AUGUST 29 • 2024 | 13
state over the past two decades
and a key leader for Michigan’s
labor movement.
Jewish Americans are still
prominent in American Labor.
The president of the national
AFT, one of the larger unions
in the AFL-CIO, is Randi
Weingarten.
The secular Jewish Labor
Committee is still operating.
And there are still plenty of Jews
occupying the most important
level of the labor movement:
individual union membership.
FUTURE OF LABOR
The half-million U.S. workers
who struck in 2023 was double
the number for 2022, according
to Cornell Labour Action
Tracker. More strikes were held
in 2024.
Will we see this trend
continue? Will union
membership grow? No one
knows for sure. The economy
is a fickle beast, and it cannot
be precisely predicted. As the
economy rises and falls, so does
Labor as well as the businesses
who hire its members.
The world of work is going
to get tougher. The Information
Age is upon us, and many jobs
require serious digital skills to
manage massive amounts of
data upon which businesses and
government, and all of us, now
depend.
The most recent development
in new technologies is AI
or artificial intelligence.
Technological development is
a double-edged sword. While
creating new jobs with new
skills, it can also lead to lost jobs
that industries no longer require.
Despite the advent of robots
and automation, there will
still be manufacturing jobs in
America to make cars, steel and
other heavy goods, if not on the
same scale as in the past, before
cheap goods from Mexico, China
and other lands became part of
the global economy.
Reminiscent of the era when
manufacturing jobs dominated
the economy, the tremendous
growth of online shopping
and its necessary networks of
warehouses and distribution
systems means thousands upon
thousands of jobs. Most are
non-union at this point, but
this may change in the near
future. Likewise, the modern
economy has also generated an
abundance of jobs in the digital
and information sectors.
Historically, unions have
been formed when workers are
under-compensated or suffer
from unsafe or gruelling work
environments. Will workers
in the modern economy join
unions? Maybe, maybe not.
Unions also need to prove the
benefits of membership.
The challenge is huge for
Labor, for both members and
employers. The age-old work
dynamic will remain in place:
Employers will be loath to
give any measure of control to
their workers, and unions will
continue to bargain for increased
benefits and wages for their
members.
And union power depends
upon its members. The equation
is a simple one: the larger its
membership, the more clout a
union has.
If the last 248 years of
American history is any
gauge, unions are here to stay.
Unions have gained and lost
membership over the years, but
they have never disappeared.
Like unions or not, they have
made their mark on American
history and continue to represent
the interests of millions of
working men and women.
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