Labor and Employment partner Genaira Tyce in New York discussed the rise of trade unions in the U.S. in a video interview with Deutsche Welle, a Germany-based public news broadcaster. The movement took off after Starbucks employees in Buffalo, NY became the first Starbucks store in the U.S. to vote for unionization in the spring of 2022, after which workers at other retail locations such as Trader Joe’s, Apple, REI, and Amazon followed suit. The first nine months of this year have seen an increase of 56 percent in the number of groups filing for unionization compared to the same period last year, primarily led by young activists. However, warns Tyce, it’s not clear yet whether those activists will see the rewards they’re striving for in the long term.

“I think the jury is actually still out on whether this will be a new wave that we’re seeing for years to come,” Tyce told DW. “If you look at millennials and Gen Zers, they’re all very ambitious, and so the idea of being committed to working at one workplace for an extended career over time, to the point where they could truly see a lot of the benefit of unionization, is still out there as a question mark.”