Disorganized labor
Interestingly, union members still enjoy a wage advantage over nonunion workers. Full-time wage and salary union workers last year had median weekly earnings of $781, compared with a median of $612 for nonunion workers, which amounts to a nearly $9,000 difference in annual pay. Collective bargaining created those pay advantages, but the union pay gap may only be temporary.
The question is whether organized labor can restore sufficient strength to counteract the excessive power of business. At least one labor leader is proposing radical reforms, however. Andrew Stern, president of Service Employees International Union, the fastest-growing private union with 1.8 million members, has proposed consolidating the AFL-CIO's 58 member unions into about 20, organizing Wal-Mart's workers, and keeping half the member dues to create a $2 billion war chest for recruitment and organization. "We can reward American work and American workers," Stern says, "but we're going to need . . . labor unions to be strong again."
To achieve that goal, organized labor must recommit itself to the origins of the union movement and put the well-being of American workers first and foremost. Let's hope that our unions can recapture their spirit and their soul.
advertisement
