The Recent Unionization Wave

I talked to Steven Greenhouse about the recent wave of union organizing at performatively liberal places such as Starbucks and REI. He didn’t really get into that part of the thing in the piece–it is after all relatively speculative–but I was happy to contribute along with a lot of much smarter people than me.

It is a moment when many workers are making inquiries about unionizing (beyond the well-known efforts among grad students, adjunct professors and museum workers). Organizers say workers at McDonald’s, Target and Trader Joe’s are asking about unionizing. That first union victory at a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York, in December has led to workers at 140 Starbucks in 27 states petitioning for unionization votes. What is happening at Starbucks is the wildfire that union organizers dream of – an organic, bottom-up, fast-spreading effort.

Erica Smiley, executive director of Jobs with Justice, a labor rights group, said all this worker energy is great. But acknowledging how fierce anti-union campaigns can be, she said: “The pressure is on us as a movement to help move this forward. It’s really an uphill battle.”

The recent string of lopsided union wins was impressive and inspiring: 88 to 14 at REI in Manhattan, 25 to three at Starbucks in Mesa, Arizona, 404 to 88 among New York Times tech workers, and 142 to 44 at the Art Institute of Chicago. These victories came despite vigorous anti-union campaigns by management.

“We’re in a moment when we are questioning how effective traditional union-busting tactics are,” said Rebecca Givan, a labor studies professor at Rutgers. “Traditional union-busting tactics like scaring immigrants and dividing workers by race – how effective they are has been brought into question.” Givan said workers at Starbucks stores that have unionized speak with workers at other Starbucks to inoculate them against anti-union efforts by telling them what anti-union message and tactics to expect.Advertisementhttps://ea5041768bdd614637e59dc7e59f269a.safeframe.googlesyndication.com/safeframe/1-0-38/html/container.html

While the recent union wins fuel optimism, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported in January that just 10.3% of US workers are in unions and just 6.1% in the private sector. In the 1950s, more than one in three private-sector workers were in unions, in the 1980s, more than one in five. Now it’s just one in 16.

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Workers United, the union that is organizing Starbucks, is an Service Employees International Union (SEIU) affiliate, but has taken a different approach. “It’s better to organize 10,000 workers at a time than 25,” said Erik Loomis, a labor historian at the University of Rhode Island. “But the more 25s you organize, the more people will see that success and gain confidence to take action themselves. You’re seeing that with Starbucks.”

Givan said the Starbucks victories might inspire workers at McDonald’s, Chipotle and other fast-food companies to seek to unionize, and if just one or two of those restaurants unionize, it could spur many workers at those chains to seek to do likewise, especially in union strongholds like Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, New York, San Francisco and Seattle.

“We don’t have the luxury as a movement to be picky on strategy,” said Smiley of Jobs with Justice. “At this moment, we have to let every flower bloom – not in a way that will burn the future, but in a way that will crack open the door to allow us to think a little differently.”