Labor Unions and American Nationalism

• In Event: Political Identities, Contemporary Issues, and Public Opinion

Abstract

Nationalism in the United States has been a long-standing force, and with the rise of Trump’s Republican party, there has been a recent revitalization of nationalist sentiment. Furthermore, there has been an uptick in labor movements through events like worker strikes as seen in the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike in Hollywood to United Auto Workers strikes. This study’s goal is to further understand the rise of nationalism through the lens of class and labor movements, and to see how labor unions may change one’s group identity. Without a class-based narrative driven by political elites, workers may engage in nationalist politics to express their anger and outrage and to scapegoat the economic inequality they experience.
Data is drawn from the 2020 ANES Time Series study. Preliminary models show that there is a relationship between how one feels about labor unions and nationalist sentiments. Additionally, further understanding of the causality of this relationship is needed. Is it that those that join unions are less likely to hold nationalist sentiment, or that joining a union causes an individual to hold less nationalist sentiment? Furthermore, the type of union one is a member of may change this relationship. From teacher’s unions to police unions to steel workers unions, all may have different relationships with nationalism.

Author

• Alexis Jones, University of Oklahoma