The real-world, material gains that UFCW and the Teamsters have won for their members are consistent with how unionization benefits frontline workers. And the expansion of unionization across market sectors tends to lift the boats of all workers, even if they are not unionized. According to a 2017 study by the Economic Policy Institute:
- Union workers earn more. On average, a worker covered by a union contract earns 13.2 percent more in wages than a peer with similar education, occupation, and experience in a nonunionized workplace in the same sector.
- When union density is high, nonunion workers benefit from higher wages.
- As an economic sector becomes more unionized, nonunion employers pay more to retain qualified workers and norms of higher pay and better conditions become standard.
- Unions reduce inequality and are essential for low- and middle-wage workers’ ability to obtain a fair share of economic growth
- Union wage boosts are largest for low-wage workers, larger for black and Hispanic/Latin workers than for white workers, and larger for those with lower levels of education
- Unions help raise women’s pay and help close wage gaps for Black and Latin workers.
Forbes
January 25, 2021
In one April 2019 “advice memo,” Robb’s office said Uber drivers were independent contractors.
However, that conclusion “effectively robs Uber drivers of the rights under the NLRA to engage in collective action — such as organizing a union or collectively bargaining — to improve their working conditions,” according to researchers at the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute.
MarketWatch
January 25, 2021
Before the pandemic, the Bureau of Labor Statistics already saw an upsurge in major strike activity in the years 2018-2019, according to the Economic Policy Institute, with an average of 455,400 workers nationwide being involved in major work stoppages.
The Economic Policy Institute also notes that strikes have continued in spite of the pandemic, triggered by poor pay and protections against the deadly COVID-19 virus. Work stoppages have occurred in industries covering retail, manufacturing, healthcare, and food service, as workers make demands for things like better wages or a sufficient supply of personal protective equipment.
Harper's Bazaar
January 25, 2021
The initial crunch began in the March when first time unemployment claims spiked. At the time the Economic Policy Institute released a report stating that “About half of potential UI applicants are actually receiving benefits.” This was due to the states’ systems being unable to cope with the inundation of claims. The report said that for every 10 people who said they successfully filed for unemployment benefits, three to four additional people tried to apply but could not get through the system to make a claim and an additional two people did not try to apply because it was too difficult to do so.
AS English
January 25, 2021
Overall, we suffered a net loss of more than 91,000 manufacturing plants and nearly 5 million manufacturing jobs since 1997. Nearly 1,800 factories have disappeared during the Trump administration between 2016 and 2018.
Trump’s 2017 tax cut added to those subsidies by enabling American firms to earn untaxed or minimally taxed profits so long as they invest offshore.
Minorities were hardest hit by the loss of factory jobs to China. Economist Robert E. Scott, who tracks trade issues for the Economic Policy Institute, estimated that 958,800 minority factory workers were displaced with wage-related losses of $10,485 per worker – and that was in 2011. Today jobs and pay are worse, not better, for blue-collar minority workers.
DC Report
January 25, 2021
Heidi Shierholz of the left-leaning Economic Policy Institute attributed the disparity in job loss to two factors: “One is that unionized workers have had a voice in how their employers have navigated the pandemic, and have used this voice for things like negotiating for terms of furloughs or work-share arrangements to save jobs. The other reason is a ‘pandemic composition effect.’ There has been (on average) more pandemic job losses in industries with lower unionization rates, like leisure and hospitality, and less job loss in sectors with higher unionization rates, like the public sector.”
Politico Morning Shift
January 25, 2021
Today, the Economic Policy Institute released data showing that despite overall union membership falling slightly in 2020 compared to 2019, the percentage of workers in unions had actually increased during the pandemic — because fewer unionized workers had lost their jobs.
Refinery29
January 25, 2021
Also impacting the statistics, however, is the fact that COVID-19 hit industries with smaller union presences, such as hospitality and leisure, especially hard. About half of the increase in the unionization rate in 2020 was the result of the pandemic’s concentrated impact on less-unionized job sectors, according to an analysis from the Economic Policy Institute. (The other half can be attributed to union workers faring better than nonunion workers in their same industries.)
Time Magazine
January 25, 2021
Ben Zipperer, an economist at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), told Insider that there’s a “theoretical horror story” of businesses hiring less — and thereby hurting the lowest-paid workers — when the minimum wage is increased. He said that those effects are smaller or even nonexistent in the real world.
“What happens is that yes, it is true that when you raise the minimum wage employers hire fewer low wage workers, that is correct,” Zipperer said. “On the other hand, the factor that’s really offsetting that is that, even though employers are hiring fewer workers, fewer workers are leaving their jobs.”
Business Insider
January 25, 2021
The Paris News
January 25, 2021