YOUNGSTOWN, Ohio – When the third Meijer store in the Mahoning Valley opens its doors in Austintown next year, it will mean between 250 and 300 new retail jobs for the region.
Make that another 250 to 300 union retail jobs, reflecting recent wins among labor organizations to secure contracts with many of the new companies moving into the Mahoning Valley over the past several years.
“We’ve been able to have success in getting those stores under a union-client CBA [collective bargaining agreement],” says Joe Tauro, union representative for United Food and Commercial Workers Local 880.
Local 880 represents 13 Meijer stores across northeastern Ohio, Tauro says, and expects three more to come online next year, Austintown included. “It’s been pretty good. We have a very good relationship with the employer and how we operate with those stores,” he says. “It’s been a very positive influence. We’ve had a successful relationship with them.”
Meijer is growing, Tauro says, and it’s clear that it has plans to expand throughout northeastern Ohio.
“They are going to be the next big player,” Tauro says. “I see them being a very large corporation in our area.”
In May 2021, the first of three Meijer grocery and retail stores opened in Boardman. Last year, Meijer opened a second site in Howland and work is progressing at the Austintown site.
Upon opening, Tauro says, Meijer employs between 250 and 300 people per store. “Now, those numbers do fluctuate,” he says, accounting for a general turnover rate as employees leave for other positions or relocate. It nevertheless should boost the ranks of organized labor in the region, which has over the years witnessed a steady decline in union membership as major employers such as Delphi and General Motors either downsized or shut their doors completely.
In 1989, approximately 987,000 Ohioans counted themselves as members of a union, consisting of 21.3% of the employed workforce, according to statistics from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. In 2013, that number of those reporting union membership had dropped to 605,000 members.
Rebuilding Union Image
Over the last 10 years, though, the number of those listed as members of a union has increased across Ohio. By 2023, 641,000 of those in the state’s workforce reported union membership.
While the overall number of those with union membership has grown, the increase hasn’t kept up with the pace of total employment throughout the state, data show. Indeed, in 2013, union workers represented 12.6% of the total 4.78 million employed in Ohio. Ten years later, union workers accounted for 12.5% of the state’s total employed workforce of 5.1 million.
“Membership is down across the state in the private sector but some of that is because it’s hard to find people for the workforce,” says Bill Padisak, staff representative for the Ohio Association of Public School Employees, which represents secretaries, cafeteria workers, maintenance workers and bus drivers employed in public schools. He is also the president of the local chapter of the AFL-CIO.
Despite lower numbers in the private sector, the reputation and image of organized labor and its overall impact on jobs and the economy has improved, Padisak says.
An AFL-CIO survey conducted among registered voters in 2023 found that 71% of Americans approve of labor unions while 19% disapprove. The same survey found 91% of Democrats, 69% of registered independents, and 52% of Republicans approved of unions.
“That’s the highest it’s been in this country’s history,” Padisak says.
In March, the Pew Research Center reported that most adults view the overall decline in union membership across the United States over the past 40 years as negative. According to the Pew findings, 54% believe that the decline in union ranks has been “bad for the country,” while 59% say the drop has been “bad for working people.”
Although union participation is greater among those in the public sector, Padisak says, public schools are also experiencing shortages of personnel, especially bus drivers. “There’s a huge shortage of staff in schools. But the No. 1 shortage is with bus drivers,” he says. “A lot of other positions are hard to fill.”
The result is higher pay for these employees, Padisak says, which is a reversal of fortune from previous years. “Wages in schools were stagnant for a while; some had put in pay freezes. They’re doing much better now,” he says.
On average, nonacademic school personnel are seeing 3% to 4% raises, especially for bus drivers, Padisak says.
Nevertheless, there are headwinds, the labor executive says, citing declining enrollment in public schools as a factor.
“It’s still hard,” Padisak says. “Last year, the Legislature allowed for unlimited vouchers. A week later, 50,000 students left public schools. So, a lot of them are struggling with declining enrollment.”
While it’s been relatively easy to bargain for better wages, it is still difficult to bargain for benefits, especially in some of the smaller school districts in the region, Padisak says. Recently, the union attempted to negotiate benefits for five bus drivers at a smaller district. But the system couldn’t handle the expense.
“Those benefits would have cost the district $125,000 per year,” Padisak says, “and they can’t absorb that when their budgets are so tight.”
More often, these employees are looking for better wages to match the pressures of inflation. “They want more money in their pocket,” he says.
Still, organizing remains robust across the Mahoning Valley, Padisak says, pointing to major successes of Local 1112 of the United Auto Workers’ new contract with Ultium Cells LLC, which now represents more than 1,700 at the battery cell plant in Lordstown. Also, more than 1,000 employees are represented by Workers United at the TJX HomeGoods distribution center, which opened in 2021.
Higher Wages
Reinforced by a still-tight labor market, the opportunity for local unions to secure higher wages, bonuses, new benefits and agreeable contract language for its members has never been better, leaders say.
“As it goes, contracts in this area have been some of the most lucrative we’ve seen in some years,” says Jose Arroyo, staff representative for United Steelworkers District 1.
Union shop employers – finding it hard to fill experienced, skilled labor positions – have found it beneficial to both their companies and their workers to attract new talent through better pay and benefits, especially in the manufacturing sector, Arroyo says.
“It’s forced companies to look and say, ‘We can’t hire the old way anymore, that this is the right thing to do,’” he says.
Over the past two years, Arroyo says, the Steelworkers union has secured wage increases for its members that are double what they were 10 years ago. “It’s gone from 2% to about 4% on average – some with signing bonuses,” he says.
Other benefits include vacation time for employees immediately after they complete their probationary periods and higher entry-level wages, he says. “That was unheard of when I was coming up,” Arroyo says. “Shops are dying for skilled trades such as electricians, millwrights, plumbers – I’ve never seen an explosion in wages like this.”
Average midterm raises, for example, are more than $5 per shop, Arroyo says. “Five years ago, a lot of entry wages were $12-$13 per hour. Now, it’s hard to find a starting wage under $17.”
Other wins for the steelworkers include the abolition of practices such as two-tier wage systems, a longtime grievance of organized labor. Moreover, Arroyo observes that some younger people are more apt to consider work in the industrial trades because of higher wages, whereas before they were more reluctant.
“A lot of the Generation Y and Z never thought they could make a living,” Arroyo says. “We have a new influx of young people and women. It’s a good moment for Steelworkers.”
But there’s a long way to go, Arroyo adds. While a tighter than normal labor market has led to much better wages for workers, it’s also boosted investment in automated production. “Automation is a concern,” Arroyo says, as new capital projects come online at plants in Youngstown and Warren.
Local companies that employ USW workers have experienced a string of strong post-Covid years, Arroyo says. He’s noticed a softening in the market lately, however, a situation he attributes mostly to 2024 being a presidential election year.
“Higher prices of oil and gas spurs exploration. And that means more pipe production,” he says. Other sectors, including solar energy and building materials, have proven resilient, but could slow down by the end of the year, he says.
Building Trades
Also benefiting from the Meijer construction projects are the local building trades, says Marty Loney, president of the Western Reserve Building and Construction Trades Council and business agent for Local 396 of the Plumbers and Pipefitters union. “We have about six out there right now,” he says of the plumbers’ union presence at the Austintown site. “Once they’re under roof, it’ll top out at 13 or 14 members under several different contractors,” he says.
Other projects this year include work on the Trumbull Energy Center in Lordstown, Loney says.
Interest in the trades among young people is on the rise, he adds, thanks to a more aggressive outreach by the Building Trades Council. “We’ve used some advertising money and pushed out a social media blitz,” he says, noting financial help from the Mahoning County Board of Commissioners and the Mahoning Valley Construction Coalition to expand apprenticeship programs.
Among the more successful events the organization has launched is the annual Skilled Trades Expo, planned for Sept. 17-19 at the Canfield Fairgrounds, Loney says.
The event attracted more than 5,200 students last year, Loney says, and he expects a comparable number this year. “We extend it over three days so we can talk with students on a one-on-one basis,” he says. “We want to make it more accommodating.”
Loney says the outreach initiatives have helped to boost interest in the trades among younger people. “The impact has been felt from the plumbers and pipefitters’ perspective,” he says.
Over the last two years, Local 396 has recruited 41 apprentices, Loney says. Of that number, all but five are under the age of 25. “The word’s getting out,” he says. “We’re trending in the direction that we need to in order to get younger people involved in the trades.”
Pictured at top: The Meijer store and gas station along Mahoning Avenue in Austintown is rapidly taking shape.