Welcome to the Utah Labor Bulletin
by Ian V
There are over 1,500,000 workers in the State of Utah spread over dozens of industries. Some produce physical things, like the 150,000 workers in manufacturing and the 130,000 workers in construction, but most provide services spanning from health care (200,000 workers), to retail (180,000 workers), to education (180,000 workers). Workers work in order to pay for the things they need, housing, food, entertainment, etc., but with a 2.6% increase in consumer prices over the past year across the western US, half of Utah workers worked in industries that recorded under an 2.6% increase in wages from 2022 to 2023. While these timelines are slightly off-set, the message is clear, in Utah workers wages are not keeping up with inflation.
Where workers consistently fail to individually win better pay, conditions, and control in their workplaces, labor unions have long brought workers together to collectively demand improvements. But today, in the long aftermath of the historic defeat of the American workers' movement, a meager 4% of workers statewide are in unions, overseeing contracts which cover 8% of workers (an unbalanced state of affairs brought about by the anti-union “Right to Work” laws passed a century ago in the face of a stronger, more militant Utah union movement). With support for unions at a 60-year high across the country, and even here in Utah, it seems things could go differently.
Recent union activity at the University of Utah (the second-largest employer in the state in 2022), WinCo (more on this struggle below), the Salt Lake City Public Library, among other firms, hold the promise of a resurgent workers’ movement in the state. Beyond these sites of struggle, the Nation Labor Relations Board (NLRB) registered 14 representation filings in 2024 up from a low of 3 in 2020.
As the working class enters this new phase in its struggle against the bosses that profit from their work, the Bulletin will cover workers organization and struggle in Utah, from union campaigns to collective actions, focusing on rank-and-file organizing. This first edition of the Bulletin starts small, looking at ongoing worker organizing efforts at the South Salt Lake WinCo and a short report from the recent Utah American Federation of Labor and Congress of Industrial Organizations (AFL-CIO) convention.
Welcome to the Utah Labor Bulletin!