It's the Brian Lair show on WNYC. I'm Bridget Bergen from the WNYC and Gothamist Newsroom filling in for Brian Laird today. It's no secret that the United States has seen a major decline in

union membership over the last 40 years.

According to Pew Research, union membership has gone down from about 20% of the workforce

in 1983 to about 10% in 2022. But are the tides turning for unions? This year three major strikes have

ended with what appears to be big wins for workers.

The Writers Guild of America and SAG Aftra negotiated contracts with the Alliance of

Motion Picture and Television producers.

The United Auto Workers have also secured improved deals with the

nation's big three auto companies and gained major support for their strikes from President

Biden who joined workers on the picket lines, becoming the first sitting

president in U.S. history to do so.

So what do these union successes mean for the balance of power between workers and corporations in this company, country.

Are we moving away from this 40-year period of corporate dominance over workers in the United States.

Joining us now to answer these questions and discuss the recent wins of the

UAW and SAGAFTRA unions is Eric Blanch, assistant professor of Labor Studies at Rutgers University,

and author of several books including Red State Revolt,

the Teacher Strike Wave,

and We Are the Union, how worker-to-worker organizing can transform America coming out early next year.

Eric welcome back to WNYC.

Thanks for having me on again.

And let's start off by setting this scene here.

US labor unions have broadly been in decline

...