Solidarity Forever? The Success and Prevalance of Labor Unions in the US

Red Cassowary
Ming DeMers, Tasnimul Taher, Isabel Dawson, Anthony Ma

2024-03-01

Introduction

• What are unions?

  • Democratic bodies

  • Collective bargaining for the working people

  • 40 hr work week, minimum wage, end of child labor

  • “Right to work?”

  • Corruption?

Introduction

• Dataset from TidyTuesday on 09/05/2023

  • Data set generated by Hirsch et al. (unionstats.com)
  • Original data from IPUMS Current Population Survey

• Split into 3 datasets

  • demos: union-related demographic info

  • states: employment + union-related data by state

  • wages: wage info within unions

• Additional dataset about the “Right to Work” timeline across all states

Question 1

How have unions grown throughout the years, and in which states/sectors are they most prevalent?

Question 1: Intro and Approach

• Labor unions rely on membership numbers for strength in negotiations and advocacy.

• Use demos to determine trend of union influence

• Approach

  • Geographic heatmap of membership in the US in 1983 and 2023

  • Line graph of membership of the top 5 states by membership and sector

Question 1: Analysis and Discussion

Question 1: Analysis and Discussion

Question 1: Analysis and Discussion

Question 2

How do Right to Work laws impact union membership and Union Coverage?

Question 2: Intro and Approach

Critics argue that Right to Work laws are unfair to workers, supporters argue that benefiting from unions should necessitate membership

How do Right to Work laws impact union membership and union coverage?

To investigate this question, we’ll look at union membership and union coverage over time across Right to Work and non-Right to Work states.

Question 2: Analysis and Discussion

Question 2: Analysis and Discussion

Conclusion

• Right to Work laws correlate with decreased union membership and union coverage

• Decreasing unionization since at least 1983

• Union membership is lowest in the middle of the country