Who’s Got the Power? The Resurgence of American Unions

Who’s Got the Power? The Resurgence of American Unions, by Dave Kamper (New York, NY: The New Press, 2025)

Author Dave Kamper, a veteran union organizer and labor historian, asserts that the “first half of the 2020s has seen the biggest union upsurge … in every kind of workplace … in every corner … in all industries … in perhaps fifty years.” He supports this claim by extensive interviews with workers and labor leaders in various industries.

He attributes the upsurge in union interest and membership to three factors: COVID, the impact of younger workers, and the revitalization of union leadership and membership. Kamper emphasizes the importance of solidarity as vital in this new era of union strength.

Workers who did not have the luxury of working at home during COVID were forced to be present at their workplaces, employed in factory jobs near other employees in unsafe workstations. They acted together in demanding safer conditions of work and sometimes struck to enforce their demands. 

Similarly, during COVID, teachers advocated for the whole workplace, not just for their own safety, wages and benefits. Teachers’ unions developed plans for remote learning and safe reopening despite great opposition from school boards. Citing the danger of COVID in airliners flight attendants fought for greater safety measures. 

The recent infusion of younger workers in the workplace has inspired the labor movement with their energy, enthusiasm, strategic savvy and skill. Those youthful union activists quickly and effectively organized hundreds of Starbucks and Amazon locations through their solidarity and use of social media. Similarly, young graduate students achieved enormous success in easily organizing their research and teaching assistant colleagues in colleges throughout the country. Their fight was complicated by successive, contradictory decisions of the NLRB that graduate students were primarily students and not “employees” under the NLRA. 

There has also been a change in the makeup of labor unions. The first successful labor organizing effort at Amazon was accomplished by Amazon workers themselves who formed a union, which at first was not affiliated with any major labor group. Three long-established unions, the Teamsters, United Auto Workers and Screen Actors Guild, have modernized – installing younger, more aggressive leadership to their ranks, leading to greater benefits for their members – and, in reality, for the entire working class.

The author identifies reasons to believe that the labor movement has been energized and has become more militant and successful as its members act together to secure better wages, hours and working conditions.

Reviewed by Steven Davis, a member of the Executive Board of the New York Labor History Association and a retired Administrative Law Judge with the National Labor Relations Board.