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Amber and David Lapp have written movingly about the current plight of America’s workers (here and here). The commodification of labor that they describe is not new by any means. Over the last 40 years, inequality has mounted, and workers in turn have seen their quality of life eroded, as their income share of GDP has collapsed.

Earlier this month my husband David and I wrote about Alex, a worker at an Ohio-based unionized factory, and the way the union saved his job after conflict with a supervisor.

American Compass’s Oren Cass discusses a conservative future for organized labor with Hamilton Nolan.

It’s an approach that echoes themes of the recent American Compass statement: a well-functioning system of organized labor should both “render[] much bureaucratic oversight superfluous” and reinforce the benefits of tight labor markets “through economic agency and self-reliance, rather than retreat to dependence on redistribution.”

Brad Littlejohn interviews American Compass’s Oren Cass about why conservatives should be interested in the future of America’s labor movement.

Socialists express their concern that a conservative pitch to the working class will succeed, “especially when Democrats continue to abandon unions and the working class.”

Would sectoral bargaining provide a better framework for American labor law?

The Republican Study Committee’s American Worker Task Force has just released a new report, “Reclaiming the American Dream: Proposals to Empower the Workers of Today and Tomorrow”.  As such it Read more…

Would sectoral bargaining provide a better framework for American labor law?

American Compass’s Wells King connects dysfunctional labor laws, declining union-participation, and partisan interests to the rise of economic inequality.

Inclusion is a necessary first step toward fixing America’s broken labor law system.

Workers and employers should have the freedom to collaborate and design new forms of worker organizations.

American workers are the backbone of this country. In the wake of the economic devastation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it is more important than ever to remove barriers burdening the American worker. On Capitol Hill, the Republican Study Committee’s American Worker Task Force has proposed bold new solutions that would empower our nation’s workers to face today’s challenges as well as tomorrow’s.

Would sectoral bargaining provide a better framework for American labor law?

Allowing for alternative forms of worker organization makes sense if and only if they contribute to the growth of full-fledged collective bargaining unions.

My underlying disagreement comes not from an appeal to the popular will but, rather, a difference of values: I’d rather have an economy that allows for more creativity, choice, and wealth creation even if it results in less equality.

Cardus’s Brian Dijkema advocates for a new conservative home for organized labor in this adaptation from American Compass’s “A Seat at the Table” series.

Few Americans realize how our system of organized labor is an outlier among Western nations. In some European countries, unions attract a greater share of workers and maintain less adversarial relationships with business. A better understanding of these alternative models can guide American policymakers as they address our labor policy challenges.