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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