Between a brief port strike and tens of thousands of Boeing workers halting work for a month, the past few months have seen labor unions across the headlines. 10% of America belongs to a union, and support for labor unions have been steadily rising over the years, but many still do not know the full impact unions have on their day to day lives, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Labor unions are a form of organized labor, where workers group together to bargain for better wages, hours and working conditions. Sometimes when negotiations get tense they go on strike, where they stop working until their demands are met or a deal is reached. These can end quickly, or stretch on for months, like the 2023 Writers Guild Association and Screen Actors Guild, unions for Hollywood writers and actors strike which lasted 148 and 118 days respectively.
Depending on their length and industry strikes can have major impacts on the economy. Sometimes the government decides to get involved, invoking the 1947 Taft-Hartley Act. This act allows the government to limit the powers of unions, and gives them the power to halt a strike, restarting work.
The last time the Taft-Hartley Act was invoked was in 2002, over 20 years ago. During the 2024 port workers strike, some called for President Biden to invoke the act, but the strike resolved quickly with the port workers reaching a deal with management after just three days.
Labor unions also impact Americans lives in more subtle ways though.
“Unions invented the weekend,” Tyler Zerbe, teacher and Secondary Vice President of the Hamilton Southeastern Educators Association, said. “Also all these national holidays that we get off, the rights of workers exist because of the unions.”
Things like a nine to five job and a five day work week might seem like they have been the norm for forever, they only came around less than 100 years ago, in the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which federalized the 40 day work week. That act, though, would not exist without advocacy by labor unions which was instrumental to its passing.
Unions also played a key role in creating child labor restrictions, getting children out of dangerous working conditions in factories. The Fair Labor Standards Act created the first federal restrictions on child labor in the United States.
Labor unions have had reaching impacts on our lives and we will continue to see as recent strikes get negotiated.
“Unions are important because unions help to protect the rights of workers and preserve good conditions for workers,” Zerbe said. “Without them it would be a lot harder to work, in any capacity.”
