Bard Alumnus David Rolf ’92 Writes about Union Representation for Newsweek 

Unions and their supporters have recently seen some progress thanks to tight labor markets, pandemic-era fiscal policy, and the $15 minimum wage movement, yet working Americans still face a generations-long crisis, writes David Rolf ’92, Bard alumnus and founder and president emeritus of SEIU 775, a labor union representing long-term care sector workers, in an opinion piece for Newsweek. “Our broken labor laws, designed for the economy of the 1930s, have functionally stopped enabling collective bargaining and have become a tool to prevent it,” he says. Support for unions is at historic highs, particularly amongst young Americans, yet unions represent only six percent of eligible private sector workers because most companies are incentivized to avoid or bust unions and to minimize their bargaining gains. Yet research by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and by David Madland, Center for American Progress scholar, show that “when more workers are covered by union contracts, things get better for workers, employers, and national economies.” Rolf continues, “Centralized and broad-based labor law systems are predictive of economies with high employment, high productivity, high wages, adequate leisure time for the working class, positive trade balances, and lower levels of inequality.”

Post Date: 09-05-2023