Labor | American Compass (original) (raw)
Guaranteeing workers a seat at the table
Overview
The American labor movement has become deeply dysfunctional. Workers feel largely alienated from Big Labor unions, which appear focused primarily on promoting progressive politics. At 6%, the union membership rate among private-sector workers is lower than at the time of the National Labor Relations Act’s passage in 1935. That law not only fails to serve modern workers effectively, but also precludes experimentation with alternative forms of organizing.
What a tragedy. In a well-functioning capitalist system, participants meet as equals able to advance their interests through mutually beneficial relationships. Organized labor has traditionally been the mechanism that gives workers an institution of solidarity, power in the market, and representation in the workplace. Strong worker representation can make America stronger.
This has traditionally been the view of both free-market champions and social conservatives. Adam Smith warned in The Wealth of Nations that in the competition between capital and labor, employers have “the advantage in the dispute” over wage levels “and force [workers] into a compliance with their terms.” John Stuart Mill, analyzing this same conflict in Thornton on Labour and Its Claims, denounced the morals of “whoever does not wish that the labourers may prevail, and that the highest limit, whatever it be, may be attained.” In The Quest for Community, Robert Nisbet calls unions “the true supports of economic freedom,” while in The Spirit of Democratic Capitalism, Michael Novak identifies them as one of democratic capitalism’s “chief social inventions.” In the encyclical Laborem Exercens, St. John Paul II called them “an indispensable element of social life, especially in modern industrialized societies.”
At American Compass, we work to understand what workers want from their labor organizations and how the nation’s labor movement and labor law are falling short. We develop policy reforms that would allow workers to create and access new and better options.
The Seat at the Table collection makes the case for reforming and revitalizing American labor, beginning with a landmark joint statement arguing that Conservatives Should Ensure Workers a Seat at the Table. A Wall Street Journal essay, America Needs a Conservative Labor Movement, traces the history of conservative attitudes toward labor to identify the foundation on which a new movement could be built. Workers of the World surveys the wide variety of labor laws and organizations present in other countries.
The Better Bargain collection focuses on solutions, beginning with a survey of American workers that studies their experiences in the workplace, their attitudes toward organized labor in its current form, and the elements of collective representation that they would value most. Policy papers then offer concrete bargains that would require concessions from both existing unions and the business lobby, for the benefit of workers themselves: better bargains on Workplace Voice and Representation, Worker Power in the Labor Market, and Worker Solidarity and Mutual Support. The first of these has been adapted as the TEAM Act introduced by Senator Marco Rubio and Congressman Jim Banks.
Essays
To Honor Labor, Rethink Unions
9/25/2024 • Marty Manley
A former labor and business leader describes a better future for organized labor
The (Other) Southern Strategy: Domestic Labor Arbitrage and the Road to Globalization
9/24/2025 • Daniel Kishi, Paul Cupp
America has experimented with suppressing wages to attract industrial investment. It only paved the way for offshoring that investment and technology.
Jobs Americans Would Do
5/4/2023 • Oren Cass
A more productive conversation about raising workers’ wages
Servants No Longer
9/8/2022 • Chris Griswold
American Compass policy director Chris Griswold explores the relationship between worker power and the roots of civic friendship.
Labor’s Conservative Heart
9/8/2020 • Brian Dijkema
The trade union is a quintessentially Tocquevillian institution and the one that brought down Soviet communism. Conservatives must rescue the American labor movement from Big Labor’s partisanship and restore its community-building purpose.
The Once and Future American Labor Law
9/14/2020 • Michael Lind
American labor law has become worse than useless: a lower share of the private-sector labor force is organized today than before the National Labor Relations Act was passed in 1935. The time has come for an entirely new model.
Conversations
Talkin’ (Policy) Shop: Worker-Run Benefits
11/3/2022
On this episode of Policy in Brief, Oren Cass and Chris Griswold discuss a proposal to allow workers to administer their own employee benefits through organizations they control.
Talkin’ (Policy) Shop: The Workforce Training Grant
9/12/2022
On the inaugural episode of Policy in Brief, American Compass executive director Oren Cass is joined by policy director Chris Griswold to discuss the Workforce Training Grant, a proposal to create a meaningful alternative pathway to college.
Why National Conservatism Needs Worker Power
11/25/2021 • Oren Cass
At the second National Conservatism conference, Oren Cass discusses the importance of worker power to the future of conservatism.
Critics Corner with Vinnie Vernuccio
10/7/2021
In this episode, Vinnie Vernuccio joins Oren in the Critics Corner. Vinnie is the president of the Institute for the American Worker and a senior fellow at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy.
Fulfillment: A Conversation on Amazon and Regional Inequality with Alec MacGillis
4/8/2021
Fulfillment author Alec MacGillis joins American Compass research director Wells King for a conversation exploring what the growth of Amazon means for the future of inequality in the U.S., the pros and cons of “one-click America,” and how policymakers and consumers should respond.
Q&A with Freelancers Union Founder Sara Horowitz
9/15/2020 • Oren Cass
Labor law has failed to evolve alongside a changing labor market. Some labor leaders have been moving ahead anyway.
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