I subscribe to the “Poem A Day” service of the American Academy of Poets. A few days ago a poem by Angela C. Trudell Vasquez arrived in my inbox as the poem for the day. Here it is:
I include this poem because I think it eloquently describes the atmosphere I witnessed as a young lawyer working in the early 70’s for the California Rural Legal Assistance office in El Centro and Calexico, California. It was in this office that I met John Denvir, fellow co-author of this newsletter. It was a time when Cesar Chavez was well into organizing farmworkers—an effort that culminated a few years later in a nationwide grape boycott and eventually the signing of labor contracts between grape and lettuce growers and the United Farmworkers of America.
To put a human face on those times and on the role of unions in improving the economic well-being of employees, I’d like to describe a little of my own and my family’s experience in and around California’s Imperial Valley at the beginning of the 1970’s.
As attorneys with the California Rural Legal Assistance (CRLA) office funded by the United States Office of Economic Opportunity, we were prohibited from taking legal sides on behalf of Cesar Chavez’s drive to organize a farmworkers union. For example, we couldn’t file complaints against employers for violations of the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) or represent farmworkers before the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) and of course we couldn’t represent the union itself. But as lawyers charged with offering legal assistance to California’s rural poor you can imagine where our hearts lay. There was no prohibition on our being present and observing picketing sites; no prohibition on offering Cesar Chavez a bed and a meal at our apartment when he came through the Imperial Valley; no prohibition on my wife Audrey’s giving English lessons to farmworkers who were the subject of Señor Chaves’ organizing drive, nor on her grateful acceptance from Guicho, one of the farmworkers in her English class, of an entire crate of asparagus direct from the field.
As the organizing drive unfolded, we were witness to many of the abuses of farmworkers by growers in the Imperial Valley that had given birth and impetus to the labor organizing movement: entire migrant families that traveled to the area from afar in response to specific recruiting offers of secure jobs, good wages and free housing, only to find either no jobs or occasional day jobs with no security, lower wages than promised and migrant housing that was neither free nor secure from arbitrary evictions by powerful growers.
As young lawyers, our caseload would occasionally include poor farmworkers who needed help qualifying for government related benefits to which they were entitled as a result of the unreliable fieldwork. One of our office’s impressive achievements was that of securing, with Cesar Chavez’s approval, federal funding for a local health clinic to serve migrant farmworkers, a project conceived and spearheaded by co-author and fellow young lawyer, John Denvir. Today, that small clinic has expanded with offices all over the Imperial Valley that offer not only medical but also dental care to their patients.
It was a heady time.
In the case of the United Farmworkers of America, significant gains were made over the years: wage increases; health care benefits; pension benefits; improvements in daily working conditions; prohibitions on the use of toxic pesticides while workers toiled in the fields. Field toilets, clean drinking water and breaks became guaranteed. Use of the infamous “short hoe” that wreaked physical havoc with the backs of farmworkers has been eliminated. The grower’s routine use of farm labor contractors—middlemen in the hiring process, who frequently accepted bribes and played favorites—has been banned bringing job security and seniority. Some union contracts have even included profit sharing plans. And, of course with employment stability came the right to enjoy the benefits of other labor laws including unemployment and disability insurance and worker’s compensation.
From my perspective, as a newly arrived resident of Calexico on the border with Mexico, the typical farmworker’s life changed almost overnight from that of a poor immigrant lacking basic employment security, to that of an employee, albeit of seasonal work, with relatively secure employment and a financial future. The changes spread beyond the cultivated fields of produce and grapes. I think it is fair to say that it was the united farmworker’s union movement that inspired many changes in the social fabric of rural California. In Calexico, for example, within a decade, the city government and school board had both evolved from virtually all white membership to mostly Latino representation that more accurately reflected the composition of the local population. And another development—the son of our office’s legal secretary, Mary Ellen Nunez, and her farmworker husband, now sits as a Superior Court Judge in El Centro.
So what is the connection between these union related developments and the enormous growth in wealth and income inequality that currently exists in the United States? Research suggests a strong relationship between the growing inequality and the decrease in union membership that has occurred in the country over the past few decades. According to the US Bureau of Labor Statistics, the percentage of unionized workers in the country has fallen from 20.1% in 1983 to about 10.8% in 2020. And union membership in the private sector has decreased to 6.3% (one-fifth of that of public sector workers at 34.8%). As noted by the nonpartisan Economic Policy Institute (EPI), the correlation between the growth in income inequality and decrease in union membership is clear. In the words of an EPI Fact Sheet published in April of this year:
“Deunionization depressed the wages of middle-wage earners but had little impact on high-wage earners and therefore greatly increased wage inequality between these two groups. For instance, deunionization explains a third of the growth of the wage gap between high- and middle-wage earners over the 1979–2017 period.
The erosion of collective bargaining is the second largest factor that suppressed wage growth and fueled wage inequality over the last four decades—only excessive unemployment had a larger impact.[footnotes omitted].”
A chart included in the Fact Sheet is illustrative:
Indeed, there is perhaps no other grassroots movement that has historically had a more significant impact on raising the economic level of our country’s labor force than unions.
Despite these past decades’ decline in union membership, there is reason for optimism. For example, the Build Back Better legislation currently being advanced by President Biden and the Democrats offers some hope—hope in the form of support for worker organizing and harsher penalties for labor law violations. Unions have also expressed their strong support for Build Back Better legislation that is expected to create large numbers of union jobs in the fields of infrastructure modernization and investment in green energy. Similar union support exists for proposed legislative improvements in employee child care, health care and home care.
Union organizing is also looking up, albeit, modestly. You may have just read about the newly planted union foot in the door of a Starbucks in Buffalo, New York. And unions are also finding new ways of organizing to confront the challenges of a rapidly changing tech-related workforce, the gig economy, and ever more corporate reliance on independent contractors.
For example, an unconventional approach to organizing recently occurred at Alphabet’s Google where a small group of about 230 employees and independent contractors simply joined together and unilaterally formed their own Alphabet Worker’s Union. Their members pay dues, elect officers and have a paid staff. Membership includes independent contractors, who are not otherwise entitled to form unions and engage in collective bargaining under the NLRA. Although the new union cannot collectively bargain for a contract to represent an entire workforce, their concerted activity is protected by the NLRA and they are thus able to successfully engage in advocacy with the company in areas as diverse as working conditions and progressive concerns. Since its inception less than a year ago, the Alphabet Worker’s Union has grown to over 800 members and has garnered the recognition and support of the 700,000 member strong Communications Workers of America.
A similar unconventional union outside of the structure the NLRA has been formed by a group of Wells Fargo employees who created a Committee for Better Banks. The group has successfully lobbied Wells Fargo, with spill-over to other banks, for increased wages and changes in sales goals and incentives which members believe bordered on the unethical.
Armed with this knowledge, and with the awareness of the multitude of benefits that unions have successfully negotiated for over the years, perhaps it is time, dear reader, for us to lend our wholehearted support for the resurgence of unions where ever occurring. They have been an historically powerful force in counteracting wealth and income inequality and can become so again. Keep in mind that the benefits achieved by union negotiation enhance the economic well-being not only the union’s own membership but of the entire labor force. To attract quality employees, employers of all stripes must continually respond to the growing demand for equivalent wages and benefits.
So, that’s my say.
And, incidentally, lest you suspect that my appreciation of unions was solely a product of our family’s experience with the United Farmworkers in Calexico, you should know that my wife Audrey’s father, “Brother Al,” was a truckdriver and proud member of the Teamsters. Her mother, Ethel, was a proud factory worker and lifelong union member from Bristol, Connecticut with collectively bargained for benefits that included a pension and fully paid healthcare for life (she lived to 99). Audrey herself is a retired San Francisco school teacher and a long time member of the California Teachers Association (with health benefits for life).
We all should be so fortunate!
Update: February 3, 2022 - Robert Reich’s comments of this date about the state of union organizing are on point and worth reading:
Thank you, David, for reminding us of Caesar Chavez' leadership in organizing California farm workers into a union, the work of CRLA and your own work in Calexico, and all the benefits to society of strong unions . Let us hope that the union movement regains momentum and grows once again in the United States.
I share in your nostalgia for the past. It suits us at our present age, but it hardly makes up for the scandalous way that corporations such as Amazon, Uber, Starbucks, and others are allowed to union-bust and hound their workers, sometimes to death. Others, like Wells Fargo, the Sacklers, and others cheat their customers and are left to enjoy their wealth as though what they did was done merely in the name of competition. The examples you give of incipient unionization due to various grassroots movements is inspiring, but the overall picture is grim. Conditions and attitudes have changed and the likelihood that we will ever again enjoy the benefits of a consumer boycott like the one that succeeded ultimately against the grape growers who resisted the unionization of their employees is nil.