Some folks are always talking about the white working class. They’re for them, against them and all points in between. And when you talk about union workers, they see some white guy in a steel plant or auto plant in their minds. Stereotypes are hard to transcend, and in the 1950s that might have been true. Union guys. White guys, maybe “ethnic,” from the southern or eastern European immigration in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Tough truck drivers, hard hats.
Lily white and very male.
It has not been like that for a while. POC and women make up the majority of union members today.
The typical union member is often thought to be a worker on a manufacturing line in the Midwest. Manufacturing does have a strong union tradition but people join unions in many industries and occupations. Union members include dental hygienists in Wisconsin, graduate students in Massachusetts, firefighters in Illinois, television writers and scientists in California, security guards in Washington, D.C., digital journalists in New York, and major league baseball players in Georgia and other states.4
It is also true that, in the past, union workers were predominantly white men. But as of 2016, roughly 10.6 million of the 16.3 million workers covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color.5
- About two-thirds (65.4 percent) of workers age 18 to 64 and covered by a union contract are women and/or people of color.
- Almost half (46.3 percent) are women.
- More than a third (35.8 percent) are black, Hispanic, Asian, or other nonwhite workers.
- Black workers are the most likely to be represented by unions: 14.5 percent of black workers age 18 to 64 are covered by a collective bargaining agreement, compared with 12.5 percent of white workers and 10.1 percent of Hispanic workers.
Economic Policy Institute: How today’s unions help working people
Solidarity to union folks as we come up on Labor Day!
Unions look like America.