Reconstituting Themselves as Social Movements: Frame Extension and the Limits of Public Support for Labor Unions

• In Event: 20263 - Recent Advances in Social Movement Research

Abstract

Using a survey experiment combined with qualitative analysis of open-ended survey questions to probe the nuances of contemporary public support for labor unions, this article offers unique empirical insight into the limitations of “frame extension processes.”

Within social movement scholarship, the labor movement is the quintessential “old” social movement. And yet, as labor unions became institutionalized over the twentieth century, the social meaning attached to unionism arguably changed – from social movement organization to interest group. Over the past 15 years, however, union workers and supporters have engaged in what cultural theorists of social movements call “frame extension” to reassert unions’ social movement bona fides. Drawing from the discursive successes of other movements, unionists have emphasized the intersections between labor unions and related social and political causes: unions advocate for the 99%, bargain for the common good, and challenge race and gender subordination. In turn, public support for unions has climbed from the lowest point in American history in 2009 to a 60-year high in 2023.

In this Article, I use a survey experiment to show that these high contemporary levels of support for labor unions may belie ongoing ambivalence about core labor union functions. In a moment of high public support for unions, framing unions as advocates for the 99% resulted in even higher levels of support for unions relative to a control condition. At the same time, framing unions as fighting to improve workers’ jobs resulted in lower levels of support for unions relative to a control condition – at least among those respondents who paid closest attention. Moreover, qualitative coding suggests that the mediating variable between the job quality framing and decreased support was concern about unions’ negative impact on the economy. Unions are extremely popular today, and yet many people – even those who express support for unions – remain concerned that good jobs are not economically sustainable.

This case study accordingly emphasizes the potential limits of frame extension processes, and of framing more generally. Notwithstanding the many advantages of strategic framing, it is not a substitute for organizing or ideological change.

Author

• Diana Reddy, University of California Berkeley