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00:00Hello and welcome to People & Profit, I'm Kate Moody.
00:18From picket line to campaign trail.
00:20As we enter the final countdown to the 2024 U.S. presidential election, we're looking
00:25at what role labor unions have played in this race.
00:28The first recorded worker strike in the U.S. dates back to 1768.
00:33In more modern times, labor law has recognized American unions since 1935, allowing members
00:39to carry out collective bargaining for better wages and working conditions.
00:44Both Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump have been courting
00:48union support.
00:49The working class voters they tend to represent could prove crucial in several battleground
00:54states.
00:55The bottom line is when unions are strong, America is strong.
01:05And our unions have always fought to make our nation then more equal, more fair and
01:10more free.
01:11We will end all taxes on overtime.
01:16Those are the people that really work.
01:19They're police officers, nurses, factory workers, construction workers, truck drivers and machine
01:24operators.
01:25It's time for the working man and woman to finally catch a break.
01:31We're joined now by Bob Bruno, professor of labor and employment relations at the University
01:35of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, also author of the book What Work Is.
01:40Thank you for being on the show today.
01:42Tell us, what have we heard from the two candidates, Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, in terms of
01:46their approach to unions?
01:48Well, we've heard very stark differences.
01:54Donald Trump really has been very critical of union leaders.
01:59And he has, on a number of occasions, articulated really his opposition to things that unions
02:07stand for, like raising the minimum wage.
02:10He's also made clear that he favors right-to-work laws, which are very destructive of union
02:17organizing in the United States.
02:19On the other hand, Kamala Harris has actively sought that union vote.
02:25She has met with quite a few union leaders.
02:28She's given a number of rallies and talks at union halls.
02:33She's got the endorsements of most of the large unions.
02:38Something Donald Trump has really not attempted to do is really to win favor with many unions
02:44in the United States.
02:45And she's proposed policies that would be largely supportive of worker rights, like
02:53the PRO Act in the United States, but also other measures that would protect work and
03:00protect the right to organize.
03:01So the differences are very stark.
03:04Let's talk a bit more about endorsements and the lack thereof.
03:08Donald Trump, as you mentioned, has received the backing of a few local and law enforcement
03:12unions.
03:13Kamala Harris has much more high-profile support from the likes of the United Auto Workers,
03:17United Steel Workers, National Teachers Unions.
03:21Those groups do traditionally back Democratic candidates.
03:24But the decision of the Teamsters not to endorse either candidate back in September arguably
03:29made even more headlines.
03:32Do these kind of endorsements really matter in a presidential race?
03:36Those kinds of endorsements really do matter.
03:39Companies labor has lost a lot of its political clout.
03:43But even with reduced membership, it can still be a decider in national elections, particularly
03:52in many of the competitive states, those that are in the Midwest, where there is still a
03:57high percentage of unionization.
04:01So these endorsements are coveted, and they do have influence on the rank and file.
04:09And briefly then, what do you make of the decision of the Teamsters specifically not
04:13to endorse Kamala Harris?
04:17We saw the president of the Teamsters actually appearing at the Republican National Convention
04:20in support of Donald Trump.
04:22Their rationale for not endorsing is something that seems really hard to accept and to understand
04:30because the statement was that neither of the candidates would put working class interests
04:35ahead of corporate interests.
04:37While that's certainly true of Donald Trump, you could never make that argument that it
04:43was true of the Biden administration.
04:46And the president of the union, the Teamsters union, has also gone on record to say that
04:51Joe Biden was the most pro-union president that he has seen.
04:57So it is perplexing.
05:00Perhaps it's an attempt to just curry favor and to be in a position so that regardless
05:08of how the election turns out, I mean, it is close, that you will be in a position perhaps
05:15to work with the incoming administration.
05:18But it seems like Teamsters themselves have rejected the position of their leadership
05:25in lots of different forums.
05:28A bit of a divide there then.
05:29Bob, stay with us for a moment as we take a closer look at the state of labor unions
05:34in the United States.
05:35Public support for collective action peaked in the 1960s and membership began to decline.
05:41More workers have joined organized unions in recent years, in particular since the pandemic.
05:46But in the strong job market, that means a steady level of about 10 percent unionization.
05:51Yuka Royer has more.
05:53Last year, Joe Biden made history as the first modern U.S. president to walk the picket line
06:00in support of striking autoworkers in Detroit.
06:03You deserve the significant raise you need and other benefits.
06:10Strike culture appears to have returned to the American labor market as inflation hit
06:14workers' pockets.
06:16In 2023, Hollywood screenwriters and actors, Starbucks workers, nurses, hotel staff and
06:23pilots staged strikes before the United Autoworkers Union paralyzed car production in Detroit
06:29with a weeks-long stoppage, affecting all of the big three car companies.
06:35The trend has continued this year.
06:37Boeing's machinists halted production of best-selling jets, dock workers succeeded in getting a
06:43significant pay raise after a three-day stoppage.
06:46Amazon drivers, more autoworkers and journalists also walked off their jobs.
06:51The total number of workers involved in major strikes rose to nearly 460,000 in 2023, a
06:58280 percent increase from the previous year, though still a fraction of the 1970s levels.
07:05However, despite the recent resurgence of collective action, American workers remain
07:10largely non-unionized.
07:12According to the government, union membership in the U.S. peaked in the 1950s at over one-third
07:17of the workforce.
07:19Last year, that figure was down to 10 percent, but still a potentially significant chunk
07:25of American voters.
07:27Bob Bruno, thank you for staying with us.
07:30There does seem to have been a spike in high-profile strikes in the U.S. over the past two years
07:34or so.
07:35Why is that?
07:37Well, in part, the labor market just went through shock and trauma following the recession
07:46that was caused by the pandemic, and then there was this rapid reopening of the economy.
07:52We have never seen anything quite like that in the United States.
07:55It wasn't just in one sector, but it was across all industries, and there was an enormous
08:00demand for labor.
08:03In that particular situation, power shifts to workers.
08:08I think workers also realized during the pandemic just how badly treated they were and how disposable
08:14employers thought they were.
08:17Therefore, when the market shifted in their favor, they also realized that through organizing,
08:25a collective voice would be the best way to really maximize their strength.
08:31You saw an increase in unionization, but you also saw the ability structurally to strike,
08:40to hold out for greater demands.
08:43Obviously, inflation had really eroded the incomes of working-class folks, and that was
08:51following on 40 years of fairly stagnant or slow wage growth.
08:59The structural moment, and I think the realization amongst workers, an increased consciousness
09:05that only through collective action could they maximize their power, has led to this
09:10moment where we see these very, very high-profile and always successful strikes, along with
09:18increased numbers of workers organizing, increased numbers of workers filing complaints with
09:24the federal government about management abuse, and workers winning more elections and winning
09:32more of the charges they bring against employers, and popularity.
09:40Public approval of unions is nearly, well, it hasn't been as high as it was in the 1960s.
09:48It's at a very high level, and I think workers understand that very well and are exploiting the moment.
09:57Would you say that unions and labor issues have taken a different, perhaps more prominent
10:02role in this year's campaign compared to other election cycles?
10:08Labor is always an important constituency.
10:13It's obviously been the backbone of the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party's made a bit
10:19of a play for that labor vote really since Richard Nixon.
10:27Labor plays a prominent role regularly, and given the closeness of elections, given that
10:33we are having these elections decided by such small numbers in key states and only a handful
10:41of key states, the density of union membership in places like Michigan or just western Pennsylvania
10:50can be critically important to who wins.
10:54For all those reasons, I certainly think Harris has put working with organized labor and winning
11:02their vote at the forefront.
11:04I think that even the Republican Party understanding the pain, the angst, the feeling of being
11:13left behind that most working class folks have felt here in the United States really
11:20creates an opening and an opportunity to try to peel off some of those union votes.
11:31I think that vote really is important in this election in ways perhaps that it hadn't been
11:37in previous ones.
11:39But I think it's also consistent with organized labor being an important political institution
11:44during presidential elections.
11:46Let me ask you very briefly about Joe Biden's legacy.
11:49He came into office promising to be the most pro-union president in modern history.
11:54Will he be remembered that way?
11:56I think he will be.
11:59This record is really very consistent with the promises that he made, both in terms of
12:07appointments to the National Labor Relations Board, his stance on collective bargaining.
12:15You mentioned earlier in your piece walking a picket line.
12:20Also the three major pieces of legislation that invested in electric vehicles, renewable
12:28energies, creating more microchips, the large infrastructure bill.
12:36All of these bills really are very, very positive for working people, and they all have labor
12:43protections that are written into them.
12:47So he, I think, justifiably has earned that moniker as the most pro-union president in
12:59the modern era.
13:00Bob Bruno from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, thank you so much for your
13:03time today.
13:06My pleasure.
13:07Well, that's all for now.
13:08Don't forget to look for People & Profit on the podcast platform of your choice, or as
13:12always on the Fronts24 website.
13:14Until next time, thanks for watching.
13:17♪♪