The Labor Movement in America: Past, Present & Future of Unions
Watch the Event:
On November 29th, the Corporations and Society Initiative (CASI) held a panel discussion to examine the evolution of unions, from the origins of the 20th Century labor movement to today's newfound energy amidst a rapidly changing labor market. While the topic isn’t one that typically garners a great deal of attention in business education, a recent Gallop survey found that support for unions is higher than it has been since the mid-1960s, when one in three American workers were union members.
CASI Co-Faculty Director Anat Admati opened the panel discussion and referred to the timeliness of the topic, given that the nation’s freight rail workers were threatening to strike and congressional action was being considered to avert serious impact to the economy. It was also a subject that fit perfectly with CASI’s mission to “explore, broaden, and deepen the discussion of complex interactions between corporations, government, civil society, and the media.”
“We focus our events on topics and perspectives that tend to get underrepresented in business school curricula,” said Admati. “So, you're more likely to find investigative journalists and policymakers at our events than corporate executives and entrepreneurs.”
Admati introduced CASI student leader Juan Saez, whose idea for the panel discussion came from what he observed as a lack of a deeper understanding about the labor movement, among his contemporaries. Saez, an MBA2 student, told the audience about the bias against unions that he experienced early in his career. At Stanford, he said he expected a slightly more balanced discussion of collective bargaining and the real trade-offs made in protecting the rights of employees to organize, but he found unions scarcely mentioned in class. “When organized labor is brought up, it's often framed as a problem for management to deal with.”
Saez continued, “In an age of rising monopoly power and increasing concentration of wealth, we need to prioritize discussions of how we elevate the voices, rights, and needs of workers across organizational hierarchies. The group we have brought together today is perfect to get the wheels turning on this kind of dialogue.”
The panel included government and union experts with a long association with labor issues.
Lenny Mendonca (Moderator), former Chief Economic and Business Advisor to California Governor Gavin Newsom and Chair of the California High Speed Rail Authority. He is a Senior Partner Emeritus of McKinsey & Company.
Valerie Hardy-Mahoney, Regional Director of the National Labor Relation Board’s (NLRB) Oakland, California office. A native of New Orleans, Louisiana, Ms. Hardy-Mahoney received her B.A. from the University of Notre Dame and her J.D. degree from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law. She began her career in 1982 as a Field Attorney at the NLRB's Oakland Regional Office. She was promoted to Supervisory Field Attorney in 2008 and to Deputy Regional Attorney in 2010.
Peter Olney, retired Organizing Director of the International Longshore and Warehouse Union (ILWU), which primarily represents dock workers on the West Coast. He has been a labor organizer for 50 years. He worked for multiple unions before joining the ILWU in 1997. For three years he was the Associate Director of the Institute for Labor and Employment at the University of California.
Dave Regan, president of Service Employees International Union-United Healthcare Workers West (SEIU-UHW), one of the largest hospital unions in the United States, with more than 95,000 members in California. He also is a Vice President of the two million-member International SEIU. Regan has steered the union toward becoming a leader in ensuring that all people – whether union members or not – have access to quality, affordable healthcare and are paid living wages.
Moderator Lenny Mendonca began by asking Valerie Hardy-Mahoney to provide context around the current environment and the right to organize today. She explained that the National Labor Relations Board has existed for nearly 88 years and was created to enforce the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA), which arose from labor and political strife that led up to the New Deal. It was signed into law by President Roosevelt in 1935. Hardy-Mahoney said the legislation became a policy designed to “encourage collective bargaining, and so by enacting the NLRA, the government promised democracy in the workplace.”
“In the course of my forty-year career … the future of unions is actually hopeful, and it's hopeful to me, because the message that employees have rights to form, join, support a union, or to refrain from doing so, that message is getting to more and more employees,“ she said, “whether they are working in high paid Silicon Valley jobs or working at a chicken processing plant in the valley, or making lattes at a Santa Cruz coffee shop for graduate students who are teaching at a prestigious university. That message has gotten to them.”
Hardy-Mahoney went on to say that during the COVID pandemic, many employers fell short in protecting employee health and safety, and that led to many people thinking about their jobs “when trying to negotiate what’s considered fair wages, benefits and labor practices in the workplace.”
“There are quintessential rights to speak to each other, to improve your working conditions, to come together, to organize a union, and these are not just NLRB rights. In the real sense they are human rights, the right of free association. No one can tell you who you can associate with, and you shouldn't lose your livelihood because you've contacted a union, and that happens more and more.”
Hardy-Mahoney named the NLRB’s general counsel, Jennifer Abruzzo, as another powerful influence in today’s labor landscape. Abruzzo has pushed for greater outreach to immigrant workers and to those who have been typically underrepresented and marginalized. As a result, Hardy-Mahoney said, the NLRB’s case intake has increased dramatically while its budget has remained at the same level for years.
Peter Olney pointed to two recent ‘seminal events’ that helped to fuel higher levels of union organizing. The first happened in December 2021, when a group of Starbucks workers in Buffalo, New York made history, becoming the first employees of the world’s largest coffee chain to unionize through Workers United New York. Olney singled out one of the leaders of that fight, 24-year old Jaz Brisack, who was a Rhodes scholar.
“That victory has led to 150 victories at Starbucks around the country,” he said. “Now there's 9,000 stores, so we're a long way from the Promised Land, but it's sparked discussion and interest in organization among a lot of young people in the labor market. “
The second event came last April when the Amazon warehouse workers in Staten Island, New York voted for representation by the Amazon Labor Union, an independent union. This, according to Olney, “sent shockwaves throughout the country.”
Olney also credited the NLRB with helping to strengthen labor’s power in fighting unfair practices as well as President Biden’s pro-union stance. “This administration has been a tremendous support to organizing,” he said.
Mendonca then turned to the next panelist, Dave Regan, for his thoughts on California as a place where the labor movement seems to be gaining momentum.
Regan described the Golden State as “the most interesting laboratory in America,” yet he was quick to point out that the labor movement is shrinking across America.
“There's this kind of this cultural myth that unions are these incredibly powerful institutions and growing. In fact, the opposite is true. We're shrinking here just like we're shrinking everywhere, although we're starting from a higher vantage point.”
“What I think you're starting to see in California is the way that business interests and large, well-organized corporate interests are actually supplanting organized labor as a key funder of the historical coalition on the Democratic side that supported unions. And I think that's something we're going to have to figure out going forward. But having said all of that, if we can't figure it out here, we can't figure it out anywhere.”
Regan went on to say that he believes much of the American public doesn’t like the increasing trends towards inequality.
“Huge majorities of Americans think the federal minimum wage ought to be increased dramatically, (but it) can't be passed in the U.S. Congress. The institution that we rely on doesn't work to deliver what the majority wants. Same thing is true in the economy. Most American workers want to have a union, but they can't get it.”
“The social contract was broken down when the National Labor Relations Act was passed. Large swaths of the business community thought that it was legitimate and appropriate for workers to have organizations. That's not true today, and so people like yourselves can do something about that going forward.”
Valerie Hardy-Mahoney spoke next about the role the NLRA plays in protecting workers rights. She explained that efforts were underway to change the law on captive audience meetings. These are meetings that are called by an employer who demands mandatory attendance as soon as they know there’s talk of a union among their employees.
“Maybe the CEO comes into the facility for the first time, and they're at this meeting, (saying) unions are bad, you don't need a union, and there's a certain line that you cross when you go from your opinion about a union to violating the NLRA by committing an 8A1 violation, a threat that it will be futile for you people to select a union.”
“That's a garden variety unfair labor practice.”
Hardy-Mahoney went on to explain that employers at these meetings are often able to avoid any direct violation, and the mandatory attendance puts employees under pressure to vote against unionizing. The NLRB’s general counsel has asked the Board to amend the National Labor Relations Act so that mandatory meetings are considered unlawful, and that employers must make it clear to employees attending these meetings that they are voluntary.
The discussion then turned to the issues surrounding freight railroad union workers and their current labor contract. Peter Olney spoke about it being a “complicated situation with a lot of history” going back to 1894 and a failed attempt by Eugene Debs to organize the American Railway Union.
“Debs and the Pullman strike were unsuccessful, his union was crushed, he was put in jail, and since that time we've had multiple unions representing railroad workers based on different crafts and different jobs. So, you have twelve unions, representing about 130,000 workers.”
The rail workers operate under the Railway Labor Act, passed in 1926. It allows Congress to intervene to resolve disputes between labor unions and railroads as part of its constitutional powers and a way to avoid disruptions in interstate commerce.
In the current labor contract, Onley said the pay increase is quite good, but the big issue now is time off. “At this moment, (the workers) basically do not have the ability to take time off for illness or whatever without doctor’s notes and a whole rigmarole. So, they're very angry about that, (and) we’ll see what happens.”
(Editor’s note: On November 30th, Congress voted in favor of a measure that forced rail unions to accept a contract negotiated in September.)
Moderator Mendonca then asked the panel to look forward five or ten years and predict what we might see in the US as it relates to the future of organizing power.
Regan said there is a level of activity “that's qualitatively different than anything we've seen recently, although still inadequate. But I think we're going to see more of it, and I think what inevitably will happen is that workers, and unions and other organizations that care about the economy are going to create non-collective bargaining outlets for workers to organize.
“We're not relying on traditional collective bargaining, and I think we're going to see a growing set of organizations that aren't classic unions.”
He went on to say that one of the problems is the length of time it takes to adjudicate cases at the NLRB which can be two to five years on average.
“I'm a believer that the biggest growth that's going to happen is going to come outside of our traditional legal regimes … people need and demand solutions, and creativity will overtake a lot of that.”
After the moderated discussion, the panel fielded questions from the audience. One student asked about the lack of diversity at the union leadership level and the panel agreed that it was an ongoing issue. This prompted Peter Olney to reveal some striking statistics on union membership overall.
“We are currently at six percent in the private sector (in union membership). In 1955, we were at 35 percent in the private sector. What buoys us is the public sector where we’re at about 35 percent, so our aggregate is 10 to 12 percent.” Olney went on to say that the challenge of growing organized labor is in having the political will to invest money and take the risks needed to “try and save ourselves as viable institutions in this country.”
Mendonca then asked the three panelists for some closing comments as well as any advice for the students, faculty, and members of Stanford business school.
Valerie Hardy-Mahoney:
“All of you are going to make a decision about what you're going to do with your education.
I just want you to keep in mind that this nation has committed itself to democracy in the workplace. And even though there are lots of problems, there are lots of things that need to be improved. It is the law of the land.”
“People have rights, and we do the best that we can, given the priorities of whatever Congress we're dealing with, to be there for employees. They are not alone when it comes to seeking to improve their working conditions wherever they work, and I know that we will continue to protect them.”
Peter Olney:
“I would again pitch the labor movement as a force for fighting income inequality and fighting for democracy, so we need to fortify the labor movement. We need new creative minds and approaches. Dave's talked about the need for thinking outside the box. Business school education prepares people to do that, so find that ideology with the working class and bring your talents to our movement.”
Dave Regan:
“The United States and the business community in the United States has been uniquely hostile towards unions, and they've been extraordinarily successful … But trust your senses, right? We’ve got 200,000 homeless people in California. Two miles from this campus, there are people sleeping in cars. Inequality is an enormous problem. It is rotting this society from the inside out. Majorities of citizens in this country do not want the world we are tolerating, and we need you guys.”
“We can create a different ethic and a different understanding among us … we have to have a different social contract. We need the business community. We need enlightened leadership.”
Lenny Mendonca closed out the panel with his own call to action.
“When you have an environment as Dave described, where it's not working the way the majority of people want … that's a huge opportunity for innovation, and new models, and new energy and leadership and entrepreneurship. I think that's absolutely the case. It would be great if Stanford Business School was the home, where that innovation happened. It's ripe for it, and I know the panelists here would welcome conversations with anyone privately, who would be interested in pursuing that. So, with that, thank you for joining and I look forward to continuing the conversation.”
After the event, many students told Saez that they felt energized by the panel, arguing that “this should be a course, not just a 1-hour session.” Based on this clear desire for more on this important topic, Juan and the team are beginning to plan a follow-up, day-long workshop.
