The crisis facing American workers are staggering,it is unacceptable and a disgrace. For years we were lead to believe that the unions were bad for business and it interfered with big business being able to remain competitive with other business through out the world.
I hope that American citizens will learn a valuable lesson from what has happen in the last 20 years. The workers in this country has been unfairly targeted by big conglomerates in their efforts to turn huge profits for their profits for their investors to the demise of it workers.
Once upon a time this country lead the world as the greatest manufacturer in goods.
All unions are not perfect but they may be the last vestige of hope in reviving the "Middle Class"!
What Happened?
Our economy did not always work the way it does now. When the middle class was built in the years after World War II, the economy generally worked for all of us. During this period, real family incomes doubled — the most rapid improvement in living standards in history. Incomes for the poorest families increased even faster than those of the richest families, so incomes became more equally distributed. This was a period of great social movements and struggles for justice — women's rights, civil rights and rights for people with disabilities, to name a few. Unions also grew during this period, and the power of workers helped create a more just society.
After 1973, we saw the end of the Vietnam War, the decline in manufacturing and industry, rapid technological change and the expansion of globalization, which brought dramatic change to our economy.
* Since 1973, U.S. workers have constantly increased our productivity, but our wages haven't kept up. As a result, average wages today are only 15 percent higher than in 1980, while productivity increased 67 percent in the same period.
* The growth of family incomes slowed greatly after 1973, while the incomes of the richest 20 percent of families have risen much faster.To read the rest of this article visit http://www.workingamerica.org/issues/jobs.cfm
