New report from University of Oregon’s Labor Education and Research Center shows the auto industry – long a backbone of the middle class – at a critical turning point.

The auto industry is the country’s single largest manufacturing sector – with nearly one million jobs across the country – and for nearly 100 years it has been a critical backbone of the middle class.

In the next ten years, this industry is poised to make a dramatic transition, from gasoline-powered to electric vehicles.  The critical question for policy makers and employees alike is what quality of jobs the new industry will provide.

In Building Back Better or Building Back Worse: The challenge of building a high-road EV industry with antiunion employers, University of Oregon LERC professor Gordon Lafer finds that one of the most critical factors that will determine the quality of EV manufacturing jobs is whether employees will have the right to organize labor unions without fear or intimidation.  As Lafer shows, the recent track record of non-union auto employers has included contracting with “union avoidance” consultants who run scorched-earth campaigns that – relying on a combination of legal and illegal tactics – subject employees to a series of threats, intimidation, and personal reprisals designed to stop employees from exercising their right to collective bargaining.  These campaigns violate the fundamental norms of American democracy, and subject American workers to the type of elections we normally expect only in rogue regimes abroad.

As the country is poised on the brink of a dramatic transformation in this industry, and as the federal government is preparing to invest many billions of dollars supporting that transition, Lafer’s report shows that if policy makers want auto manufacturing to continue as a source of family-wage jobs, they must insure that the emerging industry guarantees employees’ right to organize unions and engage in collective bargaining free from fear or threats to their livelihoods.

Download the report’s Executive Summary.

Download the full report here.

Oregon’s construction industry continues to be an important source of high-wage jobs across the state.

With billions of new state and federal infrastructure investment anticipated over the decade, it’s more important than ever to provide a pathway for women and workers of color into construction jobs.

In her new report, Constructing a Diverse Workforce: Examining Union and Non-Union Construction Apprenticeship Programs and their Outcomes for Women and Workers of Color, LERC researcher Dr. Larissa Petrucci examines the progress women and workers of color have made entering the Oregon construction industry.

Dr. Petrucci’s findings demonstrate that pre-apprenticeship programs and targeted recruitment efforts over the last decade have had a significant impact.

For example, in 2020, women constituted 11% of newly enrolled apprentices, an increase of more than 50% from a decade ago.  Workers of color constituted 31% of all newly enrolled apprentices in 2020, also marking an increase of more than 50% over the decade.

Dr. Petrucci’s research also demonstrates that unions are critical to creating a more diverse construction workforce.

Not only do unions train more than 70% of all apprentices, but union apprenticeship programs were also significantly more diverse, and had much higher graduation rates for women and workers of color. Union apprenticeship programs were also far more successful placing workers into higher-paying jobs within the construction industry.

Despite recent progress, women and workers of color continue to face significant obstacles accessing careers in construction industry, and Dr. Petrucci’s report provides detailed recommendations for addressing both institutional and individual barriers.

Download the Executive Summary

Download the Full Report

More information and a recording of the Apprenticeship Report Briefing held over Zoom on November 16, can be found here.