WORKER VOICE IN A TIME OF RISING INEQUALITY Council of Economic Advisers, The White House, October 2015. [Here's a blog post on the CEA's Issue Brief.]
How an Area’s Union Membership Can Predict Children’s Advancement By Noam Scheiber, The Upshot (blog), The New York Times, September 9, 2015. [Terrific report on unionization. Researchers have found that unionization rates are correlated with upward mobility, across both union and non-union households. Although correlation does not imply causation, the researchers seem to think that unions may be able to effectively push for policies that raise the economic mobility of poorer families, both union and non-union. (If Al earns $100 in 2014 and $0 in 2015, and if Betty earns $0 in 2014 and $100 in 2015, observed income inequality will be high in 2014 and in 2015, but low for the two years taken together. In other words, income mobility can make high income inequality less troubling.) ]
The advantage of being in a union is crystal clear in this chart By Shane Ferro, Business Insider, June 8, 2015. [Chart]
Unions still matter By Sean McElwee, Al Jazeera, April 15, 2015. [New evidence suggests that unions may be more important than Democrats in reducing inequality.]
Unions’ Decline and the Rise of the Top 10 Percent’s Share of Income By Lawrence Mishel and Will Kimball, Economic Policy Institute, February 3, 2015.
This study explains why American labor unions are even more doomed than they look by Matthew Yglesias, Vox, February 3, 2015.
Public Unions vs. the Public By AMITY SHLAES, The Wall Street Journal, January 15, 2015. [Review of GOVERNMENT AGAINST ITSELF, By Daniel DiSalvo. Pension and benefit obligations weigh down our cities. Trash disposal in Chicago costs $231 per ton, versus $74 in non-union Dallas.]
What Unions No Longer Do by Justin Fox, HBR Blog Network (blog), Harvard Business Review, September 1, 2014.
Do Right-To-Work Laws Help Or Hurt The Economy? All Things Considered, National Public Radio, December 13, 2012. audio
Unions in America: Poking Walmart, choking Twinkies The Economist, November 24, 2012. [Why America’s private-sector unions are in decline]
Unions’ Past May Hold Key to Their Future By EDUARDO PORTER, The New York Times, Published: July 17, 2012. [A hundred years ago, craft guilds, facing a new world of corporations, rebuilt their power as industry-based unions. Their clout and numbers again in decline, another reinvention may be called for.]
Union decline and rising inequality in two chartsby COLIN GORDON, Working Economics (blog), Economic Policy Institute, Posted June 5, 2012 at 1:43 pm.
Union Membership Rate Fell Again in 2011 By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, January 28, 2012. [The nation’s union membership rate continued a decades-long slide last year, falling to 11.8 percent, the Bureau of Labor Statistics announced.]
Detroit Sets Its Future on a Foundation of Two-Tier Wages By BILL VLASIC, The New York Times, September 13, 2011. [Once viewed as a desperate move, a two-tier wage system for longtime employees and new hires is being seen as important to Detroit’s future.]
Public Unions Take On Boss to Win Big Pensions By CHARLES DUHIGG, The New York Times, June 21, 2011. [After using their influence and campaign contributions to improve their pay and benefits, government unions are using the same tactics to stave off cutbacks.]
N.L.R.B. Rules Would Streamline Unionizing By STEVEN GREENHOUSE, The New York Times, June 21, 2011. [The board's proposal to speed up unionization elections will undoubtedly please labor unions.]
German Wage Talks Break Down, Increasing Chance of Labor Unrest By CHRISTOPHER RHOADS, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL, April 22, 2002.