Organized labor, or unions, have been the voice for the working class since the Industrial Revolution. In the current labor climate, workers’ rights have been portrayed by anti-union advocates as greed based or unwarranted. The Fight For $15, a group focused on unionizing the service sector and a $15 an hour minimum wage, has been advocating for a federal minimum wage increase for 10 years, and while they have seen marginal success, their overarching goal is still seen as unachievable. Despite this, most of the benefits given to workers would not be possible without unions, and the only way to ensure a better workforce in this country is to expand union numbers and workplace protections.
There is a lot that we take for granted that unions have provided. Since the mid 1800s, organized labor has won rights for workers like the weekend, the eight hour work week, and vacation and sick time off. The labor movement was also instrumental in instituting a federal minimum wage as a part of FDR’s New Deal, which revitalized the economy out of the Great Depression. It’s important to remember that without the labor movement, the exploitation of workers would be far worse than it is today.
Most of the public opposition to unionization (only 32%, according to this 2021 Gallup poll) seems fostered by union busting tactics deployed by corporations. Anti-union language is used to intimidate workers, or create a false narrative that unions don’t help workers. A common tactic is to give...
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