Essential workers protest inadequate responses from their companies to protect themselves against COVID-19, thus reigniting America’s Labor Movement.
June 22, 2020, 11:28 am EDT
Written by Sarah Chu
Tensions unfold between U.S. employers and workers, as workers report that their employers are not doing enough to prevent coronavirus infection. In April, U.S. plant workers in the meat-packing industry walked out of their jobs over demands for personal protective equipment, hazard pay, and stricter cleaning measures. These workers – whose jobs are deemed essential while stay-at-home orders are in place—say they rallied together for a collective voice against their union-busting employers. Despite being classified as “essential”, workers feel disposable, leaving their cry for help unanswered.
Workers at a handful of major companies have since followed suit. On May 1, International Workers’ Day, warehouse workers and grocery employers from Amazon and its subsidiary Whole Foods, along with workers from Target, Instacart, Shipt, FedEx, joined forces to advocate for the same rights. Known as The May Day strike, alt-labor organizations, including the Food Chain Workers Alliance, SEIU United Service Workers West, and Restaurant Opportunities Center United have shown support. This marks the first-time workers from these corporations banded together as one united union, signaling labor’s strongest showing of this century.
In simplistic terms, a labor union is an organization of workers that negotiate with employers over worker’s wages and working conditions. A labor union seeks to change the balance of power between workers and employers, as in most cases, firms have what economists call as market power. In highly concentrated industries, firms have market power – that is, they have the power to set wages at a price much lower than can be justified in a competitive market. These economic effects can be detrimental to a worker’s rights, wages, and overall well-being; for these reasons, the labor movement in the United States aimed to protect the common interest of workers.
The Labor Movement has been nothing but turbulent. Its roots stem from The National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed in 1935. After decades of attempts to pass policy aimed at protecting the rights of employers, the legislation encouraged workers to collectively bargain with their employers over wages, hours, and fair working conditions.
In spite of NLRA’s shortcomings, this legislation served as a turning point for labor power for the next fifty years. At its peak in 1954, union workers enjoyed “wage premiums,” or increases in pay that resulted from union-negotiated contracts. While beneficial to union members, American labor unions have significantly declined over time. Since the 1970s, labors’ collective voice lay dormant due to the deregulation of airline, energy, and telecommunication industries.
Evidence shows that unions played an important role in reducing income inequality in the United States between the 1930s – 1970s, when union membership was strong. In this paper, “Unions and Inequality Over the Twentieth Century,” Princeton economists Daniel Herbst, Ilvana Kuziemko, Henry Farber, and Columbia economist Suresh Naidu, illustrate that the fall in organized labor’s influence is directly correlated with the fall in labor’s share of income, which is the amount of GDP paid out in wages, salaries, and benefits. At the peak of labor union membership, labor’s share of income was 50.9 percent. Today, it is only 43.2 percent.
Coupled with the rise in automation, highly concentrated industries, and globalization, the decline in union membership has consequentially led to stagnant wages. For the middle-class, holding down wages has meant the vast disparities in income between working Americans and the upper-class. The lack of social mobility has crippled the middle-class, leaving them with fighting the brunt of the pandemic.
But now, with the COVID-19 pandemic claiming thousands of workers’ lives, a new wave of labor organizing is underway. These sprawling demonstrations reflect the frustrations held by workers, whose employers have seen unprecedented profits as staffers enter their third month of duty on the front lines of this pandemic. Most firms, however, appear unscathed, with no noticeable changes to their daily operations and spending on protective gear. However, I think these conceptions are misconceived. Firms should be nervous for a post-COVID-19 economy where workers will recognize their power in their voices – and use it. Otherwise, if workers’ have no mask provided by their employers, there is no service.
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