Justice for Janitors in Los Angeles and Beyond

The decline of unionization in the United States is a well-known fact of the labor market. ¹ In 1980, the union representation rate stood at 25.7 percent. By 2001, it had fallen to 14.8 percent. The drop over that twenty-one-year period was concentrated almost exclusively in the private sector. Simple analysis suggests this loss was not just the product of industrial restructuring of the U.S. workforce. Had all major industry groups simply retained their 1980 unionization rates, only about one-fourth of the drop would have occurred. ² Thus, other explanatory forces were at work.