systems, extensive social welfare nets, labour standards laws and other programs aimed at improving and protecting the livelihoods and health of workers.  This is why European countries did not need to introduce very many new assistance programs during the current pandemic, as their existing programs, including paid sick leave and unemployment benefits, cover most of the labour force.  Europe remains a relative stronghold of social democracy in which higher levels of taxation fund national health care systems as well as programs that automatically help those who lose their jobs.  In this way, European countries generally seek to limit economic volatility.  In addition, unions play a greater role in Europe than in the U.S., often sitting on management boards in countries like Germany, Sweden, the U.K., Austria, France and several others.  Together with a right to elect work councils, this is often called “codetermination” — something rarely seen in the U.S. or Canada.

On the other hand, the American economy has been described as a study of inequality, with risks and rewards stretching to extremes, and failures often capable of precipitating disaster, as unemployment frequently separates people from their health insurance policies.  This has forced the U.S. to be much more dependent on economic growth and emergency relief injections if something goes wrong, as it has under the current pandemic.  The Biden administration is pouring trillions of dollars into supporting American families and communities adversely affected by the pandemic, hoping to stimulate the economy as the U.S. emerges eventually from government-imposed shutdowns.  Increasing economic growth is expected to continue, but there are questions as to just who will benefit from such growth?  Recent studies have indicated that the rich have gotten richer.  Wall Street has thrived versus the evident losses experienced by the Main Street economy, especially small businesses and their workers.

With the decline in private sector unionization in the U.S. and Canada, there are fewer and fewer workers willing to march on this May Day.  The pandemic may have greatly knocked the wind right out of the unions’ sails.  There is also every indication that the pandemic may further reduce the number of good paying blue collar jobs, leaving many workers scrambling to secure employment in lower paying non-unionized jobs.  Alas, it is really difficult to happily celebrate this year’s May Day, or next Labour Day for that matter.

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Apr 27

Biden Administration to Study Decline in Union Membership in U.S.

by bcurry

This past week, President Biden announced the formation of a White House task force to promote labor organizing in an attempt to potentially use the power of the federal government to reverse a decades-long decline in American union membership.  Some of this may have been brought on by the recent failed attempt by the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union to organize 6,000 workers at Amazon’s warehouse in Bessemer, Alabama.  Amazon has argued that its management did not threaten or intimidate workers.  However, past evidence has shown that Amazon is more than capable of dissuading its workers from joining a union in its more than 800 warehouses which employ over 500,000 people nation-wide.  While Amazon did not admit to violations of labour laws, the company promised in a settlement with federal regulators to tell workers that it would rigorously obey the rules in the future.  Good luck!

The historical decline in union membership in the U.S. is well documented.  The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics said the total number of union members fell by 400,000 in 2012, to 14.3 million, even though the nation’s overall employment rose by 2.4 million.  The percentage of workers in unions fell to 11.3 percent, down from 11.8 percent in 2011.  By 2017, union membership was 14.8 million, representing just 10.7 percent of those workers.  The unionization rate for private-sector workers was only 6.3 percent in 2020, reflecting the net effect of declines in both the number of union members in the private sector and the steep drop in private-sector employment. 

Private sector membership particularly declined sharply in the manufacturing sector largely due to the reality that when organized labour dug in its heels, manufacturing companies never thought twice about shutting a factory and transferring production to another country.  Now, the largest sectors involve service industries and high tech companies which are very difficult to organize, especially among low paying jobs and where turnover is high.  Lifetime job security once offered by unions in the manufacturing sector no longer exists, leaving workers vulnerable to company pressures not to organize.  In some cases, as in high tech, companies offer enough benefits to make the need for unions a thing of the past.  Management-side lawyers argue convincingly that many employers have gotten better over the years at heeding workers’ concerns, making unions less necessary.  William Spriggs, the A.F.L.- C.I.O.’s chief economist, acknowledged that unions were doing poorly in manufacturing, retail and elsewhere in the private sector, which has been adding jobs even as union membership continued a slide that has lasted for decades.

The primary piece of federal legislation governing federal labour rights is the National Labor Relations Act which has been around since 1935.  It was explicitly introduced to encourage collective bargaining, but that the law had never been fully carried out in this regard. The principal federal agency established by the Act, the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), has no power to impose monetary penalties against employers who openly obstruct union membership drives.  The NLRB’s enforcement remedies are few and weak, which means its ability to restrain anti-union employers from breaking the law is limited.

The situation in Canada is somewhat the same.  Since Statistics Canada began measuring unionization through household surveys, the overall unionization rate within Canada’s private sector (15.2% in 2014) has been declining for over 30 years.  This was partially offset by high public sector union density (71.3% in 2014).  The growth of the service sectors in both countries is not expected to significantly change labour markets in the near future.  It will be difficult to organize workers in companies such as Amazon and Walmart, and there is little that governments can do.  Regulatory bodies can simply ensure that the rules are being followed, but they cannot force workers to join unions.  While the Biden administration may be able to bring the National Labor Relations Act into the Twenty-First century, the fact is that economic and industrial changes will most likely determine future unionization rates.  Despite the fact that President Biden is a strong supporter of unions, there is only so much that he can do to reverse the existing decline in these rates.  And that’s not much!

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