By this time next week, Wisconsin will likely have joined the ranks of "right to work" states. In the wake of similar transformations in Indiana and Michigan, this movement takes on the appearance of a wave threatening to overtake the nation. Washing away what remains of the legacy of worker protections instituted in a different time when more than 1 in 3 American workers had the benefit of union representation.
Despite the calamitous decline of labor in this country, at present fewer than 1 in 15 private sector workers have union representation, we are told that everything is ok. There was a time for unions, and now that time has passed, a sentiment aptly expressed in this recent letter to the editor from the Chicago Tribune:
Many letter writers have written to the Tribune’s Voice of the People in favor of unions. I agree that in much earlier times, unions were beneficial to correct wrongs such as low wages, no benefits and sweatshop conditions. But in more recent times, the pendulum has swung too far.
This sentiment, while prevalent, could not be further from the truth. We all know that low wages, and no benefits, are a serious problem in this country, however I'd gather that few of us fully understand the extent to which the most egregious violations against workers as fellow human beings have reemerged. That is, unless we've had the misfortune to learn the truth.
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