Unions Are Good Medicine

From the onset of COVID-19 in the United States, the value of unions became increasingly apparent to many workers—particularly those in healthcare and education, but also those in more precarious work arrangements. Essential workers like those in nursing homes, food production, and distribution were some of the most vulnerable, typically working side by side with inadequate safety protections. In the face of federal government inaction and an inadequate response by many employers, these workers and their unions used their collective voice to demand better COVID-19 safety and health protections.¹

Nurses, warehouse workers, shop clerks, and workers in other essential roles fought for and in many cases won personal protective equipment (PPE), cleaner workplaces, hazard pay, and, where possible, the ability to telecommute.² Unions joined with worker centers and other allies to support better conditions for nonunion workers, including immigrant workers in precarious work arrangements.³ They fought for furlough plans to keep fellow workers in their jobs rather than getting laid off.⁴ To win these protections, they signed letters, organized sickouts, filed grievances, engaged in bargaining, and, in some cases, engaged in work stoppages.⁵

But what about vaccines? They’re recognized by epidemiologists and health experts as the most effective weapon in the fight against the pandemic⁶—so what role did organized labor play in efforts to increase vaccination?

If we turn to major media outlets, the coverage focused largely on the reluctance, or even opposition, to employer-based vaccine mandates by some unions.⁷ Some of the coverage equated this opposition to mandates with an opposition to vaccination all together. However, the reality was more complex. Many unions had simultaneously promoted vaccination among their members, including educating them about the safety and effectiveness of vaccines and even hosting vaccine clinics for their members and communities, while also opposing unilateral mandates by employers.⁸ For many, the primary issue was the infringement upon the collective bargaining process that compels employers in unionized workplaces to negotiate over changes to wages, hours, and working conditions.⁹ Other unions were dealing with mixed views among their membership and seeking ways to balance the need for protection against COVID-19 with the intricacies of politically diverse workplaces.¹⁰

Considering the seemingly contradictory stances on vaccine mandates by various unions, I partnered with Michael Wallace of the University of Connecticut and Angran Li of NYU Shanghai to conduct an empirical study exploring the relationship between unionization rates and vaccination rates.

Our research, which was published in the journal Social Science Research, found that net of other factors, the percentage of workers covered by a union contract in a county was positively related with the county’s COVID-19 vaccination rate.¹¹ To explore whether the effect was limited only to politically liberal areas, we also examined the relationship between unions and vaccination rates based upon voter preferences in the 2020 presidential election. Unsurprisingly, counties with high levels of support for former President Trump had some of the lowest vaccination rates, exposing the political polarization around vaccinations. However, we also found that union coverage increased vaccination at a faster rate in the Trump-supporting counties than in the Biden-supporting counties. That is, the dampening effect of Trump support on vaccination rates was partially mitigated where there was a strong union presence. How?

Our findings suggest that when workers have a collective voice in their workplace and beyond, then collective action problems are more easily addressed and the pursuit of common good solutions such as vaccination become more likely. Through social media campaigns, member-to-member organizing conversations, and local vaccine clinics, many unions helped to educate members, their families, and the general public about the safety and effectiveness of vaccination as a tool for stopping the spread of the virus. This sort of formation of a collective identity through workplace solidarity is strong medicine and can lead residents of even the most politically divided counties to embrace the need for vaccines to stop the spread of deadly viruses such as COVID-19.

Todd E. Vachon, PhD, is an assistant professor of labor studies and employment relations at Rutgers University, the director of the Labor Education Action Research Network, and the author of  Clean Air and Good Jobs: U.S. Labor and the Struggle for Climate Justice. He is also an AFT New Jersey vice president for higher education.

Endnotes

1. S. Greenhouse, “Op-Ed: Coronavirus Is Unleashing Righteous Worker Anger and a New Wave of Unionism,” Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2020, latimes.com/opinion/story/2020-07-28/coronavirus-workers-unions-employers-pandemic; M. Kinder and L. Stateler, “Frontline Workers Were Excluded from Companies’ Pandemic Windfalls. No Wonder So Many Are Forming Unions,” Brookings, May 4, 2022, brookings.edu/articles/frontline-workers-were-excluded-from-companies-pandemic-windfalls-no-wonder-so-many-are-forming-unions; and J. Elias and A. Lucas, “Employees Everywhere Are Organizing. Here’s Why It’s Happening Now,” CNBC, May 7, 2022, cnbc.com/2022/05/07/why-is-there-a-union-boom.html.

2. A. Wallace, “America’s Workers Gained Power During Covid. A Volatile Economy Will Put That to the Test,” CNN Business, June 14, 2022, cnn.com/2022/06/14/economy/labor-union-momentum-economy/index.html; and A. Dean, J. McCallum, and A. Venkataramani, Unions in the United States Improve Worker Safety and Lower Health Inequality (Washington, DC: Washington Center for Equitable Growth, December 13, 2022), equitablegrowth.org/research-paper/unions-in-the-united-states-improve-worker-safety-and-lower-health-inequality.

3. Insider NJ, “Workers, Community Groups, Advocacy Organizations, and Labor Unions Hail Gov. Murphy’s Workplace Protection Executive Order as ‘Key First Step’ to Ensure Worker Safety During the Pandemic,” October 28, 2020, insidernj.com/press-release/workers-community-groups-advocacy-organizations-labor-unions-hail-gov-murphys-workplace-protection-executive-order-key-first-step-ensure-worker-safety-t.

4. B. Pu, “Labor Unions Are on the Front Lines in Battle over Worker Protections,” NBC News, May 1, 2020, nbcnews.com/news/us-news/labor-unions-are-front-lines-battle-over-worker-protections-n1197781.

5. Dean, McCallum, and Venkataramani, Unions in the United States; and A. Abrams, “The Challenges Posed by COVID-19 Pushed Many Workers to Strike. Will the Labor Movement See Sustained Interest?,” Time, January 25, 2021, time.com/5928528/frontline-workers-strikes-labor.

6. National Institutes of Health, “COVID-19 Treatment Guidelines: Prevention of SARS-CoV-2 Infection,” US Department of Health and Human Services (archived August 2024); and F. Chirico, J. A. Teixeira da Silva, P. Tsigaris, and K. Sharun, "Safety & Effectiveness of COVID-19 Vaccines: A Narrative Review," Indian Journal of Medical Research 155 (January 2022): 91-104, doi: 10.4103/ijmr.IJMR_474_21

7. A. Ellerbeck and P. Cunningham, “The Health 202: Labor Unions Are Split on Vaccine Mandates,” Washington Post, August 17, 2021, washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/08/17/health-202-labor-unions-are-split-vaccine-mandates.

8. L. Washburn, “NJ Health Care Unions Say Yes to COVID Vaccines, but Call Mandating Them a Step Too Far,” northjersey.com, July 30, 2021, northjersey.com/story/news/coronavirus/2021/07/30/health-care-unions-say-no-vaccine-mandates-but-urge-vaccination/5408252001; and C. Rainey, “Unions Can’t Agree on Vaccine Mandates. Here’s Where Nurses, Pilots, Teachers, and Others Stand,” Fast Company, October 13, 2021, fastcompany.com/90685563/unions-cant-agree-on-vaccine-mandates-heres-where-nurses-pilots-teachers-and-others-stand.

9. T. Gerstein, “Unions Aren’t Against Vaccines. They Just Want a Say,” Washington Post, September 16, 2021, washingtonpost.com/outlook/2021/09/16/unions-vaccine-mandates-ufcw; and Economic Policy Institute, “Bargaining over COVID-19 Vaccine Requirements Doesn’t Mean Unions Oppose Mandates,” Working Economics Blog, September 1, 2021, epi.org/blog/bargaining-over-covid-19-vaccine-requirements-doesnt-mean-unions-oppose-mandates-epis-dave-kamper-provides-a-twitter-reality-check.

10. J. Hirsch, “Why So Many Unions Oppose Vaccine Mandates—Even When They Actually Support Them,” Government Executive, November 15, 2021, govexec.com/workforce/2021/11/why-so-many-unions-oppose-vaccine-mandates-even-when-they-actually-support-them/186794.

11. T. Vachon, M. Wallace, and A. Li, “Unions, Democracy, and Trump: Deconstructing the COVID-19 Vaccination Crisis of 2021,” Social Science Research 115 (September 2023): 102918, sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0049089X2300073X.

[Illustration by Kotryna Zukauskaite]