Center for Business and Economic Research - Ball State University


CBER Data Center
Projects and PublicationsEconomic IndicatorsWeekly CommentaryCommunity Asset InventoryManufacturing Scorecard

About

Commentaries are published weekly and distributed through the Indianapolis Business Journal and many other print and online publications. Disclaimer

RSS Feed

Disclaimer

The views expressed in these commentaries do not reflect those of Ball State University or the Center for Business and Economic Research.

Recent

Two Key Economic Lessons in One BillHoosiers face trade-offs and opportunity costs in the wake of SEA1.

Time to Fix Economic Development PolicyAllocating tax dollars to land development won’t cause economic growth.

The Unanticipated Effects of SB1Businesses, governments and households may all feel the effects.

The Stupidest of PoliciesThis whipsawing of tariff rates has unnerved financial markets, which on Wednesday, were toying with a liquidity crisis.

View archives

Top Tags

jobs and employment 261
economics 201
state and local government 188
education 186
indiana 171
economic development 171
budget and spending 145
taxes 144
law and public policy 142
workforce and human capital 139
Browse all tags
Reporter / Admin Login

September 2, 2012

Labor Day and the Transformation of Unions

This week my third grader asked me what Labor Day was all about. I told him it was a chance to visit Grandma and sample some peach pie—both sufficient reasons for a holiday.  The realities of Labor Day are a more complicated affair.  What I didn't tell him was that in this column, on a sunny Labor Day five years past, I asserted that the American labor movement was dead.  Given what has transpired, it would appear my diagnosis was a bit optimistic.

On this weekend it might be good to focus on what has become of the labor movement that once meant so much to America. To begin, I have to clarify that I have neither love nor antipathy for unions.  They are simply a social movement to be studied and I assume they are filled with men and women of good will and bad will in equal proportion to the population as a whole.

For a long time, three-quarters of a century perhaps, industrial unions made an important difference in national policy.  It is almost banal to recount many of the things about the workplace that we now take for granted were championed for by unions.  For a long time too, the big American unions were solidly democratic (with a small d, as in democracy).  It is no accident that we celebrate a day to recognize labor in September, not on May 1st, the traditional holiday of socialist movements.

Over the past three decades, much has changed.  The American union movement has lost membership faster than any mainstream group in our national history.  Today, about one in 18 workers in the private sector belong to a union, down from more than one in three when I was a boy.  In contrast, more than one in three government workers are now in unions.  This decline came at the tail end of a long string of policy successes, but it also came at a time when unions began providing huge financial support to one political party, most recently a whopping $400 million spent in the 2008 election.  They went from being small d, to big D, Democrats.

This asymmetry of financial support accompanied an overall shift in policy focus.  The American labor movement is no longer about workers wrestling with companies for a share of revenues.  The American labor movement today is animated by an effort to wrest from taxpayers every available dollar.  This has pushed hundreds of cities and several states to the edge of bankruptcy.  It has also enriched union leaders.  For example, the Indiana State Teachers Association has a slew of folks making over $200,000 a year.

Now, I want to be quick to add that I don’t think ISTA leadership is overpaid.  After all, these folks have to argue with straight-faced composure that Indiana teachers ought not to receive annual performance evaluations like the rest of us.  That is six-figure brass.  This is what Labor Day has turned into, and is why so many American taxpayers will focus on something else this year.

Link to this commentary: https://commentaries.cberdata.org/639/labor-day-and-the-transformation-of-unions

Tags: jobs and employment, right-to-work and labor unions


About the Author

Michael Hicks cberdirector@bsu.edu

Michael J. Hicks, PhD, is the director of the Center for Business and Economic Research and the George and Frances Ball distinguished professor of economics in the Miller College of Business at Ball State University. Note: The views expressed here are solely those of the author, and do not represent those of funders, associations, any entity of Ball State University, or its governing body.

© Center for Business and Economic Research, Ball State University

About Ball State CBER Data Center

Ball State CBER Data Center is one-stop shop for economic data including demographics, education, health, and social capital. Our easy-to-use, visual web tools offer data collection and analysis for grant writers, economic developers, policy makers, and the general public.

Ball State CBER Data Center (cberdata.org) is a product of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University. CBER's mission is to conduct relevant and timely public policy research on a wide range of economic issues affecting the state and nation. Learn more.

Terms of Service

Center for Business and Economic Research

Ball State University • Whitinger Business Building, room 149
2000 W. University Ave.
Muncie, IN 47306-0360
Phone:
765-285-5926
Email:
cber@bsu.edu
Website:
www.bsu.edu/cber
Facebook:
www.facebook.com/BallStateCBER
Twitter:
www.twitter.com/BallStateCBER
Close