Q&A: The changing landscape of American labor

This Monday marks the 125th year that the United States has recognized Labor Day, a federal holiday established in 1894 by President Grover Cleveland.

The focus of the labor movement has shifted in recent decades amid significant labor policy changes at the state level, says Manuel Pastor, Distinguished Professor of Sociology and American Studies and Ethnicity at USC Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences. Pastor, who holds the Turpanjian Chair in Civil Society and Social Change, explains what efforts are underway that hinder (so-called “right-to-work” laws) and help (wage increases and wage equality laws) the labor movement.

How has the labor movement changed in recent decades?

“Labor has been going through some tough transformations because the major mainstay of labor movements and unions in the past — manufacturing — has shrunk so much. And the public sector, which has been another strong base for labor, has also faced tough circumstances, partly because of fiscal constraints and taxpayer revolts and other issues of that sort.

“Perhaps unsurprisingly, with worker’s voice limited by declining unionization, shifts in the distribution of income have been profound. A new report from the Economic Policy Institute shows the pay of CEOs over the last 40 years has gone up by about 940% in real terms. Average worker pay has gone up by about 12% in real median wages — despite the fact that worker productivity has increased by about 90% over this time period.

“Of course, changing technology and globalization have played a role in the ways in which productivity gains have not translated to wage gains. But the decline in union power and the reduction in worker bargaining power have played a key — and some argue dominant — role.

“There has, however, been a kind of a revitalization of the labor movement in the face of this widening inequality. A lot of low-wage service workers have been quite open to unionization. Hospitality workers, people who are doing daycare, health care, etc, which were often as difficult to organize, have instead responded and become a big sector for positive, labor organizing over time.”

Twenty-seven states over the years have adopted ‘right-to-work’ laws that mean employees do not have to pay union dues or join unions that negotiate their contracts. In many cases, these laws also mean that workers are “at will” and can be fired at any time for any reason. Are these policies helping or hindering the labor movement?

“Labor has been faced with pretty concerted efforts from the political right, which have been pretty brilliant. One would never have thought, for example, that a law labeled ‘the right to work’ is not about the right at all and is instead aimed at enhancing employer ability to lower your pay. It’s kind of the opposite of the ‘right to work’ — at least, the right to work at a decent wage. I am constantly amazed by this kind of creativity of the right.

What gives you hope in that context?

“There are new forms of labor organizing, which I think are smart. You see it here in Los Angeles for example, with the Los Angeles Alliance for New Economy, which has been able to bring together labor and community forces to help push living wage ordinances, and help push community benefits agreements, which are arrangements between developers and unions in neighborhoods to do a better job of delivering local benefits.

“And of course, the fight for $15 an hour [minimum wage] has been extraordinarily important in lifting up the bottom of the labor market in so many big metro areas and more progressive states.

“There’s a lot of social movement unionization that is, for example, tackling inequality. But it’s not the same thing as organizing, say, manufacturing workers who will pay dues or public-sector employees who will pay dues and help finance the labor movement. So, labor is facing a tough time with figuring out a revenue model in the current era.”

How has the gig economy changed the landscape for labor?

“The gig economy is not just the tech sector. It’s also warehouse workers, who are actually considered to be temporary workers. Warehouses will contract with a temp firm, and the workers don’t have any permanent employment.

“And lots of the truck drivers that have worked out of the ports of Los Angeles who were once in big firms and protected by union contracts are considered to be independent contractors.”

What’s the best way forward to improve life for workers?

Last year, we wrote a report called From Resistance to Renewal: A 12-Step Program for Innovation and Inclusion in the California Economy. The idea is that California has tried to model itself as the resistance to Trump and the right, but in order to really renew things, the state needs to have a more vibrant economy that can sustain people going forward. And I think there’s lots of things that you can do to empower workers to be able to do better in the workplace. Some of it is about job changes — transformations for workers of the future because of technology. So, we need to get used to the idea that people have to shift jobs and that change like this really calls more for portable benefits, like the Affordable Care Act or savings accounts that are portable.

“Another wake-up call is about demography. When people hear about demographic change, they tend to think of a shifting ethnic mix. In California, that has slowed down dramatically. The biggest change that seems to be happening is aging: In the year 2010, 11% of Californians were 65 years old or older, but in the year 2016, that share rises to 26%. So, we’re going to have a big caregiving economy — but are we going to care about the workers who are caring for others? That’s going to require a lot of investment in worker protection as well education and job training — the sort of training that takes place in community colleges to retrain adults. We will get nowhere without reorganizing the tax structure, and by that I mean a progressive tax or a wealth tax.

“We also need to consider making sure that boards of corporations are representing workers’ interests, as well. There are proposals out there to place workers on those boards. And just recently the Business Roundtable, an association that represents nearly 200 of America’s largest corporations, came out with a statement saying that CEOs needed to consider all of their stakeholders — including employees, communities and suppliers — and not just their shareholders in making business decisions. We need to see how this actually plays out but that is at least a rhetorical start.”