Welcome to State of the Unions Week, where we look at the past, present, and future of organized labor in America.
For more than a century, unions have held a valuable place in American political mobilization. Unions provide a buffer between workers and companies, and a platform upon which ordinary Americans can mobilize and fight for their rights as laborers.
Unions were once a force to be reckoned with—they hit a peak of 34.8 percent enrollment in 1954, and reached many areas of daily life in America. In the mid-20th century, it seemed as though striking was the new American pastime; however, labor union enrollment waned in the late 1900s, and held a mere 10.7 percent in 2017.
Despite low enrollment, unions continue to hold strikes and protests to fight for workers’ rights today.
Follow the trajectory of labor union movements in the United States from 1919 to present day:
A political cartoon from a 1919 edition of the Chicago Tribune depicts the dire state of the United States labor market in the aftermath of World War I.
A group of striking union miners pose outdoors in the Lick Creek District of West Virginia on April 12th, 1922. A woman holds an American flag.
A membership card reads the “Intern’l Itinerant Migratory Workers’ Union—Hobboes of America” circa 1930.
American country singer and songwriter Johnny Paycheck holds a teamsters union sign while joining a group of striking bookbinders in 1977.
Alvan Young leads striking employees of United Parcel Service at the downtown Chicago, Illinois, processing center on August 6th, 1997.
A retired member of the United Auto Workers holds his head as he listens to details of his retirement account while he attends a monthly benefits meeting at the UAW Local 22 meeting Hall on November 20th, 2008, in Detroit, Michigan.
Construction workers head back to the World Trade Center site following a noon rally at World Trade Center Park in an attempt to galvanize feuding parties to resolve their financial differences and proceed with construction at the site on March 9th, 2010, in New York City.
Union leader Richard Trumka, who is the AFL-CIO president, addresses a protest of several thousand people and unionists demanding jobs outside City Hall in Los Angeles on August 13th, 2010.
President Donald Trump speaks during the 2017 North America’s Building Trades Unions National Legislative Conference at the Washington Hilton on April 4th, 2017, in Washington, D.C.
Fast food workers and union members carry signs as they stage a protest outside of a McDonald’s restaurant on February 12th, 2018, in Oakland, California. Dozens of fast food workers staged a protest outside of a McDonald’s restaurant to demand a $15 an hour minimum wage on the 50th anniversary of the historic Memphis Sanitation Strike that was led by Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
Kentucky Public school teachers rally for a ‘day of action’ at the Kentucky State Capitol to try to pressure legislators to override Kentucky Governor Matt Bevin’s recent veto of the state’s tax and budget bills April 13th, 2018, in Frankfort, Kentucky. The teachers also oppose a controversial pension reform bill which Gov. Bevin signed into law.
