Keywords
Labor relations
Trump administration
Métricas
How to Cite
Abstract
The US labor movement has shown signs of renewal recently with (a) the resurgence of unionization in less-organized sectors such as fast food and higher education, (b) the implementation of innovative bottom-up strategies to strengthen union organization, and (c) the expansion of union demands beyond corporatist issues. This renewal was due to a worker-friendly labor market combined with a wave of worker discontent in the post-pandemic era and an improved legal climate for the labor movement during the Biden administration. However, despite the advances made during that period, the US labor movement did not expand its power quantitatively, and now it is confronting existential challenges under the anti-union Trump regime. In order for US unions to survive what will be an undoubtedly trying period, we postulate that effective organizing practices need to be scaled up nationally, new possibilities for collective action should be explored, legal protections for unions should be reinforced on the subnational level, and popular fronts linking the labor movement to other social movements need to be constructed in order to protect all workers from the brunt of Trump’s policies.
References
Blanc, E. (2025). We are the union. University of California Press.
Brown, C. (1998). Racial conflict and split labor markets: The AFL campaign to organize steel workers, 1918-1919. Social Science History, 22(3), 319–347. https://doi.org/10.2307/1171528
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2018, February 15). 7 major work stoppages in 2017, second lowest since 1947. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2018/7-major-work-stoppages-in-2017-second-lowest-since-1947.htm
Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) (2025, January 31). Union members – 2024. https://www.bls.gov/opub/ted/2025/union-membership-rates-highest-in-hawaii-and-new-york-lowest-in-north-carolina-in-2024.htm#:~:text=U.S.%20union%20membership%20rate:%209.9%25&text=Hover%20over%20a%20state%20to,U.S.%20Bureau%20of%20Labor%20Statistics.&text=In%202024%2C%20about%2029%20percent,not%20include%20self%2Demployed%20workers
Burns, J. (2022). Class struggle unionism. Haymarket Books.
Collier, R. B., & Collier, D. (2002, August 5). Shaping the political arena. University of Notre Dame Press.
Economic Policy Institute (EPI) (2025, August 5). Firing BLS Commissioner Erika McEntarfer. https://www.epi.org/policywatch/firing-bls-commissioner-erika-mcentarfer/
Evans, O., & Giffin, C. (2025, August 28). UAW claims narrow win in BlueOval SK union vote ― but historic outcome is contested. Courier Journal. https://www.courier-journal.com/story/money/companies/2025/08/28/uaw-union-vote-at-blue-oval-sk-ends-claims-narrow-win-in-blueoval-sk-union-vote-outcome-is-contested/85477386007/
Gacek, S. (2023, October 13). Revisando o movimento sindical dos EUA de 2013 a 2023: há esperança para o futuro? Democracia e Mundo do Trabalho: DMT Em Debate. https://www.dmtemdebate.com.br/revisando-o-movimento-sindical-dos-eua-de-2013-a-2023-ha-esperanca-para-o-futuro/
Gacek, S. A., & Gomes, A. V. M. (2015). Sistemas de relações de trabalho. Editora LTr.
Glass, A. (2025, May 22). The Trump Administration ended collective bargaining for 1 million federal workers. Center for American Progress (CAP). https://www.americanprogress.org/article/the-trump-administration-ended-collective-bargaining-for-1-million-federal-workers/
Goldfield, M., & Bromsen, A. (2013). The changing landscape of US unions in historical and theoretical perspective. Annual Review of Political Science, 16, 231–257. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-214003
Hall, P., & Thelen, K. (2009). Institutional change in varieties of capitalism. Socio-Economic Review, 7(1), 7–34. https://doi.org/10.1093/ser/mwn020
Heckman, J. (2025, March 26). Federal labor mediation agency cuts staff down to ‘skeleton crew’. Federal News Network. https://federalnewsnetwork.com/workforce/2025/03/federal-labor-mediation-agency-cuts-staff-down-to-skeleton-crew/
Hobsbawm, E. (1994). Age of extremes: The short twentieth century, 1914–1991. Vintage Books.
Hoffer, D. P. (2025, April 21). The current state of Captive Audience Meetings. Venable. https://www.venable.com/insights/publications/2025/04/the-current-state-of-captive-audience-meetings
Iyer, D. K., O’Brien, L., Han, H., & Kallas, J. (2025). Labor action tracker: Annual report 2024. ILR School, Cornell University & LER School, University of Illinois. https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/faculty-and-research/labor-action-tracker-2024
Jones, M. (1925). Autobiography of Mother Jones. Charles H. Kerr and Company.
Kochan, T. A., Fine, J. R., Bronfenbrenner, K., Naidu, S., Barnes, J., Diaz-Linhart, Y., Kallas, J., Kin, J., Minster, A., Tong, D., Townsend, P., & Twiss, D. (2023). An overview of US workers’ current organizing efforts and collective action. Work and Occupations, 50(3), 335–350. https://doi.org/10.1177/07308884231168793
Leal, N. D., & Flores, P. S. J. (2025, September 22). More deportations, but far from the ‘largest in history’: Nine months of Trump’s immigration crusade in charts. El País, U.S. https://english.elpais.com/usa/2025-09-22/more-deportations-but-far-from-the-largest-in-history-nine-months-of-trumps-immigration-crusade-in-charts.html
Leon, L. F., & Slaugther, J. (2023, March 20). It’s a New Day in the United Auto Workers. MR Online. https://mronline.org/2023/03/20/its-a-new-day-in-the-united-auto-workers/
Lichtenstein, N. (2024). The “stand-up strike” of 2023 takes its place in UAW history. New Labor Forum, 33(2), 48–55. https://doi.org/10.1177/10957960241245944
Logan, J. (2023). A model for labor’s renewal? The Starbucks campaign. New Labor Forum, 32(1), 87–97. https://doi.org/10.1177/10957960221144972
Loomis, E. (2024, May 16). Biden’s labor report card: Historian gives ‘Union Joe’ a higher grade than any president since FDR. The Conversation. https://doi.org/10.64628/AAI.muref9t34
Maisano, C. (2020). On-again/Off-again: the relationship between socialism and US labor. New Labor Forum, 29(2), 25–35. https://doi.org/10.1177/1095796020914974
Marx, K. (1852). The eighteenth brumaire of Louis Bonaparte. Die Revolution, (1), 5–68. https://www.marxists.org/archive/marx/works/1852/18th-brumaire/
Mcalevey, J. F. (2016). No shortcuts: organizing for power in the new gilded age. Oxford University Press.
McFerran, L. (2025, August 27). An unhappy labor day at the NLRB. The Century Foundation. https://tcf.org/content/commentary/an-unhappy-labor-day-at-the-nlrb/
Meyerson, H. (2023, August 28). Biden’s NLRB brings workers’ rights back from the dead. The American Prospect. https://prospect.org/2023/08/28/2023-08-28-bidens-nlrb-brings-workers-rights-back/
Nolan, H. (2025, September 10). 3 crises facing the labor movement. In These Times. https://inthesetimes.com/article/labor-unions-strikes-trump-nlrb-crisis
Poydock, M., McNicholas, C., Sherer, J., & Shierholz, H. (2025, January 28). 16 million workers were unionized in 2024. Millions more want to join unions but couldn’t. Economic Policy Institute. https://www.epi.org/publication/millions-of-workers-millions-of-workers-want-to-join-unions-but-couldnt/
Ritchie, K., Kallas, J., & Iyer, D. (2024). Labor action tracker: Annual report 2023. ILR School, Cornell University & LER School, University of Illinois. https://www.ilr.cornell.edu/sites/default/files-d8/2024-02/Labor-Action-Tracker-2023-Annual-Report.pdf
Rosenblun, J. (2023, November 3). The UAW’s “stand up strike” strategy led to a huge win – and not just for autoworkers. The Nation. https://www.thenation.com/article/activism/uaw-strike-victory-strategy/
Rosenfeld, J. (2014). What unions no longer do. Harvard University Press.
Ross, S. (2007). Varieties of social unionism: towards a framework for comparison. Just Labour: A Canadian Journal of Work and Society, 11, 16–34. https://doi.org/10.25071/1705-1436.84
Rueschemeyer, D., & Evans, P. (1985). The State and economic transformation: Toward an analysis of the conditions underlying effective intervention. In P. Evans, D. Rueschemeyer & T. Skocpol (Eds.), Bringing the State back. (pp. 44-77). Cambridge University Press. https://doi.org/10.1017/CBO9780511628283.004
Sainato, M. (2025, August 31). How Trump and corporations have hobbled US labor watchdog. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/aug/31/trump-labor-watchdog-nlrb
Savage, L. (2006). Justice for janitors: Scales of organizing and representing workers. Antipode, 38(3), 645–666. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.0066-4812.2006.00600.x
Schuhrke, J. (2020, July 10). The US labor movement needs more of the UE’s “them and us” unionism. Jacobin. https://jacobin.com/2020/08/united-workers-labor-unions
SEIU California (2025, June 6). SEIU California president David Huerta injured, detained at ICE raid in Los Angeles. https://seiuca.org/press-releases/2025/06/06/seiu-california-president-david-huerta-injured-detained-at-ice-raid-in-los-angeles/
Silverman, J. (2014). Reformas sindicais e a inserção política do movimento sindical no Cone Sul sob os governos progressistas: Uma análise dos casos do Brasil e Uruguai. (Doctoral Dissertation, Economics). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). https://doi.org/10.47749/T/UNICAMP.2014.927459
Silverman, J. (2025). Do “verão quente sindical” ao inverno trumpiano: uma análise da dinâmica política e organizativa atual do movimento sindical estadunidense. Revista Marx e o Marxismo, 13(24), 69–86. https://doi.org/10.62782/2318-9657.2025.664
Solender, A. (2020, September 7). Biden vows to be “strongest labor President you’ve ever had” at union event. Forbes. https://www.forbes.com/sites/andrewsolender/2020/09/07/biden-vows-to-be-strongest-labor-president-youve-ever-had-at-union-event/
Tomlins, C. L. (1979). AFL Unions in the 1930s: Their performance in historical perspective. The Journal of American History, 65(4), 1021–1042. https://doi.org/10.2307/1894558
Totenberg, N. (2025, May 22). Supreme Court allows Trump to fire members of independent agency boards – for now. National Public Radio (NPR). https://www.npr.org/2025/05/22/nx-s1-5366714/supreme-court-nlrb-mspb
Valenzuela J. S. (1991). Labor movements and political systems: a conceptual and typological analysis. [Working Paper, n. 167], Helen Kellogg Institute for International Studies, University of Notre Dame. https://doi.org/10.7274/26126662.v1
Zinn, H. (1980). A people’s history of the United States. Harper Perennial.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.
Copyright (c) 2025 Jana Silverman, Stanley Gacek