union membership

This week in the war on workers: Union membership keeps dropping in 2016

There’s bad news and … well, there’s bad news. Union density continued its long decline in 2016: In 2016, the share of workers who were members of a union decreased 0.4 percentage point to 10.7 percent, continuing a downward trend that has occurred since at least the early 1980s, when directly comparable data became available[.] It’s not just …

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Is Perelman Jewish Day School the Hobby Lobby of Union-Busting?

A small group of teachers in Philadelphia are finding their union rights under attack on questionable religious grounds, much the same way that women across America found their right to healthcare assaulted this week in the Supreme Court’s Hobby Lobby case. Some 55 teachers at the Perelman Jewish Day School, which has two K-5 campuses in …

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IBEW Father and Daughter’s Long Journey to Sochi Short Track

Springfield, Mo., Electrical Workers (IBEW) Local 453 member Craig Scott is in Sochi, Russia, this week watching his daughter Emily compete for Olympic gold in several short track speed skating events.  But it wasn’t an easy journey for father or daughter Emily, 25, was a world champion inline skater before taking up short track speed skating about …

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Yes, 87,500 Macy’s Workers Won’t Get Thanksgiving Holiday, But That’s Not Their Biggest Concern

Department store chain Macy’s, known for its lavish Thanksgiving Day parade, is taking heat for canceling the holiday for many of its 175,000 employees. On Oct. 13, the Chicago Sun-Times reported the news that Macy plans to break with its 155-year practice of closing its stores on Thanksgiving Day. Macy’s spokesperson Holly Thomas confirmed to Working In These Times that about …

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How “Right to Work Shirk” Laws Kill Jobs – and Hurt All of Us

Michigan’s recent battle makes this a good time to explain the union movement’s important role in our economy’s overall health. We’re about to explain why today’s war on unions is bad for all of us, no matter what we do for a living, and we’ll do it in four steps. But first a word about …

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Fewer Workers in Unions = Growing Income Inequality

The U.S. public is painfully aware of the growing income inequality in this nation. Now, a new report shows a big reason why the gap is growing: fewer workers in unions. Declining unionization was responsible for roughly one-third of the growth of wage inequality among men from 1973 to 2007, a new Economic Policy Institute (EPI) …

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Canada Labor Laws Support Workers’ Freedom to Form Unions

In 1960, the same number of workers were in unions in Canada and in the United States. After that, unionization in this country started a steep decline. Yet Canada’s unionization rate has held fairly steady. By 2011, 11.8 percent of U.S. workers were in unions, compared with 29.7 percent in Canada (click chart to enlarge). So …

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Madeline Messa

Madeline Messa is a 3L at Syracuse University College of Law. She graduated from Penn State with a degree in journalism. With her legal research and writing for Workplace Fairness, she strives to equip people with the information they need to be their own best advocate.