Bernie Sanders details how the 'decline of unions' has 'cost American workers dearly'

17 February 2023

According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), union membership in the United States continued to decline in 2022. Only 10.1 percent of U.S. "wage and salary workers," the BLS reported, were unionized last year — which was a decrease from 10.3 percent in 2021. That 10.1 percent rate for 2022, according to the BLS, is "the lowest on record."

Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont, an independent and self-described "democratic socialist" who caucuses with Democrats, has been a passionate supporter of unions over the years. And he believes that Americans workers on the whole would be much better off if the U.S. had higher unionization rates — a point he reiterates in an in-depth essay he wrote with journalist/author John Nichols for The Nation.

In their essay, published on February 16, Sanders and Nichols emphasize that American workers are producing "more than ever before" but aren’t being sufficiently rewarded for their productivity. And they view unionization as a crucial part of improving work conditions in the U.S.

"For much of the 20th century," Sanders and Nichols explain, "there was a shared understanding of the role unions needed to play, not just in improving the circumstances of workers, but in providing a counterbalance to powerful business interests…. Support for unions was not really a debatable point. Strong unions were associated with a strong America. Tragically, those days ended around the time that (President) Ronald Reagan fired the striking air-traffic controllers in 1981."

Sanders and Nichols continue, "In the last several decades, unions have been attacked and beaten down so aggressively — and in many cases illegally — that today, less than 11 percent of Americans are union members. And as of 2022, that figure is 6 percent in the private sector."

In 2022, they lament, the U.S. had "lower levels of unionization than at any time since (Franklin Delano Roosevelt) was imagining the New Deal project in 1932."

"The decline of unions has cost American workers dearly, especially the young and people of color," Sanders and Nichols note. "So many Americans are hurting, but they don’t have the tools to fight back. The irony of our moment is that even though unions are at just about the weakest point in my lifetime, public opinion polls show that they are more popular than at any time in decades."

They add, "A Gallup survey done in August 2022 found that 71 percent of Americans approved of unions. That was the greatest level of support since 1965, and it was higher than at some points during FDR’s presidency."

Read Sen. Bernie Sanders and John Nichols’ full essay at this link:

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