Power resource theory and the 21st century US labor movement

Ruth Milkman

Stato e mercato, 2024, issue 1, 39-66

Abstract: This article evaluates the Power Resources Approach (PRA) in relation to recent developments in the US labor movement. These include high-profile unionization drives at iconic companies like Starbucks and Amazon; the less-publicized union organizing and strikes among college-educated professionals; and the militant campaigns of «legacy» unions like the United Auto Workers and the Teamsters in 2022 and 2023. The PRA is useful in illuminating the conditions under which such efforts succeed or falter, but it also has some serious limitations. Variation in the extent and nature of employer power, social crises (e.g. the Covid-19 pandemic), and the role of leadership – whether of rank-and-file activists or union officials – in shaping workers’ struggles are all exogenous to PRA. The latter is an especially conspicuous omission in regard to the US case, where a primary driver of recent labor activism is the leadership of a new political generation of college-educated «Millennials» and «Gen-Zers».

Keywords: Labor-Management; J51 - Trade Unions; P16 - Capitalist Political Economy/Welfare States. (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2024
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