Episode 18 - State of the Unions

In the first episode of the 2021-22 season, Paula Finn holds a conversation with Ruth Milkman and Stephanie Luce assessing the U.S. labor movement’s current strength as relates to union density, or the percentage of workers represented by unions. The basis for their discussion is Milkman’s and Luce’s recent State of the Unions Report, which compares national union density trends to those in New York State and New York City. This year’s study sheds important light on the impact of COVID-19 on employment rates, revealing some surprising, disparate effects of the pandemic nation-wide vs. in New York, on female vs. male workers, and on union members vs. non-union workers.