The state of unions in America

Writer and scholar Jane McAlevey talks about whether recent momentum can reverse the trend of declining union membership in America.

Starbucks_Workers_United_union_protest_Tallahassee

Courtesy of Wiki Commons

Union membership has continued to decline in recent years after decades of erosion. But there have been some high-profile labor wins that could reverse the trend.

“We’ve got a young generation coming up under climate change with a bad economy all around them, with crappy jobs.” — Jane McAlevey, The Nation

Starbucks workers have been unionizing. And so too have some Amazon workers. Why is this happening now? What does this mean?

 


Listen: Writer and scholar Jane McAlevey talks about the state of the labor movement in 2022.

 


Guest

Jane McAlevey is a strikes correspondent for The Nation and a senior policy fellow at the University of California’s Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. She has written several books, her most recent one being, “A Collective Bargain: Unions, Organizing, and the Fight for Democracy.

“We’ve got a young generation coming up under climate change with a bad economy all around them, with crappy jobs…the destruction of pensions, the destruction of benefits… so the social context really matters,” says McAlevey.

Trusted, accurate, up-to-date.

WDET strives to make our journalism accessible to everyone. As a public media institution, we maintain our journalistic integrity through independent support from readers like you. If you value WDET as your source of news, music and conversation, please make a gift today.

Donate today »

Author

  • Dynamic and diverse voices. News, politics, community and the issues that define our region. Hosted by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Stephen Henderson, Detroit Today brings you fresh and perceptive views weekdays at 9 am and 7 pm.