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Abstract
The onset of the Great Recession raised hopes among union supporters that organized labor would be able to use the downturn to gain greater political influence and new members. But despite Democratic Party victories in 2008, unions found it quite difficult to take advantage of the crisis. No revival of union organizing occurred, and membership continued to decline. Moreover, unions were unable to effectively present themselves as defenders of a larger public interest in equitable economic policy. Instead, many in the public turned against unions, viewing them as labor market “insiders” who benefited from government largesse in the form of bailouts to the auto industry and excessive salaries and pensions granted to public employees. Resentment of union privileges grew more common than solidarity with union workers. While public employee unions had some success in opposing attacks on collective bargaining rights, these efforts did not alter labor's fundamentally weak strategic position.
Notes
1 All quotations are from Steven Greenhouse, “Unions Look for New Life in World of Obama,” New York Times, December 29, 2008.
2 For discussion of the concept of surges in union organization (in contrast to expectations of incremental expansion), see Dan Clawson, The Next Upsurge: Labor and the New Social Movements (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2003); and Richard B. Freeman, “Spurts in Union Growth: Defining Moments and Social Processes,” in Michael D. Bordo, Claudia Goldin, and Eugene N. White (eds), The Defining Moment: The Great Depression and the American Economy in the Twentieth Century (Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press, 1998).
3 Gerald Mayer, “Union Membership Trends in the United States,” Federal Publications, Paper 174 (August 2004). For the most recent data, see Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members Summary,” Economic News Release, January 21, 2011, < http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm>.
4 Data from the Current Population Survey, United States Bureau of Census, < http://unionstats.org>.
5 Bureau of Labor Statistics, “Union Members Summary.”
6 David Rueda, “Insider–Outsider Politics in Industrialized Democracies,” American Political Science Review 99:1 (2005), pp. 61–74; from pp. 61–63.
7 David Rueda, “Insider–Outsider Politics in Industrialized Democracies,” American Political Science Review 99:1 (2005), pp. 61–74
8 See Joel Rogers, “In the Shadow of the Law: Institutional Aspects of Postwar U.S. Union Decline,” in Christopher L. Tomlins and Andrew J. King (eds), New Directions in Legal History (Baltimore, MD: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992), pp. 283–302.
9 See Marie Gottschalk, The Shadow Welfare State: Labor, Business, and the Politics of Health Care in the United States (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2000); and Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union: A Century of American Labor (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2003), pp. 125–128.
10 AFL-CIO, “The Union Difference,” < http://www.aflcio.org/joinaunion/why/uniondifference/index.cfm>. For more on the union wage premium, which is markedly higher in the US than in most other industrialized countries, see Barry T. Hirsch, “Reconsidering Union Wage Effects: Surveying New Evidence on an Old Topic,” Journal of Labor Research 25:2 (2004), pp. 233–266.
11 See Joseph A. McCartin, “Convenient Scapegoat: Public Workers under Assault,” Dissent 58:2 (2011), pp. 45–50; and Keith Bender and John Heywood, Out of Balance? Comparing Public and Private Sector Compensation Over 20 Years (Washington, DC: Center for State and Local Government Excellence, 2010).
12 For more on the effects of labor market segmentation in the US during the current crisis, with an analysis similar to that developed here, see James Petras, “US Working and Middle Class: Solidarity or Competition in the Face of Crisis?,” The James Petras Website, June 25, 2011, < http://petras.lahaine.org/?p = 1865>.
13 See AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action on Jobs,” March 2, 2010, < http://www.aflcio.org/aboutus/thisistheaflcio/ecouncil/ec03032010g.cfm>; and Change to Win, “Statement of Priorities to Revive the American Economy,” September 26, 2008, < http://www.changetowin.org/news/statement-priorities-revive-american-economy>.
14 AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action.”
15 AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action.”
16 AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action.”
17 Change to Win, “Statement of Priorities.”
18 Change to Win, “Statement of Priorities.”
19 AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action.”
20 Karlyn Bowman and Andrew Rugg, “TARP, the Auto Bailout, and the Stimulus: Attitudes about the Economic Crisis,” AEI Studies in Public Opinion, April 22, 2010, < http://www.aei.org/paper/100105>.
21 AFL-CIO Executive Council, “A Call to Action.”
22 Quoted in Harry Kelber, “A ‘Showdown in Chicago’: Rally Against Bankers Attracts 5,000 Enraged People Who Want Reform,” Labor Talk, October 29, 2009, < http://ymlp.com/zhI66Q>.
23 Steven Greenhouse, “Unions Hold a Rally to Protest Wall Street,” New York Times, April 30, 2010, p. B6.
24 Patrick Martin, “Pro-Democratic Party Rally Shows Bankruptcy of US Unions,” World Socialist Web Site, October 4, 2010, < http://www.wsws.org/articles/2010/oct2010/wash-o04.shtml>.
25 Steven Greenhouse, “Liberal Groups Rally, Challenging Tea Party,” New York Times, October 3, 2010, p. A18.
26 Chris Tilly, “An Opportunity Not Taken…Yet: U.S. Labor and the Current Economic Crisis,” WorkingUSA 14:1 (2011), pp. 73–85.
27 Ruth Milkman, “The US Labour Movement and the Audacity of Hope,” Socio-Economic Review 8:2 (2010), pp. 341–376.
28 See Taylor E. Dark, The Unions and the Democrats: An Enduring Alliance, Updated Edition (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 2001) for background on the labor/Democrat alliance. The relationship between the Obama administration and labor is analyzed in Dorian Warren, “The Unsurprising Failure of Labor Law Reform and the Turn to Administrative Action,” in Theda Skocpol and Lawrence R. Jacobs (eds), Reaching for a New Deal: Ambitious Governance, Economic Meltdown, and Polarized Politics in Obama's First Two Years (New York: Russell Sage Foundation, 2011).
29 Foon Rhee, “Obama Thanks, Praises Unions,” Boston Globe, March 3, 2009.
30 Steven Greenhouse, “In America, Labor Has an Unusually Long Fuse,” New York Times, April 5, 2009, p. WK3.
31 Rob Bluey, “For Obama, Some Unions Are More Equal Than Others,” The Foundry, December 31, 2009, < http://blog.heritage.org/2009/12/31/for-obama-some-unions-are-more-equal-than-others>.
32 Steven Greenhouse, “Labor Calls for Unity After Years of Division,” New York Times, January 8, 2009, p. A16.
33 The story is chronicled in Harold Meyerson, “A Labor War Ended: SEIU and UNITE HERE Come to Terms,” The American Prospect, July 27, 2010, < http://prospect.org/cs/articles?article = a_labor_war_ended>.
34 S.A. Miller, “Obama Puts Union Strings on Federal Jobs,” The Washington Times, October 7, 2009.
35 Susan Jones, “VP Joe Biden: Stimulus Aimed at Boosting Union Jobs,” CNS News, March 6, 2009, emphasis added, < http://www.cnsnews.com/node/44621>.
36 Bowman and Rugg, “TARP, the Auto Bailout, and the Stimulus.”
37 David Madland and Karla Walter, “Why Is the Public Suddenly Down on Unions?,” Center for American Progress, July 20, 2010, < http://www.americanprogressaction.org/issues/2010/07/public_opinion_unions.html>.
38 All data is from Madland and Walter, “Why Is the Public Suddenly Down on Unions?”
39 The power derived by business from its control over the investment function is analyzed lucidly in Charles E. Lindblom, Politics and Markets: The World's Political-Economic Systems (New York: Basic Books, 1977); and more critically in G. William Domhoff, The Power Elite and the State: How Policy is Made in America (New York: Aldine de Gruyter, 1990), pp. 187–195.
40 Steven Greenhouse, “Strained States Turning to Laws to Curb Labor Unions,” New York Times, January 3, 2011.
41 Jane Slaughter, “Wisconsin: What We're Learning,” Labor Notes, March 18, 2011.
42 For similar skepticism about characterizations of the outcome in Wisconsin as a union victory, see Petras, “US Working and Middle Class”; and Natasha Vargas-Cooper, “Wisconsin: A Bruising Fight, Where Everyone Lost Something,” The Atlantic, March 14, 2011, < http://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2011/03/wisconsin-a-bruising-fight-where-everyone-lost-something/72444>.
43 Judy Keen and Dennis Cauchon, “Public Favors Union Rights,” USA Today, February 23, 2011, p. 1A.
44 For further discussion of such visions, see Petras, “US Working and Middle Class”; Tilly, “An Opportunity Not Taken…Yet”; and Milkman, “The US Labour Movement.”