A union brings strength

Despite  sustained, well-funded attack on unions by big corporations and billionaires evidence by a new Field Poll show that many who don't have a union still feel that working people standing together is a powerful way to combat the growing inequality. Sadly though more Californian voters now saying they do more harm than good, 45% to 40%.  Although 47% feel that transit workers should have the right to strike a strong minority of 44% wish to deny them this democratic right.

Last year, more than 100,000 workers joined a union in California. Just this month, a thousand nurses voted to join a union in San Francisco. Young people, in particular, see unions as a way to stem this growing income gap that has led so many to face an economic future worse than their parents. And Latino voters understand that when working people stand together to bargain for fair wages and decent benefits. Unions are a last line of defense and the labor movement is focused on improving the quality of life for all. Unions serve as a powerful counterbalance to corporate CEOs and their lobbyists. Corporate control of the economy has led to the greatest level of income inequality since the Great Depression. The only thing that stands in the way of the corporate elite is what stood in their way in our grandparents' generation: working people standing together.

Those who have lost out due to the recession might harbor some resentment toward those who still earn a decent wage, but it's a dangerous path. The problem isn't that working people are getting too much. It's that big corporations and wealthy CEOs are taking the whole pie and leaving the rest of us to fight over the crumbs. Corporations enrich themselves while workers struggle.

Adapted from here