Amid union victories, labor still faces big challenges

By Stephen Mihm / Bloomberg Opinion

Things seem to be looking up for unions. WGA and SAG-AFTRA have brought Hollywood to a screeching halt, and a tentative deal has been reached between the writers and studios. United Parcel Service’s workers secured a substantial wage increase. The United Auto Workers are now on strike against the nation’s largest automakers; the first time the union has hit every one of the “Big Three” at once. And polling data released last month indicated that two-thirds of Americans approve of unions, a level last seen in 1965.

But before workers crack open the champagne, they should understand that unions face a sad state of affairs that neither public opinion nor high-profile strikes can fix. A series of decades-old regulations have tipped the balance of power against organized labor.

The fortunes of labor unions have fluctuated greatly over the past century. In the 1920s, when membership fell to just over 10 percent — precisely where it stands now — newspapers wrote of the “Collapse of Organized Labor,” and business leaders predicted that “organized labor is rapidly falling out of the picture in America.” The onset of the Great Depression and the rise of the New Deal reversed these trends. Thanks to the passage of the 1935 Wagner Act, the new National Labor Relations Board guaranteed the rights of workers to unionize.

And they did. By the end of World War II, membership had tripled, reaching all-time highs. Likewise, public approval of unions — which Gallup began measuring in the 1930s — hovered roughly between 60 percent and 70 percent.

https://www.heraldnet.com/opinion/comment-amid-union-victories-labor-still-faces-big-challenges/