A new report on the state of America’s unions offers a fresh look at who makes up the core of the labor movement — and it’s not the manufacturing base that Donald Trump has been courting. In a deep dive into unions published Thursday, the Economic Policy Institute puts a special focus on the role collective bargaining plays in the labor market. Over the last few decades, America has seen an uptick in productivity but a stagnation in wages for all but those at the very top — and the decline of collectively bargained union contracts is one reason U.S. workers’ earnings are being hollowed out, EPI said. (whole story)
New York Daily News
August 25, 2017
Breaking news: Unions are still very important. Labor Day is coming, and the Economic Policy Institute released a timely report on the status of the American labor movement Thursday morning. Among its findings: Two-thirds of workers ages 18-64 are women and people of color, and black workers are more likely to belong to a union: (whole story)
The New Republic
August 25, 2017
As the influence of U.S. labor unions has waned over the last half-century, inequality in American life has increased. Today, only 11% of American workers are covered by unions, which is a sharp contrast from the 1950s when a third of the U.S. workforce was unionized or in a job represented by a union, according to a new report released Thursday by the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank based in Washington, D.C. Unions have weakened in recent years thanks to corporate efforts to quash them and right-to-work legislation. (whole story)
Market Watch
August 24, 2017
Bend the trend: Reviving unionization in America
The Washington Post/Jared Bernstein
In advance of Labor Day, the Economic Policy Institute just released an important piece on the importance of unions as a force to push back on inequality, wage losses and a political system that fails to represent most Americans. I’ll get into some of the key points in a moment, but first there’s a tough contextual point to consider in this discussion. When I give talks about economic justice, I always, based on many of the facts in the EPI piece, refer to the importance of unions. There are clear, causal linkages between their diminished share of the workforce and the widespread loss of worker bargaining power. Although many heads nod in agreement, someone always raises their hand and asks, “Sure, but do you really think unions can come back? Isn’t fighting like crazy to slow their demise the best they can do?” (whole column)
The Washington Post
August 24, 2017
“It doesn’t surprise me at all,” said Richard Rothstein, a researcher with the Economic Policy Institute who has written a new book, “The Color of Law,” on how official policies like redlining fostered segregation. These maps — and their lingering effects — derive from a time when the American government, he writes, believed that “inharmonious racial groups” should be separated.
The New York Times
August 24, 2017
“So while I can’t assign causality to why women’s labor force participation has fallen in the United States in the last 16-17 years, it certainly is suggestive that we don’t have policies in place that help women stay or enter the labor force,” said Economic Policy Institute Senior Economist Elise Gould.Gould says better subsidized child care and paid leave would benefit women in particular, because as traditional caregivers who make less on average than men, they’re more likely to stop working. More employed women in the U.S., she and others argue, would spur economic growth. (Video- Elise speaks from 1:21-1:30)
CGTN
August 24, 2017
Young women’s experience stands in contrast to that of their older counterparts, who are starting from a lower level but continue to creep toward equality. The dip is surprising, given that millennial women are increasingly highly-educated relative to their male peers. Part of the explanation could be that in recent years, a big chunk of gender-wage parity had come because men’s wages weren’t doing well. “Men just had been losing ground, and instead are doing better now,” said Heidi Shierholz, senior economist at the Economic Policy Institute in Washington and a former Labor Department chief economist during Barack Obama’s administration.
Bloomberg
August 23, 2017
Interview with Richard Rothstein
The Dallas Morning News
August 23, 2017
“Trump campaigned on the negative impacts of trade and trade deals like NAFTA on working Americans, but here instead he is intervening not to help working people but to help American investors and American multinational companies,” Rob Scott, director of trade and manufacturing at the Economic Policy Institute, a left-leaning think tank, told me in an interview in the runup to the investigation announcement. … “If Trump is successful, he will make our trade problems with China worse because what it will do is facilitate foreign investment in China — and foreign investment in China is all about outsourcing production,” Scott says.
VOX
August 22, 2017
The Fight for $15 is a union-led movement to increase the minimum wage. So far, it appears to be working. Since launching in 2012, when hundreds of fast-food workers in New York City walked off the job to protest low wages, at least 21 states, plus Washington D.C., have changed their minimum-wage laws, according to the Economic Policy Institute — and the minimum wage has increased in at least 27 states and D.C.
Mic
August 22, 2017