Addressing Barriers to Unionization: Centering Worker Perspectives & New Possibilities

• In Event: Organizing and Union Strategy

Abstract

National surveys indicate that more American workers are interested in forming a union. However, winning formal union recognition is a resource-intensive process, and unions currently lack the organizational capacity to support every worker who wishes to unionize. While many workers have experience participating in non-labor social movements, and some even seek out online training on the fundamentals of labor organizing, most worker-led campaigns take years to reach formal union recognition or fizzle before reaching a majority showing of interest. Drawing on interview and focus group data with workers who have contacted the Emergency Workplace Organizing Committee (EWOC), a grassroots organizing project of DSA and UE, this study explores what kinds of support workers need to form and sustain a labor organization in the U.S. Both researchers are actively involved in EWOC and co-lead its biannual intermediate organizing program. Our three research questions emerged from two years of participant-observation as mentor-trainers: (1) For workers trying to unionize who are not currently working with or supported by a union, what are the barriers they’re facing to unionization? (2) How do these workers define what it means to be part of the labor movement? (3) How do they envisage a "successful" outcome, especially in cases where formal union recognition is unlikely? Data collection for this project is ongoing but preliminary findings suggest that workers are actively experimenting with alternative organizational forms, such as pre-majority and independent unionism, but struggle to sustain these projects without either a means of fundraising through dues collection or external material and legal resources. Workers also struggle to envision success short of winning an election or securing voluntary recognition. Sampling for “not-yet-successful” cases, this project uses workers' own reflections about the resources they need to build power in workplaces that prove stubbornly resistant to unionization.

Authors

• Jelger Adriaan Kalmijn, California State University San Diego

• Sara Gia Trongone, University of Massachusetts Amherst