Who Supports Labor? The Intersection of Race and Skill in Union Campaigns

In the past half century, there has been an unprecedented decline in labor union membership, organizing ability, political effectiveness and strike activity in the United States. As a result, the ability of labor unions to influence the debate on labor standards and social reforms has experienced a significant decline. Using a mixed method approach, this research explores differences in attitudes and orientations towards labor unions across racial groups in the United States as well as organizational strategies and capacities of a labor union in a right-to-work state. Although African Americans and Latinos have been discriminated against at the hands of organized labor, the quantitative component of this research indicates that minority groups hold more positive attitudes towards unions than whites. In light of this fact, organized labor has been slow to realize that its revitalization may be contingent upon the ability of unions to organize and recruit minority populations and very little emphasis has been placed on the effects of racial differences in attitudes and orientations toward union membership and union support. Although the quantitative component of this research indicates that minority groups hold more positive attitudes towards unions, the qualitative component of this research argues that the challenges of organizing in a cross-class, cross-race union extend beyond racial and ethnic difference to issues of skill. This research, therefore, attempts to illustrate how a labor union in a right-to-work state navigates the intersection of race and skill in union campaigns.