Will labor reform be a priority in a Democratic U.S. House and Senate?

By PETER DREIER

E.P. Clapp Distringuished Professor of Politics; professor, ruban and environmental policy, Occidental College 

Very few high schools, and not many colleges, teach students about labor history -- the struggles of working people for a better life and a more decent society. Only a handful of newspapers and on-line sites have reporters who cover labor (or even work) on a full-time basis.  Except when they go on strike (or when the Supreme Court endorses anti-union laws), the news media essentially ignore unions. You’d never know that the vast majority of Americans (62%) favor labor unions. But only 10% of American workers are in unions. Researchers at MIT found that if nonunion workers who wanted to join a union could do so, union membership would skyrocket from its current 15 million to 70 million.

Why the disparity? Fear. Our labor laws are so one-sided that they undermine workers' rights to have a voice at work. One key solution is the Workplace Democracy Act, sponsored by 13 Democrats in the Senate. There are a growing number of progressive Democrats running for office this year who understand the connection between a stronger labor movement and a more humane society. 

If the Democrats win a majority in the House and/or the Senate in November, will they make labor law reform a priority? Here are several Labor Day pieces that raise this and related questions about the future of the labor movement:

• Kelly Candaele and Peter Dreier, “Helping Labor Get Off Its Back” (NY Daily News) 
• Jared Bernstein and Dean Baker, “Unions in the 21st century: A Potent Weapon Against Inequality” (Washington Post) 
• Sarah Jaffe, “Writing the Unions ‘Fight or Die’ Survival Chapter” (NY Times)
• Steven Greenhouse, “How Trump Betrays Forgotten Americans” (NY Times)
• Steven Greenhouse, “Teachers Have Been Walking Out All Year. Now They're Walking Straight to the Ballot Box” (LA Times) 
• Sarita Gupta, Stephen Lerner, and Joseph McMartin,  “It’s Not the 'Future of Work,' It’s the Future of Workers That’s in Doubt”  (American Prospect)
• Thomas Kochan,  Duanyi Yang, Erin Kelly, and Will Kimball, “Who Wants to Join a Union? A Growing Number of Americans” (The Conversation) 
• Celine McNicholas, Samantha Sanders, and Heidi  Shierholz, "First Day Fairness: An Agenda to Build Worker Power and Ensure Job Quality" (Economic Policy Institute)
• Peter Dreier, “Remembering MLK’s Campaign for Workers’ Rights” (Capital & Main)
• Cristela Guerra,  "On Labor Day, A Celebration of 'Rosies" Who Kept the Factories Churning During WW2" (Boston Globe) 
• Dan Kaufman, “A Labor Day Reflection on Unions, Race, and Division” (The New Yorker)
• Bridgette Browning and Keith Maddox, “How Union Workers Go Beyond Bargaining Table to Drive Social Change” (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Lynda Waddington, “This Labor Day, Remember the Ladies” (The Gazette)
• Emily Hazzard, “Trump Trolls American Workers With His Labor Day Message”(Think Progress)
• Charles Pierce, “The Attack on Labor Itself Begins Tuesday: There's a Pro-Labor Agenda Stirring in the Country, But Republicans at Every Level are Working to Destroy It." (Esquire)
• Peter Dreier, “There Once Was a Union-Made” (Huffington Post)
• David Madland, “Journalists Give Workers the Business” (Center for American Progress)
• Peter Dreier, "Want White Working Class Voters To Support Democrats? Strengthen Unions" (Rewire)
• Harold Meyerson, "What Now for Unions?" (American Prospect) 
• Harold Meyerson, "Elizabeth Warren Proposes a Second New Deal" (American Prospect)
• Bill Fletcher, "Is Trump Looking Out for Workers?" (LA Sentinel)
• Tom Goldman, "Fight Against Low, Low Pay in Minor League Baseball Continues, Despite New Obstacles" (NPR)
• Nelson Lichtenstein, “How Missouri Beat ‘Right-to-Work’” (Dissent)
• Judy Gearhart, "The Resurgence of Grassroots Activism" (International Labor Rights Forum)