The labor movement could prove pivotal this election year

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Why labor can make a difference

by Andrea Hsu, NPR's labor and workplace correspondent

I became NPR’s labor and workplace correspondent in the spring of 2021, shortly after labor organizers lost their bid to unionize an Amazon warehouse in Bessemer, Ala. The tally was not even close. Workers voted more than 2 to 1 against forming a union.

Little did I know then that the labor movement was about to surge. By the end of the year, the first Starbucks stores in Buffalo, N.Y., voted to unionize, setting off a years-long confrontation that made it all the way to the Supreme Court. The following spring Amazon workers on Staten Island voted to unionize. It’s been nonstop for me ever since, trying to keep up with new organizing efforts and the many labor disputes that have arisen, a number of them leading to strikes.

Now add to that a presidential race in which both candidates are trying to court workers. In a speech delivered ahead of Labor Day, AFL-CIO President Liz Shuler noted that union workers make up 1 in 5 voters in swing states. Keep in mind that nationwide only 1 in 10 U.S. workers are union members. That statistic suggests a far higher concentration of such workers in states where the election will be decided.

When you consider that in 2016, former President Donald Trump won Michigan by less than 11,000 votes and Wisconsin by less than 23,000 votes, you see why union workers are a focus of the campaign — especially for the Democrats.

Vice President Harris and Gov. Tim Walz already have a lot of goodwill in that space. Public employee