unions

Tom VanHeuvelen, University of Minnesota and David Brady, University of California, Riverside The Research Brief is a short take about interesting academic work. The big idea Belonging to a union or living in a U.S. state where organized labor is relatively strong helps lower the likelihood that you will fall into poverty, according to our new research. In a peer-reviewed study, we examined how unionization is correlated with poverty. So we analyzed data on poverty and unionization rates from 1975 through 2015 using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics, which is widely considered to be the gold standard for tracking individuals over time. We used a variety of poverty measures in our analysis. We found that households in which there was at least one union member had an average poverty rate...

Protesters and community organizers are increasingly calling for defunding and disbanding the police as a way to end police violence. Advocates argue that moderate reforms like enhanced training and greater community oversight have failed to curb police violence and misconduct. But there’s a major, and usually insurmountable, obstacle to reform: police unions. Research suggests that these unions play a critical role in thwarting the transformation of police departments. Union officials like John McNesby in Philadelphia, where I live and work as a scholar of law and the criminal justice system, do not deny this. Over the course of his 12-year career as president of the local chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police, he has derided the city’s civilian review board and predicted in 2010 th...

Tag: unions

Labor Unions Help Lower The Risk Of Poverty – Research Shows