New Unionization Wave Ripples Across U.S. After Decades of Decline

There has been a growing wave of organized labor activity across the country that is being driven by younger workers at companies that haven’t typically faced unionization drives.

Late last year, the first Starbucks store in the United States voted to unionize. That set off a wave of other efforts at stores across the country, and in just months, more than 70 stores in 25 states voted to be represented by a union. An additional 275 of the company’s 9,000 locations in the U.S. have petitioned the National Labor Relations Board for a union vote.

Starbucks is not alone. Earlier this year, an Amazon warehouse in New York became the first to vote in favor of unionizing, an REI store in New York did the same, and this week, a Trader Joe’s in Massachusetts became the first to file for a union election.

Dan Bowling is a senior lecturing fellow at Duke University School of Law, where he teaches labor and employment courses. Bowling said the new wave of unionization across the country is coming in part because of a more highly educated and younger workforce and is happening in workplaces not typically associated with unions, such as the auto factories and mines of decades past.

“There is a rise in attention. Unions are now on the radar screens of younger workers to an extent they haven’t been in my career,” Bowling told the Washington Examiner.

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Those younger and more educated workers, who might work as baristas right out of college to pay for schooling, are well connected to social media and the internet.

Another part of the reason why unionization has become so popular is the number of stories about successful votes, which have created somewhat of a snowball effect, Bowling said.

On the political side of things, President Joe Biden has been a major proponent of unions. He is set to attend the AFL-CIO’s Constitutional Convention next week. The AFL-CIO is the largest federation of unions in the U.S., representing millions of active and retired workers. Biden’s presence there is intended to show his solidarity with the labor movement.

The NLRB itself has acknowledged the uptick in unionization interest among workers.

The labor board recently put out a news release in March that said during the first six months of fiscal year 2022, union representation petitions filed at the NLRB increased 57%, up to 1,174 from 748 during that same time last year. Unfair labor practice charges have also increased 14% during that same period.

Bowling contends that another factor that might be influencing the movement behind the scenes is that the current NLRB is more pro-labor. He said the board has “dropped any semblance of its statutory neutrality” and has become a “cheerleader” for unions.

Unionization efforts at Amazon have been particularly pronounced.

Last year, a warehouse’s drive to organize a facility in Bessemer, Alabama, grabbed national attention, with politicians on both sides of the aisle, including Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Sen. Marco Rubio (R-FL), throwing support behind the push, albeit for different reasons.

Whereas that effort fell flat, the Staten Island facility’s unionization drive succeeded. That facility, known as JFK8, employs roughly 6,000 workers, and the results were announced in April.

The Amazon Labor Union, which is behind the drive, began the organization effort about a year ago. While Amazon has a companywide $15 minimum wage, compared to New York City’s $11 minimum wage, workers on Staten Island had hoped to unionize to address not just pay but other matters as well.

While Amazon’s warehouses have been slower in organizing, Starbucks stores have been increasingly voting in favor of organized labor.

Starbucks has pushed back on the unionization effort. The company has repeatedly said it does not oppose the right of its workers to organize but thinks it’s unnecessary given the work environment and that it provides generous benefits, including several medical, vision, and dental plans, as well as discounted company stock.

Tesla is also feeling the effects of the labor movement. Share, an advisory group, submitted a resolution for the company’s annual meeting that implored Tesla’s board to adopt and release a policy on labor rights. CEO Elon Musk has pushed back on unionization in the past.

There could be a sociological factor behind the uptick in organizing as well.

There is an increased sense of collective action and teamwork among younger people now than in the past, Bowling said anecdotally of his years teaching law students. He said that among those even just slightly older, there is a bit more of a “dog-eat-dog” mentality in the business world.

He said it is still too early to tell if this new wave of interest will result in a permanent sea change given that despite a recent increase in union elections and efforts to organize, the total percentage of people in unions across the U.S. has been relatively static.

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The process of negotiations after a union vote will also undoubtedly complicate matters as companies hire labor lawyers to sort out all the complicated details.

“It’s easy and exciting to organize a union. It’s much harder to sit down at a bargaining table and come up with a realistic contract,” Bowling said.