In 2021, only 10.3% of American workers were union members, less than half the proportion we had four decades earlier.
This collapse in union membership did not occur in Canada; it happened in the United States for reasons specific to this country, including unpleasant changes in labor law and the practices of corporations that happened here during the last 40 years.
Today, in more than 40% of union election campaigns, employers are accused of violating federal law, often for illegally firing workers for union activity.
The attack on labor has contributed greatly to rising income inequality and stagnant living standards for workers in the United States. From 1979 to 2019, productivity (the income generated from an hour of work) grew by 60%; however, the typical worker’s real (inflation-adjusted) compensation rose by only 14%. But wages used to rise with productivity: From 1948 to 1979, productivity increased by 118% and real compensation increased by 108%.
Now Republicans and opponents of labor are coming with accusations that unions are a “tool” of the Democratic Party. Never mind that Republicans have consistently opposed legislation that would strengthen workers’ rights, increase their income (including increases in the minimum wage) or even provide them with health care (Medicare and Medicaid). Many unions are multiracial organizations and cannot stomach the growing commitment of the Republican Party to racism.
But for now, there is another reason for the party divide that labor – like it or not – has to deal with. As many political experts have recognized, the current political system is one of minority rule. Republicans can capture and hold political power through elections and institutions in which the majority of the population is effectively sidelined. Republicans now control the Supreme Court by a 6-3 majority; this is perhaps the most obvious example where labor cannot ignore how difficult it will be to organize unions within a judicial system stacked with Republicans.
Think of the Starbucks workers who fought tenaciously to organize 326 locations, only to find they have to fight legal battles to force the company to negotiate in good faith — which is the law under the National Labor Relations Act.
There is currently proposed legislation in the House and Senate to expand the Supreme Court that would help remove some of these anti-labor restrictions. This can happen if Democrats win Congress and hold the presidency.
But other structural elements of minority rule give Republicans power far beyond their actual or potential electoral support. The current 50-50 split in the Senate has the 50 Democrats representing 43 million more voters than the 50 Republicans. And the filibuster — which could easily be repealed — gives Republicans another huge helping of undemocratic power. Correcting these gross injustices at the fringes — statehood for D.C., which is an important goal in itself for democracy — could make a big difference.
Both George W. Bush and Donald Trump came to power in elections in which they lost the popular vote. We could, with some legislative changes, elect the president by popular vote, as other democracies do.
Electoral reforms that increase turnout, such as increasing polling places and ballot boxes, making Election Day a federal holiday and same-day voter registration, could also make a difference. It is unclear that Republicans could win national elections if people voted with the same turnout as in most of Europe. But Republicans are fighting for the opposite. Last year, Republicans in state legislatures, starting shortly after being sworn in, introduced more than 440 bills aimed at restricting voting.
Then there is Trump and many of his followers who clearly do not think it is necessary to accept the result of a democratic election if they do not like the result. These Republicans are trying to put “voter-deniers” in offices where they could potentially influence election results in swing states like Pennsylvania, Michigan, Nevada, Arizona and many other places.
These are among the most serious threats to democratic elections in the United States that we have seen in decades. Two months from this Labor Day, union members, as well as working people across the country, will have some important choices to make in our national elections.
