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College-educated adults in the U.S.—many of whom have advanced degrees—are playing a major role in the growing trend to unionize across the U.S.
The New York Times spoke with several of these employees in the service sector who see the growth of unions a positive development in their careers. These are relatively low-paid workers who work in jobs that have no possibility of career growth.
We have reported on the push to unionize from congressional staffers to workers at Starbucks and Amazon.
The paper noted that there has been a seismic shift when it comes to the country’s perception of unions. In the late 1990s, about 55 percent of college graduates supported unions. That number has skyrocketed to 70 percent over the past few years, the report said.
Tyler Mulholland, 32, a college-educated worker at REI, the outdoor equipment store, told the paper that he doesn’t expect to make six figures, but “when it’s snow storming at 11:30 at night, I don’t want to have to think, ‘Is the Uber home going to make a difference in my weekly budget?’”
The Trends Journal has reported extensively on the push to unionize in the U.S. (See “TOP 2022 UNIONIZATION TREND UPDATE,” “REI: UNIONIZATION TREND EXPANDS AS FORECAST” and “UNIONIZATION ON-TREND: AMAZON WORKERS VOTE TO UNIONIZE.”)
The Times cemented our forecast and reported that the National Labor Relations Board—in the past six months—has seen a 60 percent increase in workers filing for union petitions.
In October 2021, Trends Journal asked, “Where have all the workers gone?” (See “SPOTLIGHT: WORKERS ON DEMAND,”) The report pointed out that the labor market was already at historically low levels and suffering from low participation, with record numbers quitting or retiring across all demographics.
That article also, in its TREND FORECAST, noted that labor unions, after a long period of decline in the U.S., would make a comeback.
Another Trends Journal article, “‘THE GREAT RESIGNATION’: WILL JOBS COME BACK?” quantified that phenomenon, pointing to the 4.43 million Americans who quit their jobs in September, the highest number since 2000, which brought this year’s total to a record 34.5 million and the quit rate to a record high of 3 percent; also see “RECORD QUIT RATES: TAKE YOUR JOB AND SHOVE IT.”
The Times report pointed out that many of these workers obtained degrees in fields of studies where it is challenging to pay the bills. Many are graduates with political science and music degrees.
The report also tracked protesters from the 2011 Occupy Wall Street movement that was intended to call out the income disparity in the country.
The report said most of those protesters were college graduates and many suffered from layoffs over the past five years while “carrying substantial debt.” (See “GO TO COLLEGE, GO BROKE.”)
We’ve reported extensively on how attending top universities was once seen as a status symbol and ticket to upward mobility, but turned out to be a challenge. (See “LOSSES MOUNT AS STUDENT LOAN DEFAULT RISES” and “INVESTORS NOW TARGET OFF-CAMPUS STUDENT HOUSING.”)
TREND FORECAST: When the COVID War began in 2020, there was never an expectation of the combination of an employee shortage, spiking inflation and worker strikes.
Indeed, just the opposite was expected. After being cooped up, locked down, and out of work, when there was a ceasefire in the COVID War, the workers were expected to rush back to their jobs.
As we have detailed, there are several reasons for the falloff: from “No Jab, No Job” employer mandates, not wanting to work at jobs that are unfulfilling and refusing to go to work for a company that pays non-living wages.
In the 1960s, a slogan (derived from a poem by Carl Sandburg and made popular by anti-war activists) asked, “What if they had a war and nobody came?” Now, in the 2020s, the question might be, “What if they had jobs available and nobody applied?”