The Great Resignation and a national labor shortage of millions of workers have reveals that employees
According to a Gallup survey, about two-thirds of Americans say they support unions, giving unions the highest approval rating since 1965. Regardless, union participation has hit a multi-decade low, dropping from 10.8% in 2020 to 10.3% in 2021. Its record high was in 1935, at 35%. Still, given the recent push for unionization in some of the largest tech companies in the world, namely Amazon, Apple and Google, it's possible this trend will take a turn — and employers should be ready.
"The world has changed, and employees are demanding more from their employers than they have in the past," says Joe Ross, chief product officer at WorkForce Software, a company that offers digital workforce management solutions. "And labor unions promise to give workers greater power to negotiate for more favorable working conditions."
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For Ross, the drive for unionization represents a cultural shift that has been especially clear this year. More than 2,600 Amazon workers in the Staten Island warehouse voted to join the Amazon Labor Union in April. Meanwhile, Apple workers in the Towson, Maryland store voted 65 to 33 to join the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers in June, becoming the first Apple store to unionize. Kansas City contractors at Google Fiber, a broadband internet service that's part of Alphabet, also unionized, joining the Alphabet Workers Union in March. Notably, nearly 1,000 Google workers have signed cards to join the AWU. While outside of tech, Ross points to Starbucks, where 209 stores have officially voted to unionize, as another stark example.
Ross notes that many of the headline-making unions are made up of "deskless" workers, or those who must be physically present at their jobs to do hands-on tasks, such as employees in retail, food and manufacturing industries. While much of the employee benefits and work culture conversation has centered on knowledge workers, or "desk" workers, deskless workers make up 80% of the global workforce, according to WorkForce Software. This means tech companies are finally being forced to turn their attention to the workers they have on the ground, explains Ross.
"It is essential for organizations to make changes that support the needs of their deskless employees," he says. "Work environments that prioritize flexible hours, training and pay on demand for example, have a higher chance of improving worker satisfaction. But the key is showing workers that they have been heard."
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And unions can serve as a way to ensure workers are heard through collective bargaining, regardless of who their managers or executives are. Because of this, Ross does not foresee unions disappearing from the labor conversation — even in the face of corporate union-busting (which workers at Amazon, Apple and Google Fiber attested to experiencing). Ross's advice to employers with unionizing workers is simple: prepare to be compliant with union agreements.
For example, if a union stipulates that a worker has to have a set number of breaks per shift, leaders have to be able to build schedules that adhere to the union rules to avoid paying any penalties. A company with a thousand deskless workers will need a level of automation and data that they may not be prepared for.
"Companies with deskless workers need to think about investing in HR technology," says Ross. "When you add in the nuance and the uniqueness of a collective bargaining agreement, it's essential to be able to identify factors like what role each employee has, their certifications or skills and the number of employees available for a set shift to remain compliant with something like rest rules."
Another common stipulation may be a certain pay rate for working over a set number of hours — Ross recalls one client mentioned that they had to pay their emergency service workers a premium for working during a full moon, when there tends to be an increase in accidents and ER visits.
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While these added rules may be a cause for concern for employers who have put less focus on attraction and retention in the last few years, unions may ultimately work towards the same goal as the employer: company-wide success.
"A positive employee experience means higher productivity and better retention, and better retention means more profit for the business," says Ross. "There is some foundational common ground, whether you're union or not. The difference in an unionized environment is that the way you treat employees is memorialized into a collection bargaining agreement."
Even if employers do not feel particularly inclined towards unionization, Ross believes companies are better off adapting rather than dismissing employees' needs. Workforce management can no longer solely focus on a business's operational needs.
"Modern workforce management is about bringing operational and employee needs together, and driving a beautiful and positive employee experience," says Ross. "That's why employees are moving toward unionization. They want a better experience at work."
