EPI is playing a critical role to strengthen our unions

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Friend,

The number of people in unions throughout the United States continues to fall. This is bad news for labor rights, and this is bad news for the middle class of the United States.

Did you see Heidi’s email below? The EPI Policy Center is fighting for policies that will lift up working families and make it easier to form unions. Can you make an end-of-month contribution today to fight for policies to strengthen unions and create an economy that works for all of us? ([link removed])

Thank you for your continued support,

Thea Lee
President, EPI Policy Center
DONATE TODAY ([link removed])
Friend,

Labor rights in the United States are under attack. At every turn, the Trump administration is attempting to undermine unions and weaken collective bargaining rights. Attacks are coming from the states, as well, often in the form of “right-to-work” laws.

This month, EPI published updated statistics ([link removed]) detailing that the share of workers in unions throughout the United States is now less than half of where it was 40 years ago.

This is bad news for our labor rights, and this is bad news for the middle class of the United States.

What can you do?

Make an end-of-month contribution to the EPI Policy Center today to fight for laws that protect workers’ right to organize and negotiate higher wages and better benefits through unions! ([link removed])

The share of workers in the U.S. who are represented by a union slid to 11.6% in 2019—and 7.1% in the private sector. That represents a decline from the prior year, and continues a long-term trend: unions are under attack—and policymakers have failed to step in to level the playing field. This has led to a steep decline in union coverage in the United States.

In the late 1970s, more than one in four people were represented by a union. That level has now slid dramatically to less than one in eight workers. That is a stunning erosion and has played a major role in the financial uncertainty of America’s middle class. As union coverage declines, so do the prospects of working families throughout our country. Working people are now losing around $200 billion annually as a result of the decline in unions over the last 40 years—with that money being redistributed upward, to the people who already have the most.

The rapid erosion of union representation is not because workers don’t want unions anymore. Far from it.

In fact, a higher share of nonunion workers today say they would vote for a union in their workplace than was the case 40 years ago.

Fierce corporate opposition to union organizing is a primary contributor to the rapid decline of unions in the United States.

Although the National Labor Relations Act makes it illegal for employers to intimidate, coerce, or fire workers in retaliation for participating in union-organizing campaigns, the penalties are grossly insufficient to provide a meaningful disincentive for such behavior. In more than two in five union elections, employers are charged with illegal behavior, and in at least one in five union elections, employers are charged with illegally firing workers who are involved in organizing.

As union membership falls—so do the economic prospects of the middle class. The time is now for Congress to stand up for working people throughout the United States—and one of the best ways to do that is by strengthening labor unions.

The Trump administration has been working overtime to undermine labor protections and union rights that have taken a century to build. Donate to the EPI Policy Center today to stop those harmful attacks. ([link removed])

Policymakers have introduced legislation, the Protecting the Right to Organize (PRO) Act and the Public Sector Freedom to Negotiate Act, which would modernize and reform current labor law.

A vote on the PRO Act in the House of Representatives is expected soon, possibly as early as next week. These bills would help restore union coverage and the right to representation on the job, and Congress should pass them immediately.

The EPI Policy Center is here to fight for the rights of working people throughout the United States. Together, we can enact meaningful legislation to protect working families. ([link removed])

In solidarity,

Heidi Shierholz
Senior Economist and Director of Policy, EPI Policy Center
DONATE TODAY ([link removed])

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