“Nearly half (48%) of all nonunion workers surveyed say they would vote for a union if given the opportunity—a roughly 50% higher share than when a similar survey was taken 40 years earlier. And the 65% of Americans who approve of labor unions is higher than it has been since the early 2000s, with young workers ages 18–34 the most supportive. But the share of workers represented by a union was just 12.1% in 2020. If so many workers want union representation, why don’t they have it? The fact is that our current labor law—which is supposed to protect the right of workers in the private sector to organize—actually makes it very difficult for workers to win union representation. Workers face multiple hurdles when they try to organize and employers have too much leeway to interfere with workers’ free choice. Employers have many legal ways to intimidate and coerce workers, and when employers resort to illegal tactics such as firing workers for organizing, they incur no monetary penalties.”
Why workers need the Protecting the Right to Organize Act
