IWER
Labor
New Report Finds an Increasing Proportion of “Union Curious” Workers
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In surveys conducted since 2018, a larger share of nonunionized U.S. workers than in previous decades report they are neither supportive of or opposed to voting for a union in their workplace. Instead, these workers are uncertain.
That’s one of the key findings of “The Rise of the ‘Union Curious,’” a new report published by the Economic Policy Institute and coauthored by John S. Ahlquist, Jake Grumbach, and Thomas Kochan. Ahlquist is a professor of political economy at UC San Diego’s School of Global Policy and Strategy, Grumbach is an associate professor at the Goldman School of Public Policy at UC Berkeley, and Kochan is the George Maverick Bunker Professor Emeritus at the MIT Sloan School of Management and a faculty member in the MIT Institute for Work and Employment Research (IWER).
The researchers’ analysis also indicates that the percentage of nonunion workers opposed to unionization has declined. And, in a 2022 survey of frontline workers in five industries, the researchers found that workers aged 30 and under are significantly more supportive of unions than older workers. Furthermore, experiencing more types of problems at work (such as unstable schedules or underpayment) was associated with greater support for unionization, as was workers reporting having less say that they wanted on various topics related to working conditions, such as scheduling and safety.
“Bad jobs increase the likelihood of voting for the union and reduce both uncertainty and resistance to unionization,” Ahlquist, Grumbach, and Kochan observe.
The authors argue that unions interested in growing their membership should substantially increase their investments in educating uncertain “union curious” workers about unions and their benefits for workers. Ahlquist, Grumbach and Kochan note that, after decades of declining rates of union membership in the U.S., fewer of today’s workers have union experience, either from having been union members in the past or having family members who belong to a union.
“There are substantial numbers of ‘union curious’ workers awaiting more information, contact, and innovative organizing that can address their pent-up demand for a greater voice at work,” Ahlquist, Grumbach, and Kochan conclude.
