{"id":3131,"date":"2022-07-26T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2022-07-26T06:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/uniontrack.com\/blog\/?p=3131"},"modified":"2022-12-19T16:34:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-19T16:34:58","slug":"next-generation-workers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uniontrack.com\/blog\/next-generation-workers","title":{"rendered":"The Future of Labor: How Unions Empower the Next Generation of Workers"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Ken Green
CEO & Founder
UnionTrack<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s no doubt that labor unions are having a resurgence in America.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

According to Gallup<\/a>, public support for unions is at its highest point since 1965, with 68 percent of the population approving of labor unions. Mirroring that increase in support is the increase in union elections petitions filed with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB), which are up 57 percent in the first half of fiscal year 2022 when compared to the same time last year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRight now, there is a surge in labor activity nationwide, with workers organizing and filing petitions for more union elections than they have in the last ten years,\u201d says NLRB General Counsel Jennifer Abruzzo<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are positive indicators that the labor movement may be reversing course and strengthening. \u201cU.S. organized labor is having a moment after decades of erosion in both influence and power,\u201d write Bloomberg reporters Ian Kullgren, Brian Eckhouse, and Deena Shanker<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What\u2019s especially notable about this moment is that it looks a lot different from other key labor movement moments of the past.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Demographics Changing: Next Generation of Workers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

While older, blue-collar workers built the American labor movement, younger, more educated white-collar workers are rebuilding it. \u201cThere is a rise in attention\u201d of unionization among the new generation of workers, notes Dan Bowling<\/a>, senior lecturing fellow at Duke Law School. \u201cUnions are now on the radar screens of younger workers to an extent they haven\u2019t been in my career,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Union membership numbers reflect this trend. According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of workers ages 25-34 who are union members rose from 8.8 percent to 9.4 percent between 2019<\/a> and 2021<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These workers are what Richard Bessinger<\/a>, founder of the AFL\u2013CIO Organizing Institute, calls the \u201cGen U\u201d of unions. \u201cThis is a generational uprising,\u201d he says. \u201cI think young people are rediscovering unions as the way to have a voice into the job and lift up their wages and benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not only are these workers younger, but they are also more highly educated and hold more white-collar and gig-industry jobs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Data from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the percentage of union members overall with a bachelor\u2019s degree or higher rose from 42 percent in 2017<\/a> to 46.5 percent in 2021<\/a>. Mirroring this rise in membership by college-educated workers is the rise in membership of professional workers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere is more interest among white collars now than at any time I\u2019ve seen,\u201d says Lane Windham<\/a>, associate director of the Kalmanovitz Initiative at Georgetown University. Recent unionization campaigns by professionals at Google, The New York Times, Boston\u2019s Museum of Fine Arts, and SHoP Architects show that it isn\u2019t just workers in the hard trades who are organizing to improve their working conditions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI really believe this is a fulcrum and that the labor movement is really shifting,\u201d says Tom Juravich<\/a>, professor of labor studies and sociology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, of the rise in white-collar organizing. That shift is impacting industries long immune to unionization.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"Three<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Workers Are Organizing in Traditionally Nonunion Industries<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Industries that have traditionally been union-free are feeling the impacts of this transition in the labor movement. \u201cThanks to the modernization of the labor movement, more people from nontraditional industries are becoming aware that any workplace can benefit from a union,\u201d writes Colin Hanner<\/a> at union platform Unit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And workers in these industries are acting on that awareness and organizing their workplaces. Some notable industries that have seen an uptick in unionization activities include:<\/p>\n\n\n\n