The pro-union vote at an Amazon fulfillment center on Staten Island is either a harbinger of what could be the greening of the labor movement or a one off which Amazon will quickly snuff out. I prefer the former scenario.
Taken along with the "fight for fifteen" by fast food workers and the unionization of several Starbucks stores in Buffalo, there seems to be juice in labor these days. This is in some part caused by the Biden Administration's encouragement of unionization efforts. After previous administrations' outright hostility to labor or in the case of Obama, indifference, Biden's cheerleading is refreshing. The National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) can be a positive force as it was during the New Deal. But much of the newfound assertiveness of the labor movement can be traced to the militancy of a new generation of organizers willing to put themselves on the line to advance solidarity.
With some help from established unions, the movement could increase the number of union members from the present 6% of workers to perhaps something like the 24% in the 1970s. The time and the terrain is right.
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