Media clips

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• ‘We fight the good fight and continue forward’: As the UAW tries to lead a reinvigorated labor movement, the union’s past and the 2024 election loom large

  The number of workers involved in major work stoppages increased by 280% in 2023 and union membership rose last year to 16.2 million workers — an increase of 191,000.

  That’s from a report by the Economic Policy Institute, a nonprofit, left-leaning think tank. Despite the increase, the percentage of workers represented by a union decreased from 11.3% to 11.2%, as unionization in the private sector rose in 2023, but public-sector unionization continued to decline.

  Jennifer Sherer, director of the institute’s State Worker Power Initiative, helped write the report and tells the Advance that the UAW is out in front of that renewed interest in worker empowerment through collective bargaining.

  “I think they’re seizing the moment in a really effective and powerful way and recognizing that this is a time when workers are looking to correct for literally decades of wage suppression, stagnant wages, and in the auto industry in particular, an active move on the part of major auto companies who are at this moment receiving millions to billions in federal and state subsidies to expand their operations and create new jobs, but without a clear commitment to the wages, benefits, and conditions that are going to go along with those jobs,” she said.

  Michigan Advance July 1, 2024
• Immigrant Employees Are a Growing Force in the Labor Market. Here’s How to Support Them

  That spells good news for employers, especially because the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics recently reported that foreign-born workers represented nearly 19 percent of the U.S. workforce in 2023. And according to a recent Economic Policy Institute analysis, foreign-born workers are responsible for driving about half of the labor market’s recent growth.

  Inc. July 1, 2024
• Why unions are having a renaissance

  One cause is five decades of efforts to decimate unions in the United States by billionaires and businesses. Research by the Economic Policy Institute shows that de-unionization is a significant factor in the surge in inequality and the decline of the middle class over the last 40 years. Working people are now losing about $200 billion per year because of the erosion of union coverage—with that money being redistributed upward, to the rich. 

  Forward July 1, 2024
• Trump says immigrants are taking ‘Black jobs.’ Economists disagree.

  “There is no indication anywhere that Black workers are losing out in this economy,” said Valerie Wilson, a labor economist at the Economic Policy Institute. “Not only do we have record high Black employment, but we’ve also seen much faster wage growth post-pandemic than for White workers.”

  The Washington Post July 1, 2024
• Viewpoint: Migration Isn’t Going Away. Unions Have to Get Sharper on It.

  No wonder the federal government spends 12 times as much to enforce immigration laws as it spends to enforce labor standards, a 2022 Economic Policy Institute analysis found. Imagine if OSHA, the Labor Department, and the NLRB were staffed the way border security is, and management lived in fear of surprise raids to enforce worker rights!

  Labor Notes July 1, 2024
• New law guarantees domestic workers minimum wage in Rhode Island

  A 2022 report by the Economic Policy Institute, found that in the United States the vast majority of domestic workers — more than 90 percent — are women; just over half are Black, Hispanic, or Asian American and Pacific Islander women; and they tend to be older than other workers.

  Associated Press July 1, 2024
• New protections empower H-2A agricultural workers to organize

  The Economic Policy Institute reported that American employers prefer to use the H-2A program over hiring U.S. workers because they see foreign workers as “exploitable.” American employers often fight against new H-2A regulations, alleging that the program is already too “expensive” and “bureaucratically complex.” 

  Prism Reports July 1, 2024
• If you want to see what the GOP has in store for the rest of America, visit the Old South

  For hardcore policy wonks, the Economic Policy Institute(EPI) did a deep dive into the SEDM last month: here’s how it works in summary.

  Republicans claim that by offering low-cost non-union labor and little to no regulatory oversight to massive corporations, they’re able to “attract business to the region.” This, they promise, will cause (paraphrasing President Kennedy out of context) “a rising tide that lifts all boats.”

  Raw Story July 1, 2024
• Competing Narratives on Real Wages, Incomes Under Biden

  Subsequently, the Economic Policy Institute, a think tank partly funded by labor unions, argues that the U.S.’s recovery from the pandemic in the following months reversed this trend, driving real average wage growth down as many of these low-wage workers rejoined the labor force.

  FactCheck.org July 1, 2024
• The mismatch in US economy perception versus reality

  “The macroeconomic story is strong. But there is a huge disconnect between reality and people’s perceptions, which points to a lot of misinformation about the economy,” says Heidi Shierholz, the president of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington.

  “It’s that one-two punch of high price levels from the burst of inflation, and misinformation,” she adds.

  …

  An EPI study, opens new tab in March found that real hourly wages for the lowest 10% of earners grew 12.1% between 2019 and 2023. In the same period, middle-wage workers experienced 3.0% real wage growth, while the wages of the top 10% of earners grew just 0.9%.

  Reuters July 1, 2024