Labor

A BETTER LIFE

The diminishment of unions feels especially bitter in Philadelphia, a labor stronghold since the movement’s start.

Essay by Paul Prescod

August 31, 2022

My father was a Black worker who found an economic ladder in a union contract. A Black immigrant from Barbados, he came to this country in the 1970s with dreams of a music career. After his years of struggling to make ends meet, becoming a public school music teacher and National Education Association member allowed him to support a better life for his family.

Today, someone in his position might not have that option. I, too, taught in public schools and have seen how experienced Black teachers are increasingly pushed out of the district. In the 2001-02 school year, about 34% of the School District of Philadelphia’s teachers were Black. By the 2020-21 school year, that number had dropped by more than 10 percentage points to below 24%.

Across the public sector, Black workers see diminishing opportunity as privatization trends reshape public service. Nearly a quarter of Black workers are in the public sector. For these workers, the job pays an average of almost 25% more in wages than their counterparts in the private sector.

The diminishment of unions feels especially bitter in Philadelphia, a labor stronghold since the movement’s start.

In June 1835, the streets of Philadelphia took on a festive atmosphere. Virtually every single labor union in the city, representing mostly white skilled trades workers, were out on strike for the 10-hour workday and paraded down the streets. It was America’s first general strike – a landmark moment for the nation that went down on Philly’s waterfront.

This coming Labor Day, the city can expect a similar festive atmosphere but a very different scene. Today, the city’s unions reflect the diversity of our city.

Unions like AFSCME District Council 33, with its majority Black membership of blue-collar municipal workers, will likely be out in full force in a sea of green. Unite Here, a union representing hotel and food-service workers, and with a large Caribbean immigrant membership, will perhaps march with a drill team as its members did in 2021. The parade will reflect how much has changed in the almost two centuries since the general strike for a 10-hour day.

But it will also reveal how much change is still needed. For most unions, only a small percentage of their membership feels connected enough to the labor movement to even attend the parade. Those members who do are usually from an older generation that experienced a time when unions held much more power in society. Labor must make a serious commitment, backed by real resources, to both find creative ways to engage younger union members and organize new workplaces.

How unions are changing

Today, unions sit at an interesting juncture. They are more diverse than ever, but smaller than in the past and struggling to survive. At the height of the U.S. labor movement in the 1950s, 35% of all U.S. workers were in unions. Today, that number stands at only 10%.

But for racial minorities, especially Black workers, labor organizations still offer a critical lifeline of upward mobility and a higher standard of living. In fact, Black people today have a higher union membership rate (11.5%) than any other racial or ethnic group. Belonging to a union makes a difference: On average, the wages of unionized Black workers are 17% higher than those of their nonunion counterparts.

As labor unions fight to defend the public sector from privatization, they need to form broad coalitions with the diverse communities that disproportionately depend on these public services and institutions. Doing so can combat the isolation of the labor movement by demonstrating its continuing relevance.

But labor can’t be content to keep expanding where there is already a strong base. Many public-sector jobs require college degrees, which have become increasingly inaccessible as tuition costs balloon and secondary public schools lack the necessary resources to prepare students for higher education.

For many youth of color, just like for so many white working-class youth, their future will lie in jobs that do not require a college degree. For some these will be jobs in the growing logistics industry, such as trucking or working in an Amazon warehouse. Others are likely to find food-service work at ubiquitous corporations like Starbucks.

Philly can reinvent labor (again)

In the 20th century, people without college degrees found unionized work in factories and manufacturing plants that propelled them into the middle class. And it wasn’t just the Achie Bunkers of the world who benefited.

Black workers had also gained a significant foothold in that economy. For example, in the early 1980s there were almost 200,000 unionized Black workers making a living in the American auto industry.

As those manufacturing jobs continue to be offshored or automated, the organizing happening in today’s service and logistics economy carries huge implications. That’s probably why so many people are paying close attention to worker campaigns to unionize Amazon warehouses and Starbucks cafes.

Unions need to fight at the state and federal level for ambitious policies that create hundreds of thousands, and eventually millions, of union jobs retooling the nation’s infrastructure for a 21st-century clean-energy future. Labor can lead the way to make sure every single public school, especially in urban centers like Philadelphia, is equipped with well-funded Career and Technical Education programs. Such projects could vastly expand access to the building trades for communities that have historically faced barriers to entry.

The labor movement cannot afford to rest on the laurels of past glory days. Unions are at their strongest when they project a broad social vision and seek to be the champions of all working people. Philadelphia’s labor movement needs to protect the fragile gains it has already made with a diverse workforce. But sometimes the best defense is offense. Labor can make history again by boldly pursuing the opportunities to organize new industries and remake our economy.

A More Perfect Union is a special project from The Inquirer examining the roots of systemic racism through institutions founded in Philadelphia. Read the series →