Unions are gaining momentum among workers who have been impacted by the Covid pandemic.

• Employees in warehouses and stores who are considering union membership feel excluded from decision-making processes.
• Management is seeking to improve pay and working conditions while also granting employees more control over daily operations.
• One 22-year-old union member stated that young people are deviating from the traditional beliefs of previous generations that this is how things must be done.

The Covid pandemic has led to a tight labor market, rising wages, and the Great Resignation as Americans reevaluate their work arrangements. Additionally, workers, particularly younger ones, at large corporations such as Amazon and Google have utilized their newfound power through union movements.

Employees in warehouses and stores seeking union membership believe they lack representation in decision-making processes. They aim to improve their compensation and working conditions, and demand greater involvement with management in daily operations.

Catherine Creighton, director of Cornell University's Industrial and Labor Relations branch in Buffalo, New York, stated that employees feel powerless but their solidarity provides them with some power.

Emma Kate Harris, a 22-year-old retail sales specialist at the newly unionized REI Co-Op in Manhattan, has been with the company for three years and desires more comprehension from her superiors.

Harris stated that our managers and higher management may not comprehend the daily experience of working on the floor for 8½ hours a day for 32 or 40 hours a week. The employees at the recreation and camping goods store collaborated with the Retail, Wholesale and Department Store Union, or RWDSU.

REI stated that it is dedicated to engaging in constructive negotiations to reach a collective bargaining agreement.

This isn't your grandparents' organized labor push. Young workers like Harris are motivated to enhance the workplace, even if they may not remain to witness the changes come to fruition like union laborers of the past did. Some have no prior experience with unions, but they understand their influence in the current labor market.

Harris stated that young people are deviating from the traditional beliefs of their predecessors that this is how things have always been done. Moreover, he added that his generation is beginning to focus more on the possibilities of how things could and should be done.

Despite the perception that unions are gaining momentum, the data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics shows that the union membership rate for both government and private sector employees decreased in 2021. Specifically, the private sector union membership rate fell from 6.2% in 2020 to 6.1% in 2021.

Unions are gaining popularity among Americans, with approval ratings reaching an all-time high of 68% in September 2021, according to Gallup polling. Younger workers are particularly supportive, with an approval rate of 77% among adults aged 18 to 34.

Richard Bensinger, a union organizer with Starbucks Workers United and a former organizing director of the AFL-CIO, stated earlier this year that the movement was a “generational uprising.” The Starbucks union campaign, which started in Buffalo and has achieved eight victories in three states, has rapidly expanded to cafes nationwide and is primarily led by young workers in their early 20s, he said.

Isaiah Thomas, a 20-year-old warehouse worker at Amazon's facility in Bessemer, Alabama, joined the company in September 2020 to pay bills and fund his college education at the University of Alabama, Birmingham. However, he took a semester off to focus on his campaign, which aims to organize with RWDSU.

In order to achieve the desired change, he realized that he needed to be fully committed to it. When he discovered an opportunity that would positively affect his co-workers, he seized it and has been fully invested ever since.

The public vote count in Alabama will be revealed later this week. Amazon spokesperson Kelly Nantel stated, "We look forward to having our employees' voices heard. Our focus remains on working directly with our team to continue making Amazon a great place to work."

Amazon workers on Staten Island are currently engaged in a second union voting drive.

How companies are handling it

The delicate balance that companies, particularly publicly traded firms, must strike when their employees start to organize is a topic of debate among shareholders. While some may believe unionizing is good for the bottom line, others may think employees should be treated more fairly, according to Peter Cappelli, professor of management and director of the Center for Human Resources at the Wharton School.

What is your take on the calculus that a company must make in this context, where being more aggressive could increase the chances of winning the election but potentially harm the brand, if all you are considering is keeping shareholders happy? Cappelli stated, "It's not an easy needle to thread."

Some companies go the extra mile and hire consultants, like Joe Brock, president of Reliant Labor Consultants.

Brock, a former union president with a Teamsters local in Philadelphia, expressed his disillusionment with the inner workings of unions, particularly during contract negotiations. He revealed that companies often contact him proactively to make presentations to employees in an attempt to dissuade them from joining a union. On other occasions, they approach him after a union campaign has already begun.

Brock rejects the label "union-busting" and portrays his work as a more complex task.

Brock believes that the threat of a union is legitimate and often leads workplaces to reevaluate their policies. He has observed this happening frequently. However, he also recognizes that some employers do not address the union threat and instead rely on union busters to resolve the issue. Brock's firm does not engage in such tactics. Instead, they provide employees with information about the potential benefits and drawbacks of unionization. While it may work out well for some employees, it could also result in negative consequences.

— CNBC’s Betsy Spring contributed to this article.