State of the (Labor) Union Address

My Fellow World Citizens:

Labor unions continued to decline by key measures the past year. 2018 was a good year, however, for billionaires (J.B. Pritzker, Illinois Democratic Governor; Donald Trump, Republican President; Howard Schultz, Independent …).

The union membership rate was 10.5 percent in 2018, down by 0.2 percentage point from 2017. In 1983, that figure was 20.1%.

In 2018, the Supreme Court weakened the ability of unions to require members to pay dues to support bargaining-related activities.

On a positive note, in states where teachers cannot legally bargain with school districts— West Virginia, Oklahoma, and Arizona— teachers walked out en masse and "bargained" with their Republican legislatures. They won large pay increases and more funding for books and other educational resources. So far, this First Amendment right has not been extinguished (though bills have been introduced to this effect in Oklahoma).

The federal minimum wage remains stuck at $7.25 per hour. It’s been at that level since 2007. If the minimum wage had kept up with its highest value, adjusted for inflation (i.e., the 1968 rate), the minimum wage would be $11.62 per hour.

Meanwhile, there are 540 billionaires in the United States, with a combined net worth of $2.399 trillion. That’s a 2016 figure. Given the robust economy for the super-rich, that number may have grown.

Finally, consider the destabilizing effects of inequality of wealth. The American blue collar worker, bereft of collective bargaining, has largely turned to a billionaire to make life more secure. In France, another super-rich president pushed through legislation to make it easier for employers to fire workers. France is besieged by violent protests from “yellow vest” working class people who are deeply alienated. In Hungary, under the rule of authoritarian leader Viktor Orban, a law was recently enacted to allow employers to defer payment of 800 hours of overtime for two years to workers.

Unions are down. Wealth inequality is increasing. Social conflict is intensifying, as is political instability. Unless some balance is restored, these unsettling trends will directly affect a growing number of Americans. The next affected group: federal workers, many of whom are represented by unions.