In recent years, unionization has been on the upswing. Volkwagen’s Chattanooga plant just voted to join the United Auto Workers (UAW), the first time a plant in the famously anti-union South has done so. Some 400 Starbucks locations have unionized, covering 10,000 workers. And last year, Michigan became the first state in decades to repeal its so-called right-to-work law. (The UAW’s recent defeat at two Mercedes plants in Alabama, which it is appealing, marks a rare recent union loss.)
“Today, we are coming together to restore workers’ rights, protect Michiganders on the job and grow Michigan’s middle class,” said Gov. Gretchen Whitmer the day she signed the bill.
Michigan, home to the Big Three automakers and the UAW, was historically one of the strongest pro-union states. That changed in 2012 when a right-to-work law was passed by Michigan’s GOP-controlled legislature. Nationwide, unionization rates have plummeted. In the past 40 years, unionization has fallen to only 10 percent of all workers, from 20 percent in 1983, according to the latest estimates by the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Right-to-work laws can undermine unions because they typically do not require workers, who benefit from collective bargaining, to pay dues, potentially creating what’s known as the free-rider problem. Unions rely on those dues for staff salaries, strike funds and training programs. And right-to-work laws weaken unions by “making it harder for workers’ organizations to sustain themselves financially,” according to the Economic Policy Institute.
Conversely, conservative organizations like Michigan’s Mackinac Center for Public Policy, a nonprofit that advocates for “free markets and limited government,” argue that recent union wins are only temporary. They say the longer-term decline in unionization is indicative of the waning relevance of unions.
“It shows that unions are just selling a product that workers don’t want,” said F. Vincent Vernuccio, a senior fellow at the MacKinac Center. “Unions are mired in this industrial revolution, early 20th century, one-size-fits-all business model that is frankly not really conducive to modern workers.”
In fact, Michigan’s recent rejection of right-to-work represents a pendulum swing in support for unions—both locally and nationally. A decade after Michigan passed right-to-work legislation, union membership in Michigan has actually grown, with Michigan mirroring the country’s growing support for unions. Today, 71 percent of Americans say they support unions, the highest rate since 1965. When Democrats won the majority in all three branches of Michigan’s state government in 2022, getting rid of right-to-work was one of the party’s top priorities.
Full article at Dollars & Sense
(Photo by Gisele Regatão)