Soured workplaces around the U.S. sparked the Great Resignation, a term given to the record number of people who began voluntarily leaving their jobs early last year.
Workplace disgust has also created a rare opportunity to expand unions at a time when overall membership is down, and a younger generation of baristas, librarians and university faculty have been embracing the labor movement, AFL-CIO President Elizabeth H. Shuler said Tuesday in Pittsburgh.
“Do you see what’s happening out there,” said Ms. Shuler, a Gladstone, Ore., native and the first woman president of the national labor organization. She was a guest speaker at the Pennsylvania AFL-CIO 45th Constitutional Convention, which continues through Thursday at the Omni William Penn, Downtown. “Working people are rising up. ‘I’m not going to work anymore at a crappy job with low pay.’ We’re feeling this all across the country.”
Workplace disenchantment was the top reason given by 10,000 workers who left their jobs since last year, according to a new AFL-CIO survey, she said. Wages and benefits ranked second in the reasons people gave for leaving their jobs.
“Bad bosses, bad co-workers, they’re sick of it,” she said. “They thought collective action could be a solution. It’s about having a voice to share your work life and for many of them, the pandemic was the tipping point.”
Ms. Shuler, who has an undergraduate degree in journalism, was elected president of the 12.5-million member AFL-CIO by its executive council in August after the death of Greene County native Richard Trumka. Delegates to the national 29th Constitutional Convention of the AFL-CIO in Philadelphia in June will elect union officers, including president, to full four-year terms.
The AFL-CIO, which represents 57 unions, was formed by the merger of the American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations in 1955, a time when about 35% of the workforce was unionized. Last year, union membership had fallen to just 10.3%, but “Striketober,” when more than 100,000 workers either participated in or prepared for work stoppages in the U.S. in October, heartened union organizers as worker shortages rippled through the economy.
“People are still standing up,” said Frank Snyder, who was elected president of the Harrisburg-based Pennsylvania AFL-CIO on Wednesday. “I get it — there’s been a transition” away from heavy industry in the economy, “but we have to be part of that transition. We need to be part of the equation.”
Mr. Snyder, 62, is an Aliquippa native and third generation member of the United Steelworkers. Also during the vote Wednesday, Angela Ferritto was elected union secretary-treasurer.
Current president Richard W. Bloomingdale is retiring May 31 after 45 years in the labor movement, 12 years as president. He received a letter from former President Bill Clinton, thanking him for his years of service, which was read at the convention.
Kris B. Mamula: kmamula@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1699
First Published: March 29, 2022, 8:50 p.m.