37:575:100 Chap.8 Union Organizing, Membership and New Tactics
Union Organizing, Membership and New Tactics
How unions are formed
Week 12 asks how unions are formed, how membership has changed and what new tactics look like. A campaign usually begins with an organizing committee of workers, builds majority support through conversations and signatures, and seeks recognition, either through a board election or an employer's agreement not to block a majority, before bargaining a first contract.
Employers often resist; the week includes a retailer's anti-union video shown to new hires.
Membership trends
Union membership fell from 20.1% of US workers in 1983 to 10.3% in 2021, and to 6.1% in the private sector. It also varies by place: a 2022 article in the course readings reports union density near 6 percent in Georgia, compared with 24 percent in New York and 18 percent in California.
Yet 2021 and 2022 brought visible wins, including more than 230 Starbucks stores and about 4,000 contracted Google cafeteria workers.
New tactics: the Fight for $15
The Greenhouse reading explains why the Service Employees union looked for a new model. With about 7 percent of private-sector workers in unions, winning elections one workplace at a time could not reach millions of low-wage service workers.
The Fight for $15 began with New York fast-food workers in 2012, used one-day walkouts, and when employers refused to bargain turned to law. SeaTac passed the first $15 minimum in 2013, Seattle followed in 2014, and California's 2016 law was expected to raise pay for 5.6 million workers.
The Organizing Analysis project
Students who choose this project study a real campaign that struggled to win support.
The proposal, due 8 November, needs at least four sources, three of them recent news reports. The paper of about three to four pages applies at least five course concepts, analyzes why workers supported or resisted the union, and offers three evidence-based recommendations.
Employer resistance in the 2022 wave
The upsurge met opposition.
The Washington Post piece reports that after more than 230 Starbucks stores voted to unionize, the National Labor Relations Board accused the company of illegally denying union workers the raises and benefits others received. The same year saw the first Amazon warehouse and Apple Store vote to unionize.
For the Organizing Analysis project, this is the kind of management response Part 2 asks you to analyze alongside workers' own hesitations.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Stages of an organizing campaign
- 02
Union avoidance and employer resistance
- 03
Membership since 1983 and by state
- 04
The Fight for $15
- 05
Bargaining with society through wage laws
- 06
Writing the Organizing Analysis project
Worked example · free
Recommend a strategy for a stalled campaign
- 1Identify the Part 2 problem the recommendation targets: fear and turnover weaken the organizing committee.
- 1Propose a concrete strategy, such as building a committee that includes long-serving workers in every shift.
- 1Support it with evidence from the readings, such as the Fight for $15 finding strikers through wide door-knocking.
- 1Tie it to a course concept such as solidarity or the organizing committee.
- 1State a limitation, such as the time needed before high turnover replaces committee members.
Key terms
- Organizing Committee
- The core group of workers who map a workplace, recruit coworkers and lead a union campaign from the inside.
- Union Avoidance
- Employer strategies aimed at preventing workers from forming a union, such as anti-union messages during orientation.
- Social Movement Unionism
- Union strategy that builds public campaigns and alliances beyond one workplace, as the Fight for $15 did.
Union Organizing, Membership and New Tactics FAQ
Why did union membership fall so far?
The Week 2 explainer names automation, offshoring, the shift from manufacturing to services, labor law that tilted toward employers, and right-to-work laws in more than half the states.
Did the Fight for $15 succeed?
It won no fast-food union contracts, but it helped pass minimum-wage laws in cities and states, from SeaTac and Seattle to California and New York, raising pay for millions of workers.
What must the Organizing Analysis paper include?
About three to four pages in four parts: the workplace and campaign, an analysis of support and resistance, three recommendations with evidence and a limitation each, and a short reflection, applying at least five course concepts.
Which course concepts can I use in the Organizing Analysis project?
The assignment lists examples such as collective action, solidarity, worker identity, bargaining power, the free-rider problem, unfair labor practices, union avoidance, organizing committees, collective bargaining and social movement unionism, and asks you to use at least five analytically.
Exam move
Draw the campaign stages from committee to first contract and note where fear and employer resistance hit hardest. Learn the Fight for $15 timeline, and if you choose the Organizing Analysis project, pick your campaign early so the three news sources are ready for the 8 November proposal.
