The middle class needs unions

The outlook is grim for American workers.

First came the news that 40 percent of workers are living paycheck to paycheck, according to a new CareerBuilder survey.

Then the Pew Research Center released a deluge of economic data -- The Lost Decade of the Middle Class – demonstrating that the middle class is shrinking. Today, 85 percent of middle-class Americans says it is more difficult now than 10 years ago to maintain their standard of living. Families are feeling pinched, and “for the first time since the end of World War II, mean family incomes declined for Americans in all income tiers,” says the report.

And a Gallup poll reported that shrinking benefits are a top worry for US workers. In the wake of the financial crisis, fears of reduced benefits, lower wages, layoffs and cut hours spiked in 2009 and have “remained elevated ever since,” the study says.

The middle class needs unions to keep on fighting. History shows that when union workers win better wages and benefits, non-unionized companies have no choice but compete -- rising the standard of living for everyone. At the same time, as collective bargaining weakened, more and more of the economy’s gains have gone to the richest 1 percent. Without unions, America is destined to continue this downward spiral of staggering inequality.