Ending Hunger in America, 2014 Hunger Report Full Report | Page 90

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The United States
lags behind other
industrialized nations
in collective bargaining
coverage of workers.

80? Chapter 2

n

or simply steals wages—people who struggle to gain any job are often afraid to stand up for
their rights.
Traditionally, low-wage workers have gained bargaining power by forming unions and
bargaining collectively. Blue-collar workers covered by collective bargaining agreements
earn more than 23 percent more than their peers in similar jobs not covered by such agreements.119 Unions also have the
effect of increasing wages for nonunion workers in the same industry
and geographic area.120 This is
important because it means that
unions are not just narrow interest
groups benefitting their members
but can also advance the interests
of a wider proportion of working
people.
In 2011, 17.8 percent of bluecollar men were covered by collective bargaining agreements, down
from 43.1 percent in 1978.123 The
decline in union membership mirrors the decline in wage rates since
the late 1970s; it is a major cause
of the increase in wage inequality
in the United States over the same
period. The main reason that
union membership is falling, argue labor leaders, is that the federal government has permitted management to block workers from organizing. If management fires workers who
attempt to organize, the workers have the right to petition the National Labor Relations
Board for redress. But some of these cases have dragged on for years, so long that the workers
who tried to form a union have moved on to new jobs. The
Employee Free Choice Act, a bill that would make it easier
“Blue-collar workers
for workers to form a union and harder for management to
covered by collective
prevent this, passed with bipartisan support in the House of
bargaining agreements
Representatives in 2007 but was killed by a threatened filiearn more than 23
buster in the Senate. Overall, only 11.8 percent of workers are
percent more than their
now represented by a union, yet 58 percent say they would like
peers in similar jobs
to be.124 Hence it would be premature to write unions off as an
not covered by such
artifact of a bygone era. Between 1933 and 1954, union density
agreements.”
rose from 7 percent to 28 percent,125 and there is little reason
to believe that unions could not rise again.
For the moment, however, declines in union membership also mean fewer of the advantages that union members once enjoyed. Unions serve as watchdogs, ensuring that employers
comply with workplace regulations. Thus, workers now find themselves more dependent
on the enforcement of regulations in the Fair Labor Standards Act at a time when there is

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