Forum Post: Are Unions the Problem?

No, unions are at an all time 70% low. Only 6.9% of all private sector jobs are unionized.

With a 30 year loss of employee bargaining power and a loss of the high marginal tax rate (90% in the 1950s to 36% today) there has been no disincentive for executives and shareholders to keep all of the fruits of the workers' labor for themselves. See the charts showing the decline of the marginal tax and the decline of unions and the ballooning of executive salaries, stagnation of middle class salaries, and growth of shareholder wealth.

Don't believe the anti-union billionaire propaganda -- they have spent 30 years demonizing and destroying unions so that they can keep all of the fruits of the workers' labor for themselves.

Death of unions: http://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/union2.pdf http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/22/business/22union.html http://politicalcalculations.blogspot.com/2006/03/union-membership-trends-in-us-private.html http://www.bls.gov/news.release/union2.nr0.htm

Rise of wealth redistribution into the hands of the few at the top: http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#the-gap-between-the-top-1-and-everyone-else-hasnt-been-this-bad-since-the-roaring-twenties-1

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#meanwhile-income-tax-is-getting-lower-and-lower-for-the-rich-10

http://www.businessinsider.com/15-charts-about-wealth-and-inequality-in-america-2010-4#despite-the-myth-of-social-mobility-poor-americans-have-a-slim-chance-of-rising-to-the-upper-middle-class-8