The International Longshore Workers' Union and its East Coast Beta Counterpart the ILA are quiet for now. But if that changes the next time their contract is up, your local Walmart will be empty. Union Pacific Railroad brags on their website about how many people they are hiring and I think most of them are in unions.
Weaker. It is very easy for companies to resist union campaigns. The law is skewed and enforced against unions. There is little of substantial value that unions can offer non-unionized employees. It of course depends on the industry. I know in the computer services industry I am in that unions have simply not been able to get in the door, even in the most problematic work locations.
Well, there is a big difference between unions of private employees, and government employees. The latter are much more powerful than the former.
Where unions are strong, they are probably too powerful for their own good. But in industries that could benefit from organized labor, they aren't powerful enough, if not invisible. So weaker? Yes. Stronger? Also yes.
The law has been somewhat cyclical in labor relations, and I imagine that it will favor unions again (even if one thinks it favors employers now) in the future. Regardless, it is very easy for companies to resist union campaigns because unions aren't very marketable/sellable. I mean who wants to provide a portion of their income to a third party? The question really boils down to whether or not my life as a worker would be improved with a union. With several unions being run pathetically, union fat cats, pension systems that break down, etc., it is hard to convince a worker in an election that a union will benefit them, especially with so many crappy arbitrations that unions go after because the employee who was justifiably terminated feels wronged. Throw in the fact that in some instances unions and their inflexibility with wages (coupled with the mismanagement of the company itself) has resulted in several plant shutdowns, etc. Add in the instances where an employer actually treats its employees fairly well, and you have unions losing ground left and right. So the answer is unions are losing power substantially. They are a shell of their former selves and have lost the right to tax its members to support democratic causes, thus inhibiting its political power. That being said, in my estimation, I think you are seeing a lot of the "surplus"/fat being cut out from unions and they are becoming a stronger, more efficient, less corrupt group. (those that aren't efficient, are corrupt, etc. eventually aren't sucessful). I think that if we really suffer a bad patch economically, you could see a return to union power. But until then, union power has declined dramatically.
Megabump.... Amazon workers on Staten Island vote to unionize Warehouse workers at a facility in New York City have voted to form the first US union in the tech giant's 27-year history, marking a stunning victory for a bootstrapped effort led by a fired employee. In a closely watched election, workers at a Staten Island, New York, facility known as JFK8 voted in favor of forming a union with a newly-established organization called Amazon Labor Union (ALU), which was started by current and former warehouse employees. https://www.cnn.com/2022/04/01/tech/amazon-union-election-staten-island/index.html
2 union wins in NYC today ANOTHER huge victory today - Starbucks workers at the massive NYC Roastery / @SBWorkersUnited just won a momentous union election.There are only 6 Starbucks roasteries in the world. This is the first one unionizing. 💪🏽Want to know why? Hear from our Astoria workers below ⬇️ https://t.co/01VTo0Y5LA pic.twitter.com/1SLMlJryIg— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) April 1, 2022
I think Amazon had about 5000 votes cast in NYC. They could have just given all those who could vote $750. It may have done more to sway them.