Union organizing has shifted from the factory floor to TikTok and YouTube, where a new generation of workers in coffee shops and fast food restaurants are harnessing the power of social media to fight for better working conditions and higher pay.
The nation’s union membership continued its decades-long decline in 2021, falling half of a percent, to 10.3% of the workforce. The largest federation of labor unions, the AFL-CIO, which once boasted nearly 20 million members, has shrunk to 12.3 million members.
Baristas, warehouse workers and fast-food clerks are bucking the decline by organizing smaller unions without much initial help from big labor groups.