Washington, D.C. – The National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors (NAW) has released a new study conducted by Elevated Insights Group, revealing that workers in the least unionized jobs under the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) experienced the strongest wage growth over the last decade.
The study compared wage growth of the manufacturing and transportation industries governed by the NLRA, the Railway Labor Act (RLA), and the U.S. Postal Service. Findings show:
- From 2015 to 2024, wages in most unionized NLRA jobs grew by 26%.
- In contrast, the least unionized NLRA jobs grew by 36%, the fastest growth of any group studied.
“These findings underscore that over the past decade workers have not realized gains from aggressive union leader tactics” said Eric Hoplin, CEO of NAW. “In fact, the opposite trend is clear: the least unionized workers have seen greater wage growth.”
Over the last decade, union bosses have increasingly relied on strike authorizations and work stoppages as bargaining tools. However, the report shows these tactics have not produced outsized wage gains. Instead, they introduce uncertainty and volatility across the economy, including the impacted workers.
- Economic instability: Strikes and the threat of strikes disrupt decision-making within companies, delaying capital investments and altering long-term planning.
- Supply chain disruptions: Customers often move to secure alternative suppliers or logistics partners in anticipation of stoppages.
- Layoffs: Aggressive union leadership demands reduce companies’ ability to weather economic shifts, with layoffs disproportionately impacting union-heavy industries.
The transportation equipment manufacturing sector illustrates this challenge. Over the past decade, more than one-third of large-scale layoffs occurred in this industry and 87% of the jobs lost were at unionized companies.