Matthew Dimick is Associate Professor of Law at the University at Buffalo School of Law. He can be reached at mdimick@buffalo.edu.
Last week, the US Department of Labor released its latest union membership statistics. In 2016, the rate of union membership among wage and salary earners—or union density—was 10.7 percent, down 0.4 percent from the previous year. Unsurprisingly, union membership remains low, and far below its historical high point. In 1964, for example, nearly a third of workers belonged to a labor union.
Union density is not the end-all and be-all of unionism, but it’s hard to overestimate its importance for succinctly capturing the strength of a labor movement. Union members pay dues, are more likely to vote (and probably more likely to vote Democrat), and are more likely to participate in job actions and other tactics necessary to put economic pressure on an employer. Even more broadly (and loftily), union membership initiates workers into an institution of community for both transcending differences (e.g., between races and genders) and developing broader, collective interests.
It’s not surprising therefore that goal number one of the labor movement has been to reverse the decades-long decline in union density. This goal takes on existential proportions in light of the continued legal and political assaults on labor unions. Last year, public sector unions—constituting no less than 40 percent of total union membership—dodged a bullet when the death of Justice Scalia led to a deadlocked Supreme Court in the Friedrichs case. Had Justice Scalia lived, it is almost certain that the Court would have allowed public sector workers to enjoy the benefits of collective bargaining without having to join the union or otherwise contribute to supporting it financially.
Unfortunately, with a Trump presidency, labor supporters weren’t allowed much of a reprieve. And given the larger political climate and vicissitudes of national labor law, this should impel the labor movement to seek out other ways of building union membership. One of these ways, as I discuss in this post, is to adopt what is called the “Ghent system.”