Falling union density across the OECD & an anecdote about Chicago
I reminisce about growing up near Chicago as I look at the OECD's unionisation rates over time.
I remember throughout my childhood growing up in the United States being told that unions were invariably corrupt administrative entities. I wouldn’t be particularly surprised if many others in my generation were told the same.
This was the gist of the message on unions that I received - and yet it seems an entirely separate view appears to be cropping up as unions win incredible victories across the US.
This reminds me that I have a recommendation to anyone visiting the city of Chicago that might not be on most tourist guides. Were you to take a train to the city and find yourself in Ogilvie transportation center, just before you walk to the Bean and soak up the bewildering strangeness that is the city, turn back and walk a couple minutes to a statue that you otherwise might miss.
The statue reminds us of the lives lost as a result of Chicago’s Haymarket affair where workers fought for the 8 hour workday. The affair also serves as the birth of international workers’ day and serves as a reminder that it is an immense privilege to be able to demonstrate peacefully for one’s rights (and for many today, one yet to be obtained).
I remember during high school that we went on a field trip to the center of Chicago as part of an economics class. Rather than walk towards this symbol of a fight for workers’ rights, we instead turned, walked the other way, and headed towards the great bastion of financial speculation: the Chicago Board of Trade. There we were given a tour and told of the rapid and high-pace trading taking place each day in this enormous monument to financialization. I have a memory of men in suits screaming incoherently at each other in a hall filled with screens, no doubt many thousands of dollars being made and lost in front of me.
On the way to the Chicago Board of Trade there were abundant people sleeping rough on the street, sheltering from Chicago’s infamously brutal weather.
I’d like to think that today’s students turn the other way during this economics field field trip today and pay a visit to the statue instead.
Anyways, rather than a specific story from a labour union across the EU today, I decided to present to you a bit of data instead. I downloaded and reformatted the OECD’s data on trade union density (% of workers that are members of labour unions) to see what was going on with its trends across the OECD.
The data is messy and tells a number of stories across the OECD. I just want to say that union density is dropping in many countries of the OECD. This is the result of many different factors, from lower rates of industrialisation to changing demographics. Nevertheless, it bears reminding that generations before us fought for our right to join unions and to organise strikes, and slowly, many of us are letting that right slip away.