2. 2023 Economic Policy Institute Request for Reconsideration of, and Postponement of, the Joint Employer Rule. Letter submitted on the behalf of AFL-CIO and SEIU to National Labor Relations Board Chairman John F. Ring. Rhinehart, Lynn, and Celine McNicholas. Starting in the mid-1940s, Black workers began to be more likely to be in unions and to have a larger union premium than white workers. 2020. Newsletter Labour Pains: Are unions still relevant? | CBC News Also, workers who refuse to work because of unsafe working conditions that the employer fails to address should not be disqualified from receiving unemployment benefits: States should be required to consider the refusal to perform unsafe work as good cause to not work, so that unemployment benefits continue (Berkowitz and Sonn 2020). The estimates of 20% for women and 33% for men are from Western and Rosenfeld 2011. Workers who are locked out by their employers should also be eligible for unemployment benefits. Congress Should Immediately Pass Legislation Protecting Workers Safety During the Coronavirus Pandemic. Working Economics Blog (Economic Policy Institute), April 13, 2020. Specifically, we report the coefficient on union status from a regression of the log of the hourly wage on union status and a quintic polynomial in age (used as a measure of experience), and dummies for race and ethnicity, education, citizenship, major industry, major occupation, state, and year. Cotiaux, Neil. Farber, Henry S., Daniel Herbst, Illyana Kuziemko, and Suresh Naidu. Here again, it should be workers choice, and not up to the employer, to determine the group that is organizing and bargaining. Workers wait months and even years to be reinstated or receive back pay after they were unlawfully discharged by their employer for engaging in activities protected under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). Jobs at EPI We exclude observations with imputed wages because the imputation process does not take union status into account and therefore biases the union premium toward zero. 2020. The United Food and Commercial Workers secured increased pay and benefits for workers in more than a dozen meatpacking and food-processing companies. 2018. Are Labor Unions Still Effective Today? Muller, Eleanor. The fraction of unions who win elections and then fail to get a first contract is substantial in the U.S. Communications Workers of America (CWA). 3. NO: LABOR UNIONS ADD TO COSTS AND DISCOURAGE PRODUCTIVITY Would you want to work for a company that treats all workers exactly the same, no matter how hard they work? Joining together - or "acting collectively" - workers represented by unions have a powerful voice that strengthens their ability to negotiate with their employer about . Why or why not? These reforms should be a priority for the first 100 days of any new administration that is interested in using its power to halt and reverse the four-decades-old trend of rising inequality and near wage stagnation for most workersa trend that has been exacerbated and worsened by the COVID-19 pandemic. 2020. A network of state and local organizations improving workers' lives through research and advocacy. Others argue that unions are still relevant and needed in today's society in order to protect workers' rights. Dingel, Jonathan I., and Brent Neiman. The inquiry has said it is up to them to judge which messages were relevant. 2016. The Trump NLRB has weakened the test for determining whether two employers are joint employers who share that liability. There are no damages or penalties. Wage Inequality, Google Workers Call on Company to Adopt Aggressive Climate Plan, Collective bargaining and right to organize, Program on Race, Ethnicity, and the Economy PREE, Economic Analysis and Research Network EARN. However, the pandemic will require sustained intervention. The NLRA should be amended to expand coverage to agricultural, domestic, and student workers so these workers can form unions and fight for health and safety protections on the job. While the majority of workers who are currently working onsite at their workplaces believe they face considerable risk of COVID-19 infection, Black and Hispanic workers are more likely to fear risks from work than are white workers. The challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic have been felt broadly, but not equally. This analysis does not account for nonwage benefits. Policy choices have tilted the playing field toward the rich and corporations. The public is back in love with labor unions, so why aren't workers? The law should also make clear that workers may use their employers internal e-mail system for union-related messages. Are unions still relevant in the United States? These pandemic-specific benefits build on the many ways unions help workers. Employers have the ability to drag out the process of bargaining over a first collective bargaining agreement. See UFCW 2020 and UFCW Local 400 2020. Public-service workers deserve the right to join together in unions to fight for stronger safety and health protections, better pay, and better working conditions. Nearly half (48.1 percent) of workers covered by a union contract are public-sector workers. Research shows the advantages workers in unions have over nonunionized workers. The PRO Act establishes a mediation and arbitration process for achieving initial collective bargaining agreements for newly organized workers. Lady Hallet has rejected this, saying the Inquiries Act 2005 gives her the power to decide what is relevant. Electronic voting has been used by the National Mediation Board for years, and it should be allowed and encouragedparticularly given the health risks associated with large gatherings (Muller 2020). Lack of Paid Sick Days and Large Numbers of Uninsured Increase Risks of Spreading the Coronavirus. Working Economics Blog (Economic Policy Institute), February 28, 2020. Western, Bruce, and Jake Rosenfeld. What we can do about it: Policymakers must enact reforms that promote workers collective power. Working for HCA: Asheville Nurses Protest Conditions at Mission Hospital, Win Ruling on Forming Union. Carolina Public Press, August 5, 2020. Bronfenbrenner, Kate. Live Updates: New Policies in Effect at Giant, Kroger, Safeway & Shoppers (press release). 2018).19. Wilson, Valerie, and Elise Gould. The Trump administrations failure to provide essential workers with basic protections during the coronavirus pandemic has underscored the importance of unions (McNicholas and Poydock 2020b). Bivens, Josh, Lora Engdahl, Elise Gould, Teresa Kroeger, Celine McNicholas, Lawrence Mishel, Zane Mokhiber, Heidi Shierholz, Marni von Wilpert, Valerie Wilson, and Ben Zipperer. 2020. Without significant intervention by Congress, we are going to face a sustained period of economic weakness that will do lasting harm to the economy and the people who make up the economy, and will greatly exacerbate existing inequalities. So, the question remains, are labor unions still relevant in today's workplace? View the full answer. Still, Aparna Mathur of the center-right American Enterprise Institute (AEI) does not think unions are relevant today. The Congressional Budget Office predicts that if Congress does nothing, the unemployment rate will average 10.5% in the fourth quarter of this year, 8.4% in 2021, and over 7% in 2022still more than twice where it was before the recession hit (CBO 2020). A Taco Bell Employee Says He Was Fired for Supporting Black Lives Matter: Could Your Company Fire You for the Same Reason? MarketWatch, June 21, 2020. Workers with strong unions have been able to set industry standards for wages and benefits that help all workers, both union and nonunion (Rhinehart and McNicholas 2020). The additional obstacles placed in the way of NLRB elections during the COVID-19 crisiscancellation of elections, the NLRBs inability to hold remote hearings, allowing mail ballot elections only if employers agree, and delays in the election process during which employers run their anti-union campaignsall bolster the need to require employers to recognize unions based on a showing of majority support. Nine out of 10 employers require workers to attend captive-audience meetings during organizing campaigns (Bronfenbrenner 2009). Workers who have been raising concerns about a lack of protective equipment in health care settings have been concerned about their own safety and also that of patients and family members visiting patients. Unfortunately, however, most of the unions remain narrowly focussed in a manner better suited to fighting the battles of an earlier . The following findings show just how diverse the unionized workforce is and how the union-led wage and safety benefits help advance the goal of a fair and prosperous economy.14 Unless otherwise noted, the data findings that follow are for both private- and public-sector workers and derive from our analysis of Current Population Survey microdata pooled from 20152019 (EPI 2020), and union workers refers to workers covered by a union contract. 19. The Trump Administration Has Weakened Crucial Worker Protections Needed to Combat the Coronavirus: Agencies Tasked with Protecting Workers Have Put Them in Danger. Working Economics Blog (Economic Policy Institute), April 14, 2020. 2019. Wong, Julia Carrie. This crisis will continue to reshape our economy, our workforce, and our democracy. 2020a. More than nine in 10 workers covered by a union contract (94%) have access to employer-sponsored health benefits, compared with just 68% of nonunion workers. UFCW Announces Increased Pay, Benefits for Meatpacking and Food Processing Workers on Front Lines of Outbreak (press release). 1. What this report finds: The COVID-19 pandemic has underscored both the importance of unions in giving workers a collective voice in the workplace and the urgent need to reform U.S. labor laws to arrest the erosion of those rights. As the economy began reopening in May, some workers who had been temporarily laid off in March and April began to be rehired, but as of Julyas the virus surged in part because reopening was not accompanied by robust workplace safety and public health measuresprogress had slowed dramatically. Clean Slate for Worker Power, a project of the Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School, January 2020, pp. Diane Kalen-Sukra, a self-described "20-year veteran of labor and union rep for N.A.'s largest unions" writes:. 2 Are unions still relevant in today's global economy? I do not have any personal experience with such unions, but I have a feeling that labor unions are still relevant. Terry Bell. Amazon Fires Worker Who Organized Staten Island Warehouse Walkout. CBS News, March 31, 2020. 5. Block, Sharon, and Ben Sachs. Phone: 202-775-8810 epi@epi.org 2020a. Who Are Essential Workers? 4 How important are unions in the modern world? This imbalance undermines the ability of workers to organize together. As a result, working people, particularly low-wage workerswho are disproportionately women and workers of colorhave largely borne the costs of the pandemic. Black workers represented by a union are paid 13.7% more than their nonunionized peers. Women and workers of color make up the majority of all workers in the top three essential industries (McNicholas and Poydock 2020a).5. Note that the Black unemployment rate, the Black womens unemployment rate, the AAPI unemployment rate, and the AAPI womens unemployment rate peaked in May. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). While providing the essential services we rely on, many of these workers have been forced to work without protective gear; many have no access to paid sick leave; and when workers have spoken up about health and safety concerns, they have been fired. Specifically, employers should be required to recognize and bargain with a union if a majority of workers indicate their support for the union as their representative. 18. 2019b. What about one that promotes. See Teamsters 2020. Under current law, Smalls has no right to bring a lawsuit against the employer to assert his rightshe is entirely dependent on the Trump NLRB and its general counsel to pursue his case for unlawful termination. Since industries vary in size, industries with the highest numbers of union workers arent always the industries with the highest union coverage rate. Essential workers in this data set include workers in food and agriculture; emergency services; transportation, warehouse, and delivery; industrial, commercial, residential facilities and services; health care; government and community-based services; communications and IT; financial sector; energy sector; water and wastewater management; chemical sector; and critical manufacturing. 17. The law should allow workers to choose union representation through this method and require employers to respect their workers choice. When workers at an Amazon warehouse in New York City joined together and walked out to protest safety conditions, Amazon fired Chris Smalls, one of the lead organizers (Ivanova 2020a). The estimates of 13% for women and 37% for men are from authors analysis of data from Fortin, Lemieux, and Lloyd 2019. Economic Policy Institute, October 2019. However, there are clearly many of those within the labor force who will remain in skilled and unskilled labor position. Kochan, Thomas A., William T. Kimball, Duanyi Yang, and Erin L. Kelly. There was a time when America needed labor unions to organize for worker's rights, but federal and state laws prohibit workplace atrocities of the past. Selected Paid Leave Benefits: Access, March 2019. In Employee Benefits in the United StatesMarch 2019, published September 19, 2019. 2020. Relatedly, workers should not need to start from scratch when bargaining a contract with a newly organized employer. As EPI has previously recommended, the law should make clear that the petitioning unions description of the bargaining unit is determinative, unless the employer can make a compelling case as to why the proposed unit is unworkable (Rhinehart and McNicholas 2020). Some of these states have laws covering various groups of employees. The employer is not involved. Joint Employer Status Under the National Labor Relations Act [final rule], 85 Fed. June 30, 2009 What are your views on the effectiveness and usefulness of Union organizations and the decision to go on strike to achieve their goals and demands? Workers Who Could Work at Home, Did Work at Home, and Were Paid for Work at Home, by Selected Characteristics, Averages for the Period 20172018, Mission Health Seeks Second Union Hearing Delay, Blames Pandemic, Working for HCA: Asheville Nurses Protest Conditions at Mission Hospital, Win Ruling on Forming Union, As Coronavirus Spreads, So Do Reports of Companies Mistreating Workers, McDonalds Accused of Firing Worker over Strikes for Safety Gear, Unions Are Giving Workers a Seat at the Table When It Comes to the Coronavirus Response, Unions and Inequality over the Twentieth Century: New Evidence from Survey Data, Trumps NLRB: Employees Can Be Disciplined for Union Talk While on the Clock Even If It Doesnt Interrupt Work, Labor Market Institutions and the Distribution of Wages: The Role of Spillover Effects. If the company is found to have illegally fired Smalls, it is simply required to offer him his job back, minus the wages he earned or could have earned in the meantime.
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