OPINION:
After months of union strikes from Detroit to Hollywood, the labor movement is back where it started: swimming against the tide.
While many Americans express public support for labor unions, they are far less supportive when it comes to joining one. The media frenzy over Starbucks Workers United — the union hoping to unionize the coffee company — missed the real point. After a year of intense organizing, less than 4% of company-owned coffee shops in the United States have voted for a union. And 70 stores had a majority vote to reject the opportunity to pay dues.
According to Gallup, two-thirds of Americans approve of labor unions. But this vague approval is as far as it goes. In a clear case of cognitive dissonance, nearly the same two-thirds of the polled nonunion workforce have no interest in joining a union. It’s no surprise that the nongovernment workforce is 94% nonunion.
What about the feelings of current union members? Fewer than half of unionized workers say membership is “extremely important” to them, with the rest ranging from mildly to extremely uninterested. Most belong to unions because membership is a requirement of the job — they never had a vote or a choice on paying dues. And union bosses who enjoy their perks see a regular, government-supervised revote (like we have with all elected representatives) as a red line that won’t be crossed.
It doesn’t help the union brand that the AFL-CIO federation of unions is being slammed by their own staff employees (who are in their own union). The increasingly outspoken staff have publicly denounced their union bosses for delivering “paltry salary raises” and “pension cuts.” All the while, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler collected nearly $300,000 in total compensation last year — about 40% more than the average pay of a U.S. chief executive.
Given President Biden’s pro-union appointments to the National Labor Relations Board and the Department of Labor, he can rightly claim to be the “most pro-union president” in American history. Byt it hasn’t escaped the new UAW brass (the old brass is in prison for the embezzlement of member dues) that Mr. Biden’s “electric vehicle revolution” relies on building cars without transmissions, complex engines, consequently with fewer members — and fewer dues dollars.
UAW bosses already learned an expensive lesson when they tried to unionize foreign auto brands that are building cars in America. They have repeatedly been rejected in votes. And they failed in earlier stages with some auto manufacturer employees who didn’t give them enough early support to even qualify for an election. And elections are the real test of how Americans feel about unions, not vague polling.
The UAW’s next ploy may be to demand that Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis (Fiat Chrysler and Jeep) agree in current negotiations to extend union recognition in their new battery plants without giving the newly hired workforce a vote. That may be the price of labor peace. And while these factories will be built, neither Mr. Biden nor the UAW can dictate where companies build them. And current trends indicate that the states most likely to see new battery factories do not permit compulsory union membership.
Thus, the labor movement is back at square one. On the one hand, union bosses are making plenty of noise in contract negotiations with legacy union shops. On the other hand, their relevance stops at the only question that really matters: “Does anyone want to join a union?”
Whether they assemble fancy coffee drinks or car engines, most Americans are still saying no, thanks. And no recent strike has changed their minds.
• Rick Berman serves as president of RBB Strategies.
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