Power and Voice at Work: New Yorkers View Employer Retaliation as a Barrier to Addressing Workplace Problems and Express Desire for Union Representation

Abstract

In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, this policy brief highlights key findings from the national Just Recovery Survey that provides insight into how New Yorkers compare to the rest of the country with regard to perceptions of employer retaliation for raising concerns about workplace safety and sexual harassment. It also shows how working New Yorkers compare to workers across the United States in terms of their interests in forming a union as a mechanism for collective action. Analysis of the survey data suggests that workers in New York were more likely than those in the rest of the country to report that they both perceive employer retaliation to be a significant barrier preventing them from freely expressing concerns related to workplace health and safety and were more likely to experience pressure to refrain from reporting workplace sexual harassment to avoid employer retaliation. Workers in New York expressed a higher level of interest in joining a labor union than those in the rest of the country. Building on these results, this brief concludes by drawing some implications for efforts to expand worker voice as part of a just and worker-centered recovery.