Of course Biden was infinitely better for unions and workers than the alternative scenario of Trump winning in 2020. That is common sense, a question not even worth dwelling on. The question is not, “Should unions support Republicans or Democrats?” The real question is: Has achieving electoral political power translated into the growth of union power? Have the dollars spent on politics rather than on union organizing paid off? Does organized labor have its priorities in order?
Today, we can definitively say the answer is “no.” That’s because, this morning, the Bureau of Labor Statistics released its annual measurement of union membership in America, the best statistical measure of the total strength and size of unions. In 2024, union density in America fell to 9.9% of the work force. In 1983, union density was 20.1%, meaning that organized labor is now less than half as powerful as it was during the Reagan presidency. This is the first time in generations that less than ten percent of workers have been union members. In 2020, union density was 10.8%. That means that over the course of the most pro-union presidency in my lifetime, not only did union density not rise—it declined into single digits.
This is why unions need better goals. The end goal of any union should not be ‘just’ ensuring good treatment and payment of all workers but also to seize the company, to turn it into a cooperative owned by the workers or customers etc.