![\"Jordan](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/jojoheadshot2.jpg\" "\\"Jordan")
<\/a><\/p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tAs the democracy reporter for WITF, I will cover any kind of story that has to do with how we govern ourselves. That will include doing a lot of election coverage about how to access the ballot, how public officials administer elections, the technology used to run and secure elections, and the laws that govern it all.<\/p>\n
My work will also include accountability coverage for elected officials that use their positions to then undermine democratic institutions, like the legislators that voted against the certification of the presidential election results on January 6, 2021. If that weren\u2019t enough, I foresee covering some local government decisions, fights over public records and transparency, and some candidate coverage around the major elections. As seen in my coverage of immigrant of LGBTQ+ communities, I also report on the consequences of elections for minority groups.\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n
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\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t![\"Union](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/AP22005799240100-1619x1080.jpg\")
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\u00a0AP Photo\/Keith Srakocic<\/p>\n
Union officials and local politicians hold a rally supporting unionization efforts at a coffee shop in Pittsburgh’s Squirrel Hill neighborhood. (AP Photo\/Keith Srakocic)<\/p>\n
At a time when opinion polling shows Americans\u2019 number one concern is the economy and cost of living, organized labor is at an inflection point. Union membership has been on a steady decline since Ronald Regan was elected president in 1980, according to Paul Clark, a Penn State professor who studies and teaches about unions.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s had consequences for blue collar laborers.<\/p>\n
\u201cOver the last 50 years or so, the pay of workers at the lower end of the pay scale has not improved really at all compared to inflation,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
That\u2019s, in part, because \u201cthe labor movement over the last 30 years has been beaten down by employers,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n
Membership is down to 10% of American workers, compared to around 35% in the heyday of organized labor in 50s, 60s, and 70s.<\/p>\n
The decline is even evident in union states like Pennsylvania, which boasts the first union and first state right to strike, as well as the first court case against unions and executions of unionizers. Federal data shows that in 2025, 11.7% of Pennsylvania workers<\/a> were represented by unions, down from 25% in 1985<\/a>.<\/p>\n Brief timeline of Pennsylvania\u2019s contributions to labor history.<\/p>\n 1974: First labor union formed in Philadelphia by the Federal Society of Journeymen Cordwainers, who made shoes out of leather. A more complete timeline of Keystone State labor<\/a> can be found at the Pa. Labor History Society\u2019s website. <\/p>\n But the tide might be turning. An August opinion poll from Gallup<\/a> shows unions have more public support than at any time in the last 25 years, with 47% of Americans saying they want unions to have more influence.<\/p>\n On this Labor Day, Clark said there are parallels between now and the late 1800s when employers still called the shots and were backed by the federal government.<\/p>\n The first \u201cLabor Day\u201d march was in 1882 in New York City and has continued ever since.<\/p>\n The federal holiday was created only after the federal government sided with employers to crush the Homestead Strike in Pennsylvania (1892) and the Pullman Strike across the Midwest (1894). As an olive branch, then-President Grover Cleveland created Labor Day as a federal holiday.<\/p>\n Low-wage laborers kept organizing but unions remained disadvantaged in power until the Great Depression, during which President Franklin D. Roosevelt pushed through the National Labor Relations Act that established worker rights and federal enforcement \u2014 a major role reversal for the executive branch.<\/p>\n Since, unions were able to win protections and benefits that spread across the workforce.<\/p>\n \u201cUnions brought in the eight-hour day and the 40-hour week, and the weekend, they brought in later health insurance and pensions,\u201d Clark said. \u201cThose did not appear on the scene because employers just decided, gee, we should give our workers some days off.\u201d<\/p>\n President Joe Biden said he wanted to be the most pro-union U.S. president in history, and Clark says he largely succeeded. Biden strengthened the National Labor Review Board and worker protections at a time when the country was seeing major unionization and bargaining efforts with laborers in car plants, Amazon workers and Starbucks baristas.<\/p>\n But the story is very different under President Donald Trump.<\/p>\n \u201cThe Trump administration is doing everything they can to keep those workers from organizing a union and having any power. That\u2019s exactly what the governments back in the 1800s did,\u201d Clark said.<\/p>\n Now, unlike then, the federal government has not sent federal troops in to end strikes. But Trump fired NLRB board members<\/a>, and the U.S. Supreme Court agreed<\/a> he had the power to remove them from the formerly independent agency.<\/p>\n Clark said he is waiting to see if Trump will be successful in quashing recent labor gains, or if organizers are at the start of a new movement.<\/p>\n Help make trusted journalism available to everyone. Support WITF today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
September 7, 2026 | 5:00 AM
Conversation with labor historian and Penn State Professor Paul Clark.
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\n1806: First court ruling on unions<\/a>. The ruling of the Philadelphia court sided with employers against the shoemakers, deciding the strike and unionization efforts were part of a criminal conspiracy to increase wages.
\n1869: Founding of the Knights of Labor, active in the Pennsylvania mines, led by Terence V. Powderly<\/a> of Carbondale, Lackawanna County.
\n1877: Black Thursday when the state hung 10 men on the same day<\/a> for their alleged role in union-related violence and killing around mineworker strikes in the 1860s and 1870s. Ten more men were sentenced to death. In 1979, Gov. Milton J. Shapp issued a full pardon<\/a> to John J. Kehoe, killed by the state for his alleged role in violence.
\n1881: Founding of the Federation of Organized Trades & Labor Unions<\/a> in Pittsburgh. It was the predecessor of the American Federation of Labor, created in 1886.
\n1892: Homestead Strike<\/a> in Homestead, Allegheny County.
\n1938: Congress of Industrial Organizations (initially the Committee for Industrial Organization) formed as a committee of eight unions, held its first convention in Pittsburgh.
\n1946: Largest strike in U.S. history breaks out, including Bituminous coal miners, and electrical manufacturing, Pittsburgh Power, railroad, and steel workers in Pa.
\n1988: State passed Pennsylvania Workers Cooperative Cooperation Law.<\/p>\n![\"WITF](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/WITF-LOGO_white_color-1920x759.png\"){kind=logo}
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