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“Striking Back” — How Workers Across a Polarized U.S. Are Challenging Economic Inequality

A new Capital & Main series explores rising labor unrest in a nation of extreme disparities.

Starbucks baristas, Trader Joe’s clerks, Mass General Brigham doctors, Google tech contractors, Condé Nast journalists, Amazon delivery drivers — all are part of a dramatic surge in worker organizing that is sweeping the U.S.

 

The main catalyst for this wave of unrest is income and wealth inequality, which has reached Gilded Age levels. While the top 1% of households in the United States hold more than 30% of the country’s wealth, the federal minimum wage is still $7.25 and hasn’t increased since 2009 — the longest period ever without a bump. As CEO pay has skyrocketed, the gig economy has exploded, leaving millions of people with meager pay, paltry benefits and little recourse. The racial wealth gap, meanwhile, remains staggering, with Black and Latino Americans lagging far behind not just the elite but their white counterparts in the lower rungs of the economy.

 

Over the next two years the Capital & Main series “Striking Back: Can American Workers Disrupt Inequality?” will examine the rising tide of labor activism in the U.S. Our reporters will take readers all over the country, offering vivid explorations of how workers across political, geographic and racial lines are challenging an increasingly unequal economic status quo.

Americans have taken note of the country’s stark imbalance of economic power. A 2021 Gallup poll found that almost 70% support unions — the highest mark in 56 years — including nearly half of Republicans. Sensing a shift, politicians in both blue states and red have taken aim at economic inequality with policies that seek to narrow the divide. These efforts have proven popular with Democratic and Republican voters alike, who have passed a series of local and state minimum wage hikes via the ballot box.

 

The popularity of unions reflects, in part, an undeniable fact: Unionized workers, on average, earn significantly more than nonunion workers. For Black and Latino workers, unionization brings even greater wage increases. The same is true for women. Rising support for unions is also rooted in a host of other conditions, from the spiraling cost of housing and health care to the proliferation of workers misclassified as independent contractors to the looming threat of AI.

Something has shifted in how the majority of Americans view the power dynamic between themselves and what the Occupy Wall Street movement memorably dubbed “the one percent.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the crescendo of labor activism.

Still, it is an open question whether the resurgent U.S. labor movement, and growing public enthusiasm for pro-worker initiatives, will change the nation’s economic disparities. There is a very steep hill to climb, starting with the stark reality that only 10% of American workers belong to a union, compared to 20% in 1983 and nearly one third of all private sector workers in the mid-1950s.

 

Moreover, while workers are organizing in larger numbers, they are often stymied by anemic labor laws, lax enforcement of these statutes and aggressive union-busting. Federal legislation that would strengthen the rights of workers has stalled, and the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority has consistently sided with business in critical cases. While some corporate leaders have acknowledged the corrosive nature of economic inequality, relatively few have embraced ideas such as stakeholder capitalism that would balance the needs of employers, workers and communities.  

 

These obstacles notwithstanding, something has shifted in how the majority of Americans view the power dynamic between themselves and what the Occupy Wall Street movement memorably dubbed “the one percent.” Nowhere is this more evident than in the crescendo of labor activism. In 2022, unions won more elections than in any year since 2005 — and overall they are winning more than 75% of their elections. These victories occurred in a dizzying range of workplaces — from the rural South to the largely deindustrialized Midwest to the urban centers of both coasts; among delivery drivers, doctors and graduate students; in sectors long covered by unions, such as hotels, and industries with little history of union representation at all, like coffee shops. Last week’s far-reaching ruling by the National Labor Relations Board will likely serve to further accelerate the pace of worker organizing.

 

The stakes for the country transcend how the economic pie gets divided. “Concentrated wealth is already endangering our democracy,” writes former Labor Secretary Robert Reich, a view echoed by many observers. “I believe inequality is among the greatest threats to our democracy,” said Ford Foundation President Darren Walker. “Inequality asphyxiates hope, and hope is the oxygen of democracy.”

Copyright Capital & Main 2023