How the Unionization Trend is Changing Workplace Dynamics

HBR IdeaCast

Harvard Business Review

Leadership, Entrepreneurship, Communication, Marketing, Business, Business/management, Management, Business/marketing, Business/entrepreneurship, Innovation, Hbr, Strategy, Economics, Finance, Teams, Harvard

4.4 • 1.9K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2022

⏱️ 34 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

For years, union membership has been shrinking in the United States and many other countries. But recently we've seen a resurgence, with employees in sectors like retail, hospitality, and media organizing to collectively bargain for better pay, benefits, and job flexibility. Thomas Kochan, a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, has long studied how unions affect individual, team, and corporate performance. He explains why some fears about them are overblown, how workers form successful ones, and how leaders can partner with these groups to ensure the best outcomes for everyone.

Transcript

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0:00.0	So you got the job. Now what? Join me, Eleni Mata, on HBR's new original podcast, New
0:08.1	Here, the Young Professionals Guide to Work, and how to make it work for you. Listen for
0:13.8	free wherever you get your podcasts. Just search New Here. See you there!
0:30.0	Welcome to the itch-bear idea cast from Harvard Business Review. I'm Allison Beard.
0:43.6	Across OECD countries, from Australia to Germany, Israel to Mexico, Union membership has long
0:54.5	been on the decline, and a lot of businesses probably welcomed that as good news. Employees
0:59.4	who once might have negotiated as a powerful collective could now be managed as individuals.
1:04.8	Some workers benefited. Others didn't. In recent years, though, we've seen something
1:09.2	of a resurgence in the labor movement. As of 2020, the OECD reports that union membership
1:14.6	is increasing countries like Ireland, Costa Rica, and the United States. And here in the
1:19.9	US, stories of scrappy employees who are fighting to unionize their Amazon distribution centers
1:25.9	or Starbucks cafes, and actually winning, despite lots of opposition from their corporate
1:30.6	employers, are all over the news. So what's going on? Why do unions seem to be on the
1:36.3	rise again? Thomas Kohan is a professor at the MIT Sloan School of Management, who has
1:41.7	long studied work and employment policies, and he's here to answer some of these questions.
1:46.4	Hi, Tom. Hi, Alison. Good to be with you.
1:58.2	So anyone who follows business news has heard about these recent union victories at Amazon
2:03.1	and Starbucks. But how widespread is the trend? You know, does it extend to both blue
2:08.2	collar and white collar workplaces? Is it mostly the US or many other countries?
2:12.9	Well, Alison, there's no question there's an upsurge in organizing. And in the United States,
2:19.1	it's broadly distributed across a wide range of service industries in particular in retail,
2:26.4	in the media, obviously in hospitality with Starbucks and other food service organizations,
	...

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