According to recent data, union membership rates in the United States remains near historic lows at just 10.8% of the workforce. By increasing union density, collectively, we can improve working conditions and our wages and benefits.
Do you know that Americans take less vacation time now than they did forty years ago? And wages for lower income workers has essentially stagnated since 1973. During that same timeframe, income for the wealthiest 5% of American's saw their wages increase by 34% and the wealthiest 1% saw their share of global wealth rise to 48% and, today, they now possess more money than the remaining 99% of us, combined.
The owners of Walmart, the Walton family, have more wealth than 42% of American families, combined. Let's talk about Walmart...
"The Walton family is the richest family in the United States, with more wealth than Bill Gates and Warren Buffet combined. The Walton's wealth comes form their inherited, controlling stake in Walmart. While Walmart workers live in poverty, the Waltons rake in billion every year from the company. And the Walton just keep getting richer. Since 2007, while many Americans were having their homes confiscated and jobs eliminated, the fortune of the six Waltons on the Forbes 400 list has more than doubled to an astounding $148.8 billion.
The Waltons have these riches thanks to the hard work of their own employees and all of us taxpayers. Based on recent estimates, taxpayers subsidize Walmart as much as $3 billion per year. Instead of paying workers enough to survive, the Waltons take billions from Walmart every year , while driving their workers on to food stamps and other public assistance" (The Walton Family: America's New Robber Barons).
Walmart is not alone in its suppression of worker's wages and benefits perhaps you work for a company that does too. But, together, we can create change. Through my work and educational experiences, I learned that, working together through collective action, is the most effective way to create more equitable system for all people. That's why, in 2005, I began my work with Union Guy. The central purpose of Union Guy is the connect workers who are interested in joining a labor union with unions that are interested in organizing more workers.
