The 2020s have been good to America’s unions. Their memberships, after dwindling to about one in 10 workers, are now on the rise again. And public support from them reached 67 per cent last year, according to Gallup polling — above the long-term average. Buoyed by this, unions have become more assertive, too, launching strikes, threats of strikes, and campaigns for workplace recognition.

Amid this resurgence, their leaders have also succeeded in attracting more women workers, by providing evidence that unions can deliver economic gains.

That evidence includes US Department of Labor statistics showing that women earn 18 per cent more when represented by a union — although they still generally earn less than men. Unions are what “cuts into that gender pay gap,” argued Liz Shuler, the first woman president of the AFL-CIO union federation, as part of her “State of the Unions” speech last August, ahead of Labor Day.