Wall Street Greed Is Killing Union Membership

[irishbobcat]

The Wall Street created recession and the continued assault of workers forced another decline in union membership last year.  The new numbers, released by the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) this month, show that 11.9 percent of workers are represented by a union, down from 12.3 percent in 2009.

The greed of Wall Street profiteers coupled with unfair trade deals and the continued assault on workers' rights from big business and unionbusting law firms has created a downward spiral in union membership.  And now, in Ohio and states around the country, workers are facing heightened efforts by politicians, like Governor Kasich, representing a corporate agenda to undermine the balance that forming unions can provide. 

This anti-worker agenda is not only bad for union members but for America's middle class.  When union membership was at its highest point in the 1940s, both the U.S. economy and the middle class were thriving.  But, as a new report from the Center for American Progress shows, as union membership has declined, so has the strength of the middle class.  The loss of jobs and union representation is a grim reminder of how far our nation's economic crisis has reached into America's working class and the urgent need for investment to put America back to work.  15 million people, including 500,000 in Ohio, are currently out of work. 

Any decline is a step in the wrong direction for all working people, and we're going to be working hard to turn it around – by working to restore good jobs and to protect the rights of all working women and men.  Now more than ever, working people need the freedom to come together in unions to counter the level of power corporate CEOs have in this economy.