No, unions are not soaring
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
Seventy percent of Americans approve of labor unions, according to a Gallup push poll released this week. Naturally, Big Labor's allies in the media are touting the poll as evidence that unions are having their biggest moment since the 1960s.
In reality, workers are fleeing unions in droves despite the Biden administration's best efforts to force workers into unions. Any "momentum" for Big Labor is a media fantasy. An all-time low of 10% of the American workforce was unionized in 2023, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 1983, 20.1% of workers were unionized. Only 6% of private sector workers were unionized in 2023.
Democrats have a vested interest in forcing workers to join unions, as the overwhelming majority of Big Labor's political spending goes toward electing members of that party. Big Labor spent at least $1.8 billion electing the Biden-Harris ticket and downballot Democrats in 2020. Biden has lived up to his promise to be "the most pro-union president in American history" by weaponizing federal agencies for Big Labor's benefit.
Despite the Biden-Harris administration's best efforts, Big Labor's few wins have typically been followed by crushing defeats. Workers at Amazon's JFK8 narrowly voted to join the Amazon Labor Union after the National Labor Relations Board tipped the scales in the ALU's favor just a week ahead of the election. Thanks to the NLRB's malfeasance, the JFK8 election may be voided. The United Auto Workers successfully organized a Volkswagen plant in Chattanooga, but they lost decisively at a Mercedes plant in Alabama a month later.
Since workers are clearly not buying what union bosses are selling, Big Labor has resorted to strongarm tactics to capture as much of the workforce as possible. Teamsters President Sean O'Brien recently terminated a "no-raid" agreement with the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers, which allowed Teamsters organizers to poach IAM members at will.
To stanch the bleeding, IAM is attempting to unionize new industries and launched the "Pharmacy Guild" in November 2023. The Pharmacy Guild has a large social media following, which has allowed the media to paint the Guild as the new frontier of union organizing. Yet again, the data destroys the media narrative — approximately 30 of America's 320,000 pharmacists have joined the Guild. There is no evidence supporting the Guild's claim that they will organize 90% of CVS and Walgreens stores in the next five years.
The Pharmacy Guild will fail for the same reason that Big Labor is hemorrhaging members — unions are no longer compatible with the modern workforce. Pharmacists, who are compensated at a median annual wage of $134,790, are not exactly the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory workers of yesteryear. Pharmacies such as CVS and Walgreens compete vigorously to attract pharmacists by offering top-notch benefits packages. The Pharmacy Guild wants to confiscate union dues to deliver benefits that pharmacists already receive.
Americans may say they support organized labor in push polls, but when push comes to shove, workers reject unions more often than not. Big Labor has resorted to a number of increasingly desperate tactics just to stay afloat. Thanks to a compliant press, Big Labor is able to maintain the illusion that they are the all-powerful Oz instead of the doddering old man behind the curtain.
If unions were in the business of providing benefits that workers could not secure otherwise, union bosses would not have to scratch and claw for new members. But since union bosses are in the business of stealing workers' money and spending it on progressive causes, Big Labor's inevitable decline will continue no matter what the media says.
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Created by an act of Congress in 1894, Labor Day is one of the nation’s oldest holidays, older than Veterans Day (1938) but not as old as Memorial Day (1888).
Why? The gop passed Right To Work Laws and At Will Employment!
So you don’t think people should have the right to work? Or companies shouldn’t be able to fire incompetent employees?
I believe workers should have the right to organize and unionize!
One of the major problems with unions is how some of them protect crappy workers.
I don't disagree, after all, Unions are people too, my friend.
You didn’t answer my question so I will just assume you think people shouldn’t be able to work and companies should be forced to keep incompetent employees.
And they do have that right, as well as the right to choose whether or not to join a union. What's your point?
I think anyone who wants to join a union should, and those who don't shouldn't be forced to.
If unions are providing everything they claim for their members, then they should have had no problems recruiting new members.
Would Democrats be half as supporting of unions were it not for the massive political contributions they get from them?
Hell of a racket, unions donate, then in many places, negotiate contracts with some of the same folks they donated to.
I wonder if unions would survive anywhere if it wasn't for closed-shop states.
Unions are necessary to provide a counter-balance to the power that capitalistic forces exert on labor.
As with everything that we seem to want to pit against each other in what is very likely a false dichotomy, we have the problem of balance that can be illustrated by the question, "How should we divide the power between management and unions?"
What power do you think capitalistic forces exert on modern day labor here in the good Ole USA?