Last year, “the biggest auto strike in generations”, culminated in the most consequential deal between unions and big business in decades. These auto strikes were not the only way in which workers fought back against decades of wage suppression and declining conditions. There were strikes called for or threatened in shipping and logistics, in TV and movie production, and in hotel and leisure. A hot labor summer demonstrated the power of workers in an era of inequality, flat worker wages, and institutional and judicial hostility toward workers, and a cultural fetishization of the rich. Nonetheless, the successes of these strikes have not resolved the large problems that plague workers. Vast sections of the economy remain un-unionized; many workers, such as Latina hotel workers from immigrant communities, have a long way to go toward decent wages and working conditions; and broadly, many workers are still below the real earnings and benefits they enjoyed from the start of the New Deal era to its dismantling under the Reagan Administration.
Unionizing Auto Workers
The United Auto Workers (UAW) has suffered decades of decline, something which it is determined to reverse, with the president, Shaw Fain saying in a statement,
“Our Stand-Up movement has caught fire among America’s autoworkers, far beyond the Big Three. These workers are standing up for themselves, for their families, and for their communities, and our union will have their back every step of the way.”
This statement was issued as a result of the unionization of 10,000 auto workers, from two dozen plants across the country. This is part of an effort to ramp up their activity in 2024, to have an even bigger series of successes than the UAW experienced last year. Although they won signature advances, auto workers still track behind what they had in the Reagan Administration. The union has targeted workers in BMW, Honda, Hyundai, Mazda, Mercedes-Benz, Nissan, Subaru, Toyota, Volkswagen, and Volvo, and electric vehicle (EV) producers Lucid, Rivian, and Tesla. These thirteen firms employ some 150,000 people, which is about the number of unionized workers employed by the “Big Three” Detroit automakers. The size of the challenge is a result of a decades-long assault on unions, and the resulting collapse in real wages and working conditions.
Falling Power of Unions
The power of unions has been in steep decline since President Ronald Reagan broke an illegal strike in 1981 and decertified the Professional Air Traffic Controllers Organization. Reagan fired the federal government employees involved in the strike, encouraging big businesses such as Phelps Dodge in 1983, Hormel in 1985-86, and Internal Paper in 1987, to recruit striker replacements rather than negotiating with striking workers. The effect was chilling. The number of major strikes fell from 380 in 1970 to 200 in 1980, and 17 in 1999 and just 11 in 2010. Workers got the message: strike, and you’re out. The Federal Reserve Chairman in 2003, Alan Greenspan, said of these strikes that:
Perhaps the most important, and then highly controversial, domestic initiative was the firing of the air traffic controllers in August 1981. The President invoked the law that striking government employees forfeit their jobs, an action that unsettled those who cynically believed no President would ever uphold that law. President Reagan prevailed, but far more importantly his action gave weight to the legal right of private employers, previously not fully exercised, to use their own discretion to both hire and discharge workers.
America had clearly sided with business over workers. Union rates plummeted as a result, given that workers understood that collective action could result in firing. Unions were powerless, and union rates fell. Even now, union rates are uninspiring. Although we are off the back of a hot labor summer, the share of unionized workers in the workforce has not really budged in the last few years. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), in 2023, just 10.1% of workers were unionized, the same share as in 2022, and down 0.2% from 2019. Union density, the share of employed unionized workers , did rise in 2020, for the first time since 2007 and 2008. The last time union density had risen prior to 2007, was in 1979. The 2020 spike was as a result of nonunion workers leaving the workforce in the beginning of the pandemic. Other than these four years, union density has fallen.
A Decline in Real Wages
It’s not surprising that real wages, i.e. earnings adjusted for inflation, have trailed behind nominal wages, i.e. earnings unadjusted for inflation. So, though workers are earning bigger paychecks, what they can do with that money is far less than what was possible in 1979. Businesses have not had to make any meaningful changes to real wages because of the chilling impact of 1981.
Right now, California hotel workers have been engaged in one of the biggest strikes the industry has ever faced, simply so they can afford to live in the areas where they worked. Inspired by the UAW, which used staggered short-term strikes, the California hotel workers have gone on strike over 100 times since July last year, to ramp up pressure on hotel workers. Their struggle continues, and reflects the challenges and opportunities of workers in this revival of worker power.