We answered a viewer’s question about the decline of unionization. Subscribe and turn on notifications 🔔 so you don't miss any videos: http://goo.gl/0bsAjO 📣 If the news feels chaotic to you these days, you're not alone. We want to answer your biggest questions about what's happening in the world today via our new video format: https://forms.gle/Mgp2oqa3gr8tNw1M7 📣 “How come we’ve seen such a decline in unionization in the US?” That’s the question we received from one of our viewers, Cameron when we put out a call for topics to explain. It comes at an interesting time. Earlier this year, the Amazon Labor Union won its first election at a large warehouse in New York, and more than 200 Starbucks locations have voted to unionize since baristas in Buffalo broke the seal in December 2021. The National Labor Relations Board reports that petitions for union elections are up 56 percent this year compared to 2021. This level of energy and momentum in the labor movement is remarkable in light of the long, steep decline in union membership rates since the 1950s. Social science has limited tools for establishing what caused that decline, and different experts tend to emphasize different factors. But in the video above, we dig into a few key drivers of low union density in the US relative to other wealthy countries. Sources: Barry Eidlin, Labor and the Class Idea in the United States and Canada https://barryeidlin.org/theclassidea/ Nelson Lichtenstein, State of the Union https://press.princeton.edu/books/paperback/9780691160276/state-of-the-union Zachary Schaller, “Decomposing the Decline of Unions: Revisiting Sectoral and Regional Shifts” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00197939221101555?journalCode=ilra& OECD, “Collective bargaining systems and workers’ voice arrangements in OECD countries” https://www.oecd-ilibrary.org/sites/a6ebacb7-en/index.html?itemId=/content/component/a6ebacb7-en Barry T. Hirsch and David A. Macpherson https://unionstats.com/ Bloomberg Law https://news.bloomberglaw.com/daily-labor-report/punching-in-pandemic-union-election-surge-hits-trump-era-rules-28 https://news.bloomberglaw.com/bloomberg-law-analysis/analysis-how-long-does-it-take-unions-to-reach-first-contracts Economic Policy Institute https://www.epi.org/unequalpower/publications/private-sector-unions-corporate-legal-erosion/ Gallup https://news.gallup.com/poll/12751/labor-unions.aspx Thomas Kochan et al “Worker Voice in America: Is There a Gap between What Workers Expect and What They Experience?” https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0019793918806250 Alejandro Reuss, “What’s Behind Union Decline in the United States?” https://dollarsandsense.org/archives/2011/0311reuss2.html Henry Farber, Bruce Western, Accounting for the Decline of Unions in the Private Sector, 1973-1998, https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12122-001-1017-8 G. William Domhoff, “The Rise and Fall of Labor Unions In The U.S.” https://whorulesamerica.ucsc.edu/power/history_of_labor_unions.html Michael Goldfield and Amy Bromsen, “The Changing Landscape of US Unions in Historical and Theoretical Perspective” https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/10.1146/annurev-polisci-032211-214003 Make sure you never miss behind-the-scenes content in the Vox Video newsletter, sign up here: http://vox.com/video-newsletter Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com Support Vox's reporting with a one-time or recurring contribution: http://vox.com/contribute-now Shop the Vox merch store: http://vox.com/store Watch our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Follow Vox on Facebook: http://facebook.com/vox Follow Vox on Twitter: http://twitter.com/voxdotcom Follow Vox on TikTok: http://tiktok.com/@voxdotcom