Unions Seek Immigration Reform

Labor unions once had enormous influence over American life. Just after World War II, one in three private-sector workers belonged to a union. Today’s percentage is closer to one in 10 overall, and a miserly one in 20 in the private sector.  Each of those fractions is the lowest in a century.  Many studies have tried to explain this decline; Rosenfeld’s work goes further, by studying the broad repercussions of labor’s ills for America’s economy and politics.

Rosenfeld’s theme is that for generations, organized labor was the core, and at times the only, institution fighting for economic and political equality in the United States. For a time, the labor movement helped bring about an unprecedented period of prosperity among America’s expanding, increasingly multi-ethnic middle class.

Sadly, though, among the consequences of labor’s decline are:

• curtailed advocacy for better working conditions
• weakened support for immigrants’ economic assimilation
• lack of effectiveness in addressing wage stagnation among African-Americans

Rosenfeld concludes that unions are no longer instrumental in combating inequality in our economy and our politics.  Let’s try to prove him wrong.

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Michele Petrovsky is the Webmaster at Tools4Change, Author of “Cathedral or Bazaar?  Fix Higher Education – Teach by the Seat of Your Pants ,”  “Donkey Dharma,” and “Quick Guide to Linux.” Petrovsky resides in Glen Mills, Pa.

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