Better together

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Labor unions struggling with declining membership and waning influence before the pandemic could be poised for a rebound. Data released on Jan. 22 by the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics showed decreases in the number of both union and non-union workers. There were just shy of 4.1 million people employed New Jersey in 2019, of which 642,000 were in a union. In 2020, the total dropped to 3.7 million, with just 600,000 union workers. But the report also showed that union members went from making up 15.7% of the state’s workforce in 2019 to 16.1% in 2020. In essence, the pie is shrinking and union labor is making up a larger chunk of it.

Labor advocates and progressives contend that these numbers demonstrate the advantage of unions: they were able to avoid the worst of the workforce shrinkage. And they’re optimistic about policies likely to be adopted by President Joe Biden, who has promised to be “the most pro-union president you’ve ever seen.”

Unions are typically able to put together a number of arrangements like furlough programs or reduced hours that would help workers avoid lay-offs, said Todd Vachon, faculty director at the Labor Education Action Research Network at Rutgers University.

“The general benefit of having a union in the workplace, the union sees [lay-offs] coming down the pike and they come up with creative solutions and they go to management with creative plans,” Vachon said. “Unions are more likely to have that tactic, whereas in a non-union workplace, management is unilaterally saying ‘what’s the single thing we need to do to stay afloat economically.’”

A Jan. 22 report from the Economic Policy Institute noted that industries with lower rates of unionization – like restaurants, hotels, leisure, hospitality and entertainment – reported higher lay-off numbers. But union or not, those industries have overall taken a beating during the pandemic.

More unionized sectors, like education or policing, had far lower lay-off rates during the pandemic, according to the EPI. “Basically while the total economy dropped by hundreds of thousands of jobs, a much smaller proportion of the job loss was felt by union workers,” said Josh Kellerman, director of public policy at the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union.

And the EPI noted that “essential workers” at warehouses, grocery stores, health care facilities, critical manufacturing plants; agriculture and food production facilities and in transportation and utilities are typically more unionized and have greater success with demanding workplace safety measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

“Again, we see the value of having a voice on the job,” Vachon said. “Early in the pandemic we learned union workers were more likely to have access to employer-provided PPE, testing, and paid sick leave. We now know union workers were also more likely to avoid COVID layoffs.”

Kevin Brown, New Jersey Director for 32BJ SEIU, which represents roughly 13,000 service workers in the state including many at Newark Liberty International Airport, said in an email that he expects the pandemic “will create a shift on how workers see the union and the advantages of organizing and coming together.”

Many progressives and worker’s rights groups expect a pro-labor agenda to continue under the new administration in Washington. “President Biden understands the labor movement’s skills and experience,” New Jersey State AFL-CIO President Charles Wowkanech said in a Jan. 22 statement.

The president nominated Boston Mayor Marty Walsh, a former union leader, to be his labor secretary. Biden also tapped James Frederick, a longtime union steelworker, to head the Occupational Safety and Health Administration.

Under President Donald Trump, the National Labor Relations Board, which enforces private sector labor laws, rolled back many worker protections, and took actions that unions criticized as weakening the rights of workers to take part in collective bargaining.

Biden, after taking office, ousted the NLRB general counsel Peter Robb, who was appointed by Trump. And he sacked Robb’s deputy, Alice Stock.

“A union-busting lawyer by trade, Robb mounted an unrelenting attack for more than three years on workers’ right to organize and engage in collective bargaining,” Richard Trumka, president of the national AFL-CIO said in a Jan. 20 statement.

“His actions sought to stymie the tens of millions of workers who say they would vote to join a union today and violated the stated purpose of the National Labor Relations Act—to encourage collective bargaining.”

Biden recently signed an order requiring the Department of Labor to institute guidelines granting workers the right to refuse to show up at unsafe work environment, one that might cause them to become infected with COVID-19, and re-main eligible for unemployment benefits.

Such efforts had largely been left to state and local governments under the Trump administration. New Jersey labor officials rolled out their own version of the law in the spring, as the state was preparing to ease the first round of COVID-19 business restrictions.

Biden also ordered OSHA to come up with guidance on COVID-19 workplace safety standards, potentially paving the way for a temporary emergency mandate for employers. And he’s pushing for a nationwide $15 minimum wage by 2025.