Confronting Capitalism with Vivek Chibber
Sep 2, 2026 · 59 min · 12 segments
Unions have more public support than just about anything else in the US, and yet, their membership has cratered. This poses an immense challenge to left-wing politicians, who won't be able to enact…
Vivek ChibberHost
Cale BrooksHost
So because this episode is coming out pretty close to Labor Day, I was hoping we could talk about the relationship between socialist politics and unions.
Yeah, you know, we've danced around the issue a lot, but I don't think we've ever addressed it directly.
Of course, if you're a longtime Confronting Capitalism listener, then you've probably already heard us talk about the importance of the labor movement and labor history.
But today I was hoping we could focus more on why unions are unique organizations and how socialists should engage with them.
Yeah, I think it's an absolutely central question because as we've said so many times in the show, unions are the lifeblood of the socialist movement and organizing labor is the one essential precondition for a revitalized left.
So starting broad, in terms of density, power, and industrial distribution, what's the state of American unions in 2026? Really awful.
The term union density is a technical term that refers to the proportion of the labor force that is actually members, dues paying members of unions.
So when we talk about union density, what we're asking is how much of the working class is actually organized.
The overall union density is at around, I think, 11%, but that masks the fact that in the parts of the economy where labor's power really matters, which is in the private sector, which is where profits and value are created, there it's at an historic low.
It's close to actually 6%, which just to be clear, is lower than it was when unions were illegal in the United States.
Why is it overall higher? It's because public sector unions have managed not only survive, but actually to grow somewhat since the 1980s.
Public sector union density, that is membership in unions for people who work at state, federal, or local governments, that's at around 33%, I think, or in the low 30s, low to mid 30s.
Naturally, that also means that the vast majority of the labor force is entirely at the mercy of their employers.
They have no way of bargaining effectively for themselves around wages, around work conditions, around health and safety issues, around pensions.
of their employers, whose of course main interest is not in the worker's welfare, but in profits, which typically come at the expense of those workers.
So because this episode is coming out pretty close to Labor Day, I was hoping we could talk about the relationship between socialist politics and unions.
Yeah, you know, we've danced around the issue a lot, but I don't think we've ever addressed it directly.
Of course, if you're a longtime Confronting Capitalism listener, then you've probably already heard us talk about the importance of the labor movement and labor history.
But today I was hoping we could focus more on why unions are unique organizations and how socialists should engage with them.
Yeah, I think it's an absolutely central question because as we've said so many times in the show, unions are the lifeblood of the socialist movement and organizing labor is the one essential precondition for a revitalized left.
So starting broad, in terms of density, power, and industrial distribution, what's the state of American unions in 2026? Really awful.
The term union density is a technical term that refers to the proportion of the labor force that is actually members, dues paying members of unions.
So when we talk about union density, what we're asking is how much of the working class is actually organized.
The overall union density is at around, I think, 11%, but that masks the fact that in the parts of the economy where labor's power really matters, which is in the private sector, which is where profits and value are created, there it's at an historic low.
It's close to actually 6%, which just to be clear, is lower than it was when unions were illegal in the United States.
Why is it overall higher? It's because public sector unions have managed not only survive, but actually to grow somewhat since the 1980s.
Public sector union density, that is membership in unions for people who work at state, federal, or local governments, that's at around 33%, I think, or in the low 30s, low to mid 30s.
Naturally, that also means that the vast majority of the labor force is entirely at the mercy of their employers.
They have no way of bargaining effectively for themselves around wages, around work conditions, around health and safety issues, around pensions.
of their employers, whose of course main interest is not in the worker's welfare, but in profits, which typically come at the expense of those workers.
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