The labor movement has lost ground, but Costco, Starbucks show that workers haven’t lost all leverage

The situation: While the labor market remains strong by historical standards, it’s a markedly different landscape from a few years ago when Starbucks, Amazon, REI, and other retail workers leveraged a tight job market to push for unionization in hopes of better wages and benefits.

• Just 4.0% of retail workers were members of a union last year, and the overall share of US workers in unions fell to a record low 9.9%, down a tick from a year earlier, per the US Labor Department.
• Meanwhile, President Donald Trump fired National Labor Relations Board general counsel Jennifer Abruzzo as well as Gwynne Wilcox, one of the labor board’s two Democratic members, both of whom backed broader worker rights.

All is not lost: While workers have lost momentum, two recent moves suggest the movement still has some gas in the tank.

Costco is raising hourly wages for store clerks and assistants at the top of the pay scale by $1 to $30.20 and entry-level pay by 50 cents to $20, starting in March.

• This move comes after union members—roughly 8% of Costco’s workforce—voted to authorize a strike if negotiations failed.
• A union spokesperson told NPR that the wage hikes wouldn’t have happened without union pressure.

Starbucks and Workers United—which represents more than 500 unionized stores—have agreed to bring in a mediator to revive contract talks, per The New York Times.

• The decision follows a strike at dozens of stores during the busy holiday season, after both sides failed to agree on a contract framework for unionized locations.

Our take: The labor movement may not have the juice it did a few years ago, but workers who started organizing back then still have the power to drive change.

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