An Unhappy Labor Day, For Sure
On the Eastern Shore, 65,278 workers filed initial unemployment claims between March 14 and August 22. Thankfully, some of these workers have returned to work, as businesses reopened. Nonetheless, the unemployment rate in Maryland remained at 7.7 percent in July — a definite improvement from the 9.8 percent seen in April, but more than twice the 3.5 percent rate from pre-pandemic March. August’s rate should improve.
Weekly initial claims on the Eastern Shore are decreasing, but are still three times what they were in early March.
In the chart above, the orange line represents the cumulative number of new unemployment claims filed in the weeks between March 14 and August 22. The blue line represents the weekly initial claims during that same period. The highest weekly initial claim was for the week ending April 4 (7,519 claims); the week ending August 22 was the lowest weekly total (666 claims).
In August, the state began reporting initial claims for extended unemployment benefits. These are state-funded benefits that kick in after all other state and federal benefits have been exhausted, so the workers collecting these benefits are long-term unemployed.
Perhaps a pattern will emerge, but right now extended benefits claims are increasing in some counties but not in others.
Even before the pandemic hit, and millions were laid off or turned into essential workers, conditions for many American employees had deteriorated. Much of this harm can be traced to the decline in the number of union workers over the past few decades.
Labor Day was originally conceived in the late 19th century as a celebration of America’s labor, proposed by trade unionists as a day of tribute to the contributions of American workers. In 2019, only 10.3 percent of American workers were unionized, down from 35 percent in 1954. Republican state legislatures, with the collaboration of Republican governors, have passed anti-union and right-to-work laws in many states, leading to falling union membership and fewer worker protections.
Only 12.3 percent of the workers in Maryland are unionized. The largest unions in Maryland with representation on the Eastern Shore are
- United Food and Commercial Workers (UFCW, representing grocery, retail, packing & processing, chemical, cannabis, and distillery industries)
- State, County, and Municipal Employees AFL-CIO (AFSCME)
- International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers (IBEW)
In June, the AFSCME and NAACP teamed up in a caravan in Somerset and Wicomico counties to draw attention to racial injustice and to support safe working conditions for frontline workers. Patrick Moran, President of AFSCME Council 3, said, “We’re a union that has a history of supporting civil rights, we’re a union that believes in worker health and safety, and combining those things we think that’s a positive thing.”
Strong unions built the American middle class, and brought us the working conditions that Americans believe are a part of our heritage — 40-hour workweek, paid leave, healthcare insurance, a voice in the workplace — but that many of us have yet to achieve. The consequences of decreasing unionization have disadvantaged labor to the benefit of employers: income inequality has increased, real wages have stagnated, pensions have been lost.
This November’s election will determine whether labor once again has an honored place in our society, or whether the assault on the American worker continues.
Read Biden’s plan for labor:
“The Biden Plan for Strengthening Worker Organizing, Collective Bargaining, and Unions”
Trump has no plan for labor, but his administration has eroded labor rights and working conditions over the past 3½ years. See these for a sample:
“President Trump’s Anti-Worker Agenda,” Center for American Progress Action Fund, August 28, 2019
“Unprecedented: The Trump NLRB’s attack on workers’ rights,” Economic Policy Institute, October 16, 2019
Jan Plotczyk spent 25 years as a statistician with the federal government, at the Census Bureau and the National Center for Education Statistics. She retired to Rock Hall.
Common Sense for the Eastern Shore
