United Auto Workers President Shawn Fain recently downplayed concerns about the effects of mass immigration on labor unions, brushing aside worries about the record number of migrants encountered at U.S. borders during the Biden-Harris administration, Breitbart reported.
Fain's remarks highlight a significant shift in union leaders' stance on immigration policy. They also diverge from historical positions that warned of its adverse effects on union strength and worker wages.
In a recent interview with Axios, Fain dismissed the concerns surrounding mass immigration and its potential impact on labor unions. Despite the more than 10 million migrant encounters at U.S. borders since early 2021 under President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris, Fain minimized the issue, stating, "They're not invading our nation. They're human beings."
Historically, union leaders like Samuel Gompers of the AFL-CIO and William Lucy of the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists strongly opposed unchecked immigration, arguing it undercut wages, weakened union bargaining power, and reduced living standards for American workers.
Research spanning decades has shown a clear correlation between immigration levels and union membership. Vernon Briggs Jr., a labor economist from Cornell University, dedicated much of his career to studying this relationship. Briggs found that low immigration levels historically bolstered union membership, while high immigration rates coincided with significant declines in union strength.
Testifying before a House subcommittee on immigration in 2007, Briggs noted that by 2006, the foreign-born population had surged to 12.1% of the U.S. population and nearly 15% of the labor force. At the same time, union membership had plummeted to just 12% of the employed nonagricultural labor force. According to Briggs, mass immigration was a significant factor in this decline, mainly because a large proportion of immigrants were undocumented workers.
Briggs' research further highlighted that since 1965, the U.S. foreign-born population has increased by 231%, while the civilian labor force has grown by 86%. However, union membership fell by 10% during this period, illustrating the detrimental effects of mass immigration on union density.
Economic libertarians, who typically favor fewer restrictions on immigration, have acknowledged the negative impact of immigration on union membership.
A study by the Cato Institute revealed that between 1980 and 2020, immigration reduced union density by 5.7 percentage points, accounting for nearly 30% of the overall decline in union membership during that time. The study found that this effect was most pronounced in the private sector and among male workers.
Under the Biden-Harris administration, the trend has continued. Union membership hit a record low of 10% in 2023, following a low of 10.1% in 2022. Meanwhile, the foreign-born population in the U.S. reached 51.6 million by March of this year, representing about 16% of the total population. Projections suggest that this number could rise to more than 82 million by 2040.
Despite the Biden administration's claims of being pro-union, these trends suggest a continued erosion of union strength as immigration rates climb, a concern that previous generations of union leaders understood.
Jim Thomas ✉
Jim Thomas is a writer based in Indiana. He holds a bachelor's degree in Political Science, a law degree from U.I.C. Law School, and has practiced law for more than 20 years.
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