Organized Labor Reborn
“We all do better when we all do better.”
We had a celebration during the TV national news the other night when David Muir reported on the unionization of a Volkswagen auto assembly plant in Tennessee. The plant workers voted overwhelmingly to join the United Auto Workers in the face of fierce opposition by management and six governors from the surrounding red states who attacked the union as a threat to “liberty and freedoms.”
The mainstream media reporting on the vote was fleeting and they missed a major part of the story which is that this was the first successful union organizing drive in the auto industry outside of Detroit and the first major union victory in the South in decades.
This win is historic and signals the continued rebirth of the American Labor Movement.
My family has been part of the Labor Movement since my grandfather, Rev. William Mann Fincke worked to support labor in New York City’s Labor Temple and Pennsylvania coal miners in the 1920s. He went on to found progressive boarding schools for the children of labor organizers and unionized workers. Two of his sons, my uncles, continued working in labor supporting and labor supported progressive schools in the 1940s and 50s. One of those sons, my Uncle Ben, continued that work at Buxton School which I attended from 1959 to 1964. I picked up the history and worked my way through the University of Wisconsin-Madison as a proud member of the union behind entertainment, IATSE Local 251, in the early 1970s. I took UW-Madison journalism classes from proud members of the Newspaper Guild.
When former Governor Scott Walker “dropped the bomb” of Act 10, drastically curtailing the rights of public sector union workers, I organized the first of several demonstrations on the corner of Paradise and Main to support those recently disenfranchised. We were supported by local professional firefighters, teachers, unionized public health workers, public sector laborers and several unionized members of law enforcement. I continued working with local public-school teachers and their union leaders to combat the draconian aftereffects imposed by local school boards. We organized supporters to help elect school board members open to honest converstations with school staff about working conditions and wages.
Our local struggles mirrored a decline in union power and influence that started in the late 1970s. Because organized labor helped build a worker led middle class, supported civil rights, voting rights, Medicare and Medicaid, family and medical leave laws and other progressive measures, GOP governors and presidents targeted unions and their leadership. Their successes led to wage cuts, reduced pension benefits and reduced job security. The result has been more than 40 years of near flat wages while our national economy has grown threefold over the same period.
As union power waned, so did the middle class while those at the top accumulated more and more wealth.
That has slowly changed. Unions have sprung up in new places and won fair contracts. Look to the Hollywood writers and other behind the scenes unions like IATSE, UPS workers, healthcare workers in California and even university employees who have negotiated significant pay increases and increased job security. Public school teachers in several states have gone out on strike, ignoring state laws prohibiting public sector strikes, and won new contracts. New Union contracts have averaged pay increases over 7% while Union membership increased by 191,000 in 2023. Public approval of organized labor is on the rise. It is up to 70%, the highest in 50 years.
Several factors have contributed to the rebirth of the Labor Movement.
Covid showed us that rich Americans had an easier time surviving and that we all depend upon working folks just doing their jobs. Those everyday workers quickly learned that the system is rigged against them. Union wins at the bargaining table showed that change and improvement are possible through collective action and bargaining. The post pandemic economy is growing rapidly, and employers are having trouble holding on to the workers they need to keep up.
Finally, we have the most pro-union President in recent history. Joe Biden joined a UAW picket line in support of striking auto workers. Biden issued a statement congratulating the Tennessee auto workers on their historic vote to unionize. He reshaped the National Labor Relations Board into the most pro-union one in decades.
All these things are driving the rebirth of organized labor as a positive progressive force in America and will help shape an American future that supports working people as the backbone of a growing economy. With this rebirth, the hoarding of wealth at the top of the food chain will stop as more sit at a longer table to enjoy the fruits of their labor.
