Amid declining membership, organizing defeats, and mismanagement, some union bosses find themselves at a crossroads.
In attempts to maintain their outsize political influence among historically low union participation, they're pushing tactics that have negative consequences for workers and businesses.
Dig deeper: A new study illuminates how unions leverage the government to circumvent the long-established policies of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA). This federal law was designed to nationalize labor policy, creating a cohesive labor relations system extending across state borders.
However, the labor environment is undergoing significant changes.
Voices diminished: Labor standards boards, which can set work rules without meaningful input from workers, are increasingly influencing the workplace. These boards represent a shift in how labor policies are formed and implemented, demonstrating a new dynamic in the relationship between workers, unions, and government.
- Lack of employee participation: Workers may be represented without meaningful input, which diminishes their voice in the decision-making process.
- Expands state and local government power: Several states and local governments have adopted these boards, dramatically altering local labor practices and setting precedents for future labor policies.
- Limits innovation: Because these boards are intended to impose the same standards on all employers in an industry, they reduce incentives to innovate and become more efficient — meaning fewer jobs and lower growth.
Playbook: Unions use various additional methods to maintain influence, including:
- Sectoral wages: Unions push for standardized wages in targeted industries to make it easier to organize workers. This strategy is often used where unionization has previously failed.
- Ballot initiatives: Unions use ballot initiatives to enact laws that raise labor costs and reduce competition, like eliminating tipped wages, to indirectly support union goals.
- Labor peace agreements: State and local governments force employers to sign agreements that limit their ability to resist organizing, often as a condition for government contracts or financing.
- Foreign law: Unions leverage foreign regulations, like Germany's supply chain law, to pressure U.S. companies into compliance with union-friendly standards, bypassing U.S. labor laws.
- Abusing the proxy process: Unions buy company shares to introduce shareholder resolutions that pressure companies to adopt pro-union policies, using SEC rules to strengthen their influence.
Bottom line: These union tactics are more about maintaining political influence than delivering for workers. Leveraging government to bypass established labor laws creates uncertainty and produces an unpredictable regulatory climate.
USCC White Paper Union Tactics
Originally published by U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
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