Unions Make Life Better at Work and Beyond, New Report Shows

While it is well-established that unions strengthen worker power on the job and reduce inequality, a new report out Wednesday shows that higher unionization rates are also associated with improved conditions outside of the workplace, including better access to healthcare, paid leave, and the ballot box.

"Unions promote economic equality and build worker power, helping workers to win increases in pay, better benefits, and safer working conditions," said Asha Banerjee, economic analyst at the Economic Policy Institute (EPI) and co-author of the report. "But the benefits of unions extend far beyond the workplace. The data suggest that unions also give workers a voice in shaping their communities and political representation."

To document the correlation between organized labor and various indicators of economic, personal, and democratic well-being, researchers at EPI compared Census Bureau data on minimum wages, median annual incomes, access to unemployment insurance, lack of health insurance, Medicaid expansion, paid sick and family leave laws, and voter suppression laws in states with "high" (13.5% to 24.7%), "medium" (8.3% to 13/3%), and "low" (3.2% to 7.7%) levels of union density.

All 50 U.S. states plus the District of Columbia were sorted into three equally sized categories based on their average level of union density—defined as the percentage of workers in a state who are members of a union or covered by a collective bargaining agreement—from 2015 to 2019. The past two years were excluded "to avoid any potential distortions related to the... Covid-19 pandemic and ensuing recession."

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/16/unions-make-life-better-work-and-beyond-new-report-shows