Freakonomics Radio Podcast: Do Unions Still Work?

 The Freakonomics Radio podcast features an in-depth interview with AFL-CIO president Elizabeth Shuler as the show asks the question, "Do Unions Still Work?"

Organized labor hasn’t had this much public support in 50 years, and yet the percentage of Americans in a union is near a record low. This brings up questions like:

- Does this mean that millions of non-union workers want to be in a union — or is this just one of those free “sympathy” votes that a public-opinion survey allows you to cast?
- If millions of workers do want to unionize: what, exactly, is stopping them?
- Are firms like Amazon as punitive and anti-union as their critics say?
- And maybe the most important question: given that the U.S. economy is plainly not working for many people, is the old-fashioned labor union the right tool to fix it?

Shuler tries to persuade host Stephen Dubner that “the folks who brought you the weekend” still have the leverage to fix a broken economy. She addresses a wide range of subjects, including her organization's response to the United Auto Workers corruption scandal, the growth of the News Guild, sexual harassment at her first job, and how closely the AFL-CIO aligns with Democratic politicians.

Listen to the episode now at https://freakonomics.com - there's a transcript there too - or wherever you get podcasts.